November 17, 2023 – An arbitrarily detained woman, facing unjust imprisonment in Iran, has provided a detailed account of her violent abduction amid mass arrests of peaceful protesters who were beaten and coerced into signing forced confessions, as per testimony obtained by the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
Peaceful Protesters’ Plight in Iran: Abductions and Forced Confessions
Nasrin Sotoudeh Among Those Violently Arrested, Faces Grave Danger and Re-Imprisonment
Manzar Zarabi, Who Lost Family Members on Downed Airplane, and Teacher’s Rights Advocate Masoud Zeinalzadeh Detained
October 30, 2023 – Following the beating and arrest of peaceful activists detained at the funeral yesterday of Armita Geravand, a 16-year-old who died last week after a reported violent assault by the Iranian government’s forced-hijab enforcers, the international community must urgently demand the immediate release of all those detained, as well as accountability for this outrageous violence.
Niloufar Hamedi Gets Seven Years Behind Bars and Elahe Mohammadi Six Years
Iranian Government Moves to Crush “Woman, Life, Freedom” Movement On All Fronts
October 23, 2023 — The sentencing of two women journalists in Iran, Niloufar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who have been detained in Iran for over a year, to long prison sentences for reporting on the death in state custody of Mahsa Jina Amini, underscores the use of the judiciary in Iran as nothing more than a tool of the state’s repressive apparatus, said the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
Iranian Government Targeting Disability Rights Advocates
Nasser Saragaran
In Separate Case, Lawyer Representing Mahsa Jina Amini Sentenced to a Year in Prison
October 18, 2023 – A prominent and blind disability rights lawyer from Saqqez, the hometown of Mahsa Jina Amini, whose killing in Iranian state custody sparked months of anti-state protests, has gone missing after being unlawfully detained by Iranian state security forces, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned.
“This is another example of the intensifying practice in the Islamic Republic of Iran of detaining and imprisoning individuals without due process, and then persecuting the lawyers who try to access justice and address these egregious rights violations,” said Hadi Ghaemi, CHRI executive director.
“The lawyer Nasser Saragaran was detained in Iran because of the remarkable power of his voice,” Ghaemi added. “If he does not receive international calls for his release, the disability rights communities in Iran will endure a terrible loss.”
“Silence would also green-light the unlawful detainment of other disability rights advocates in Iran,” said Ghaemi.
CHRI emphasizes that given Sargaran’s visual impairment, he is particularly susceptible to potential mistreatment and abuse by Iranian authorities. He must be granted complete access to legal representation of his choice and ensured the ability to fully access all relevant documents.
Lawyer Arrested Amid State Campaign to Silence Disability Rights Group
Sargaran, 36, a university lecturer and advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, was unlawfully detained at his family home in the city of Saqqez, Kurdistan province, on October 11, 2023, by agents of the Ministry of Intelligence. He was then transferred to the ministry’s detention center in the provincial capital, Sanandaj. It should be noted that he was arrested at his home without the presentation of a warrant.
Sargaran, an ethnic Kurd, is widely recognized in Saqqez as a prominent lawyer who has represented numerous detainees in connection with last year’s protests. Aged 36, he was blinded by a leftover landmine from the Iran-Iraq War and is known as a powerful voice for landmine victims in his community.
He has also been a fervent advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, actively contributing as a board member of the Institute for the Welfare of the Blind in Saqqez.
In recent weeks, there has been a notable surge in security and judicial pressures on activists advocating for the rights of people with disabilities in Iran. This has been especially the case regarding the Campaign to Pursue the Rights of People with Disabilities, a grassroots organization based in Tehran. Founded in 2007, the group champions the rights of individuals with disabilities, and Sargaran engaged with it to continue his work.
Two prominent activists, Behrouz Morovati, the national director of the Campaign to Pursue the Rights of People With Disabilities in Tehran, and Leila Mirkhoshhal, the group’s online administrator in the city of Qazvin, were summoned by the Ministry of Intelligence on October 11, the same day Sargaran was unlawfully detained. Information received by CHRI indicates that intelligence agents seized some of Morovati’s personal items, including a mobile phone.
The group, in a series of tweets, connected these summons to state investigations concerning an online school for people with disabilities. The Iranian government has a documented history of using scare tactics, as well as unlawful detainments and prosecutions on trumped-up charges, to silence advocacy groups that criticize state policies.
Lawyer of Mahsa Jina Amini Sentenced to a Year in Prison
In another case of a human rights lawyer being unjustly persecuted to silence his work, Saleh Nikbakht, who represented the family of a Mahsa Jina Amini, the 22-year-old who was killed in Iranian state custody in September 2022, just three days after she was arrested for her alleged inappropriate hijab, was sentenced to one year in prison. Amini’s death sparked months of anti-state protests that eventually culminated into the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement.
Nibakht was sentenced to prison for speaking about the case in general terms with journalists.
“Unfortunately, the court, without considering the defense presented by me and my client, sentenced him to the maximum penalty for [‘propaganda against the state’]… As a person knowledgeable in law, I emphasize that there is not a single sentence in [Saleh Nikbakht’s] interviews that would constitute ‘propaganda against the state,'” said his lawyer, Ali Rezaie, in an interview with Ensaf News.
“This conviction has been issued due to unlawful interpretations of the interviews,” he added.
Nibakht has not spoken about the sentence, which is eligible for appeal. As of this writing, he remained at home.
“It isn’t suprising that Nibakht was sentenced to prison, given that journalists who reported on Amini’s case have been jailed for more than year now simply for reporting facts about the case,” said Ghaemi.
“The international legal community must speak out more forcefully against the Iranian government’s decades-long crusade to eliminate independent lawyers in Iran,” he added. “Bar associations, international human rights lawyers, and rights organizations should all speak up for their besieged colleagues in the Islamic Republic.”
Special Report: Sunni Clerics in the Crosshairs of Islamic Republic Repression
Religious Leaders of Minority Communities Are Arrested, Imprisoned, Defrocked for Supporting Protesters
August 15, 2023 – Religious leaders of the Sunni Muslim communities in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province and in the Kurdish provinces of the country are being increasingly targeted by Islamic Republic authorities for persecution, arrest, and imprisonment because of their peaceful criticism of the state’s violent repression.
Saman Yasin: Latest Victim of Iran’s Use of Forced Psychiatric Care to Punish Political Prisoners
July 24, 2023 – The forced psychiatric hospitalization of jailed rapper Saman Yasin in Iran shortly after he demanded due process and justice for his case highlights the Iranian government’s continued weaponization of medical treatment in order to suppress dissent, in flagrant violation of international and Iranian law.
Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi sentenced to six years in prison, avoiding death penalty
Mon July 10, 2023 – By Celine Alkhaldi, Jomana Karadsheh and Adam Pourahmadi, CNN-Dissident Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, arrested last October for supporting the protest movement in Iran last year, has been sentenced to six years and three months in prison, his official Twitter page said Monday.
Iran: State’s “Investigation” of Bar Association Aims to Crush Dissent
Iranian Officials Commit Rights Violations with Impunity While Parliament Votes to Further Persecute Human Rights Defenders
June 28, 2023 – Bolstering a state campaign aimed at crushing dissent, the Iranian Parliament has voted to “investigate” the Iranian Bar Association in a bid to further persecute human rights lawyers who serve as the last remaining lifeline for defendants facing politically motivated charges in the judicial system.
Iran executes 3 men over violence during last year’s anti-government protests
May 19, 2023-abc News-By The Associated Press- Iran has executed three men accused of deadly violence during last year’s anti-government protests despite objections from human rights groups.
More Executions of Protesters in Iran Imminent after Sham Trials
Prosecution of Three Young Men Relied on Torture, Forced “Confessions”
Defendant: “They kept beating me to make me tell their version of their crime on camera”
May 17, 2023 – Three young men—Saeed Yaghoubi, 37, Saleh Mirhashemi, 36, and Majid Kazemi, 30— who were arrested amid the nationwide protests in November 2022 in Iran, tortured into making “confessions,” and sentenced to death in January 2023 after a four-day trial without a jury in Iran’s Revolutionary Court system, are now at imminent risk of being executed.
