UN official: Iran should stop executing children

Well, duh...

Iran should immediately halt the execution of children, the U.N.'s top human rights official said Monday.

Louise Arbour, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, said she met with Iranian officials during a visit to Tehran earlier this month and urged them to impose a moratorium on the execution of minors."

Even if the legislation in the books appears to permit the imposition of the death penalty on minors ... it would be imperative that they not be executed," she told journalists in Geneva.

Iran is one of the few countries in the world that executes minors, in violation of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Iran steps up crackdown against 'immoral' activity

AFP reports. The full thing can be found here.

Iran is pressing on with one of its toughest moral crackdowns in years, warning tens of thousands of women over slack dress, targeting "immoral" cafes and seizing illegal satellite receivers, local media reported on Monday.

The Iranian police launched the crackdown in April in a self-declared drive to "elevate security in society" that encompassed arrests of thugs, raids on underground parties and street checks of improperly dressed individuals.

Reza Zarei, commander of police in Tehran province, said that since the drive began police in his region have handed out 113,454 warnings to women found to have infringed Iran's strict Islamic dress rules.

Two hanged in Iran cities

Two towers on Sept. 11, two hangings in Iran.

Recent hangings in Iran

• Iran: Three prisoners hanged in Shiraz and Zahedan
• Iran: Eight hanged in Saveh, Naqadeh, and Zahedan

Iran authorities lash man for having bible in car

And this is the place that so many mainstream media organizations call a 'democracy' - get real.

Iranian authorities in Tehran lashed a man on his back earlier this year for having a bible in his car, an Iranian Christian group said in a report on its website on Friday.

The man was only identified by the initials A. Sh.

On 5 May, the man, driving his vehicle, was involved in a road accident with a car belonging to security guards for a government official in Tehran.

A bible and a video of Jesus Christ were found in the man's possession upon inspection of his vehicle by the state security forces (SSF).

A. Sh. admitted to being Christian, prompting the security agents to beat him up, the report said. He was arrested and taken to a holding cell in Detention Centre 102.

During interrogation security agents accused the man of converting from Islam to Christianity, a practice banned under Iran's strict theocratic laws.

He was subsequently subjected to lashes on the back and underwent physical and psychological torture, the report added.He was released two days later after his family made bail.

Video: Iranian girl shot down by the mullahs' henchmen

Iran: Release Mansour Ossanlu and Mahmoud Salehi and help end legalised discrimination against independent trades unions

Amnesty Int'l reports. What a shame, this guy seemed to genuinely be trying to fight against the regime...

In support of the International Day of Action for Mansour Ossanlu and Mahmoud Salehi on 9 August 2007, Amnesty International joins voices with the ITUC and ITF in calling for the two men to be released immediately and for any charges that have been levelled against them in connection with their peaceful and legitimate trades union work to be dropped.

Mansour Ossanlu, head of the Union of Workers of Tehran and Suburbs Bus Company, and Mahmoud Salehi, Spokesperson for the Organisational Committee to Establish Trade Unions and former head of the Saqez Bakers’ Union, are trades union leaders who have been detained on vaguely worded charge in order to halt their efforts to build strong trades unions capable of defending the human rights of workers against the discriminatory laws and practices that curtail workers’ rights in Iran.

Securing freedom for Mansour Ossanlu and Mahmoud Salehi will help independent trades unions move beyond the discriminatory ‘gozinesh’, or selection, regulations that enable the Iranian authorities to decide who is able to form trades unions and seek employment in a range of sectors.

France summoned the Iranian regime's charge d'affaires

More positive signs coming out of France, but unlikely they'll actually do anything (in policy or action against the mullahs)...they're getting too much free oil still.

The charge d'affaires was summoned by the ministry Wednesday at the request by Rama Yade, French minister of state in charge of foreign affairs and human rights, according to a ministry statement.

During the meeting, "we took the opportunity to express our extreme preoccupation and underscored our opposition to the death penalty, our commitment for its universal abolition, our commitment to see that Iranian authorities uphold the 2002 moratorium against stoning, our appeal that no one should be condemned to stoning," according to the statement.

France condemns the execution of 12 Iranians, which occurred on July 22 and is "particularly concerned" with the fact that on July 10 an Iranian official announced that sexual orientation was one of the charges brought against those who were executed, according to the statement.

On July 5, 2007, an Iranian man was condemned to die by stoning after being convicted of adultery, according to the same source.

Iran hangs man in public

Another day, another death by mullah.

Ayatollahs’ lobby In Washington offering human rights as a negotiating item

Interesting article on how the mullahs' lobbyists use human rights as a bargaining tool.

Binding accountability for Iran’s suppression of its population to nuclear issues and Iran’s meddling in Iraq amounts to doing the bidding of the ruling ayatollahs.

The National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and its president Trita Parsi have organized a panel in the US House of Representatives on July 26th, 2007, titled “Human Rights in Iran and US Foreign Policy Options.”1 According to the published agenda, representatives from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch will participate. The sponsors of the program (NIAC and Trita Parsi) are key players in the lobbying enterprise of Tehran’s ayatollahs in the United States. The Iranian regime’s violations of human rights have reached unprecedented levels. Its barbaric suppression of women, workers, students and dissidents, and the stoning of a man after 11 years of imprisonment, have been the subject of broad international condemnation. The reason Iran’s lobby is organizing the program is twofold:

1. To present “human rights” as a negotiating item on the “engagement” table with hopes of having human rights entities argue for Tehran-friendly rapprochement, easing of sanctions, and tolerance of a nuclear Iran. In a nut shell, the lobby’s message is that the more the West pressures the regime, the more violent it becomes; hence, lift the pressure.

2. To keep the Ayatollahs’ friends and inner circle in control of international reaction to Tehran’s human rights abuses.

The Iranian regime’s lobby has continuously tried to justify Iran’s clerical behavior and especially its record of human rights violations, by arguing that its causes are external factors and coercive US policies. If Iranian-American scholars are arrested, blame the US administration for allocating funds for Iranian activists. If Ahmadinejad has embarked on a policy of total repression inside the country and antagonism abroad, blame the US administration for the famous axis of evil speech and not supporting Khatami.

Activists' parents accuse Tehran of torturing their sons

This report comes from Robert Tait at the Guardian in Tehran:

Fears that Iran is systematically mistreating political prisoners and dissidents have been further fuelled after the parents of three detained student activists claimed their sons had been tortured.

In a letter to the country's judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the parents alleged that the students have suffered a catalogue of physical and psychological abuses since being incarcerated in Tehran's Evin prison in May.

The students - Majid Tavakoli, Ahmad Ghasaban and Ehsan Mansouri - were among eight from Amir Kabir University arrested for allegedly publishing anti-Islamic articles in campus magazines. The arrests followed a series of crackdowns on activists at the university, where students staged angry protests last December against Iran's Islamist president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

France condemns series of executions in Iran

Strangely enough, I found this headline on a Kuwaiti news site...

At least they're 'saying' better things now. I would never expect France to 'act' on it, but their propaganda is nicer now.

Saying it was strongly opposed to capital punishment in agreement with its European Union partners, France on Thursday condemned the execution of 12 Iranians on July 22 and expressed "particular concern" over the motivation behind them.

Upon a request by the French State Secretary for Human Rights at the Foreign Ministry Rama Yade, the French government summoned Irans Charge dAffaires here in Paris to express its strong position to the Iranian executions and to capital punishment "in all circumstances." France also expressed its support for a global abolition of the death penalty and urged Iran to respect a moratorium it declared on stoning in 2002.

Video of hanging in Iran

I saw a video of a recent hanging that took place in Iran on Harry's Place. Please see the post below. It is correct in saying that 'who the hell knows' if the people being hung are actually guilty of anything aside from opposing the mullahs' rule. And the sickos observing shout Allah Akbar, god is great. At least 92% of the Iranian people oppose their current illegitimate regime, according to the most recently carried out poll.

To watch the video, click here or on the picture above (be warned, it is graphic).

Wonder when the BBC will be discussing this on the televised news...guess it's 'not in their interests'...

So says Iranian blogger Arash Kamangir, speaking of course from Canada, where he is a student. In Teheran, of course, he would also be executed for this blasphemy....

...Now, according to some reports, the four were executed for murder and conspiracy. This might be the case, but, frankly, who the hell knows? Iran's judiciary routinely trump up ludicrous charges or tag on extra charges like 'rape' or 'murder' to sow confusion amongst local and international human rights campaigners.
Take for example this case.

According to Mr Kamangir's blog, a student leader was beaten, tortured and then executed as "a gang member".

Iran - Further information on fear of torture or ill treatment/ arbitrary arrest of Adnan Hassanpour & Mansour Tayfouri

Amnesty reports.

Adnan Hassanpour and his cousin Abdolwahed (known as Hiwa) Butimar have been sentenced to death. Adnan Hassanpour, a Kurdish journalist and advocate of cultural rights for Iranian Kurds, was detained on 25 January and environmentalist Hiwa Butimar on or around 23 December 2006, both in Marivan, Kordestan province. They were reportedly held incommunicado in a Ministry of Intelligence facility in Marivan, and transferred to Marivan prison on 26 March.

Following his arrest Hiwa Butimar‘s home was searched by members of the Intelligence Service, who are said to have confiscated items including Kurdish flags, videos in Kurdish and family pictures of a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan. The confiscated items were also reportedly used as evidence against the cousins, who reportedly appeared before a Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj on 12 June, in the presence of their lawyer.

Adnan Hassanpour and Hiwa Butimar were reportedly returned from Marivan prison to an unconfirmed place of detention, possibly the detention facility run by the Ministry of Intelligence in Sanandaj, the capital of Kordestan province, early in the morning of 15 July. On 17 July the men were told that they had been sentenced to death on charges of espionage and Moharebeh (being at enmity with God). If confirmed on appeal, the sentences would then have to be further confirmed by the Supreme Court.

In an interview carried by the online publication Rooz, the two men's lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, said that Adnan Hassanpour’s charges related to "a phone conversation he had with a staff member of Radio Voice of America". He also said that Hiwa Butimar had been charged with carrying lethal weapons, although he denied his client had ever done so, and stressed he had not been in contact with any armed group (see: http://www.roozonline.com/english/archives/2007/07/006302.php).

Iran launches new crackdown on unIslamic dress

As predicted...details below and here:

UPDATE: I hadn't noticed this angle on it (provided by USS Neverdock)...

According to the BBC this is a 'subtle' Iran.

Iran on Monday launched a new wave of a moral crackdown against women who "dress like models" and men whose hairstyles are deemed unIslamic, police said.

Tehran's police force dispatched dozens of police cars and minibuses into the early evening rush-hour to enforce the dress rules at major squares in the city centre, an AFP correspondent said.

16 hanged in Iran in 1 week

Radio Free Europe reports.

Man hanged in public in South East Iran

Another day, another execution without fair trial, another blank from the world media.

Evin = torture chamber

I've posted about this previously but you can listen to it here on NPR radio (good for them for airing this)...

Former student leader Ali Afshari and human rights lawyer Mehrangiz Kar both spent time at the facility where two Iranian-American scholars are now detained. They describe their time in captivity.

Kurdish journalist / activist sentenced to death in Iran

Radio Free Europe has the scoop...

Authorities in Iran's northwestern Kurdistan Province have condemned two ethnic Kurds to death for acting against the country's national security.

Their lawyers told Radio Farda that they will appeal their death sentences.

The trial has been accompanied by unconfirmed suggestions in the Iranian media that the two men -- journalist Adnan Hassanpur and social activist Hiwa Butimar -- were working with banned groups that oppose the government.

Another Israeli has it right

Here's what Meridor said:

Israel's ambassador to the United States, Sallai Meridor, said Wednesday that Israel and the free world are under attack by Iran, with a combination of fanaticism, terrorism and nuclear capability posing the most serious threat since the 1930s.

"We must prevent this nightmare," Meridor said at the "Night to Honor Israel" event, part of the second annual Christians United for Israel summit in Washington, D.C. "The world must act and act now."

Meridor said Israel would take any steps necessary to ensure that Iran does not develop a nuclear bomb. "All options are on the table, and no matter what, they will not be able to get a nuclear weapon," he said.