The daughter of an Iranian political prisoner warns of a looming Threat to her father

'My father is a political prisoner facing an imminent threat to his life in prison inIran'

Hejrat Moezi and her father, political prisoner, Ali Moezi

Describing a person’s life is never easy , especially when that person is someone you cherish. Ali Moezi is my father, he is a political prisoner in Iran, and I fear losing him with each passing second, Hijrat Moezi wrote as it published in World Post.

Before I was even born, my father experienced the mullah’s prisons. In 1980, when the theocratic dictatorship took control of Iran, my father was arrested and tortured. He had been among those who stood in opposition to their tyrannical rule, and paid the price with several years of torture in the regime’s prisons.
My father was educated at the University of Karaj in agricultural engineering, and could have worked towards building up his homeland; Instead, he has spent years, off and on, behind bars. The theocracy has made it such that everyone finds himself leading a life unsuitable to their vocation: our scholars rest imprisoned while thieves and criminals are in government.
I recall asking him, when I was a child, 'What happened to your knee?’ to which he responded, 'it was hit by a bullet.' Only when I was older did I learn that he participated in peaceful demonstrations in Tehran in June 1981, and during his escape, he was shot and then subjected to hours of painstaking torture. At the time, my father would have been the same age I am now, 26. The whip marks left by his torturers can still be seen on the soles of his feet and his back.
Throughout my childhood, the thought of my parents’ arrest was my greatest nightmare. But one day, I myself decided to stand up against this government. I moved to Camp Ashraf and left my country for Iraq, where thousands of refugees and Iranian dissidents lived in a place that was our only hope for freedom. I remember, on my last day in Iran, looking into my father’s eyes and asking if I’d ever see him again...
Only a year had passed since my sister and I arrived in Ashraf when we learned that my father was arrested again. For what crime? Under Iran’s fundamentalist regime, there is no need to have committed a crime for them to arrest you. This time, my father’s crime was my sister’s and my presence in Camp Ashraf. He was arrested in Karajshahr in November 2008 and was charged with travelling to Ashraf, an act of 'committing propaganda against the regime.' Under extreme torture, they took him into solitary confinement. They wanted him to conspire against his own daughters, but my father refused. He had always resisted their intimidation, even after he was diagnosed with cancer.
He was imprisoned for two years and released in November 2010. He would only taste freedom for seven months. In June 2011, the Ministry of Intelligence raided my family’s home, arrested my father, and took him to an unknown location. He had just recently been released from the hospital where he had surgery for cancer. For three long months we had no news of his whereabouts. My elderly grandmother knocked on the doors of various prisons every day with hopes of obtaining the whereabouts of my father.
After three months, I learned that my father was tortured by the Ministry of Intelligence for attending the memorial of Mohsen Dogmehchi, a deceased political prisoner. Don’t be surprised; in Iran, even participating in a political prisoner’s memorial is a crime.
But my father’s true'crimes' ran much deeper. The government really sought revenge for my father’s refusal to stay silent and give in to their charges. They veiled this revenge in legal dress, officially writing him up for having 'acted against national security.' The judge on my father’s case knows nothing about law, and just produces what is dictated to him by the Ministry of Intelligence.
Over the last seven years, my father has been charged not once, but four times. Each time, he has refused his participation in the trials citing their lack of legitimacy and due process. Each time, henchmen beat him and forced him to court. In May 2015, a flock of thugs beat him so hard against iron railing that his forehead split. Disregarding the fact that he was near the end of his term, they sentenced him to an additional year of prison.
The charges are ongoing. In September 2015, they indicted him for sending a message to be read on his behalf outside prison to commemorate the loss of 52 lives at the hands of the government two years prior.
Due to my father’s resistance and bravery, these courts will likely still arbitrarily prolong his sentence. My father suffers from various ailments aside from cancer and has neared death on several occasions. Consistently denied medical treatment, information officers have threatened to keep him in prison and withhold treatment until he dies.
This is where my story ends, but it is not the end of my father’s suffering, nor that of so many political prisoners. From outside the prison walls, I have become the voice for my father’s struggle. He is not just a political prisoner; he is in the grip of a wolf whose claws are primed, without a moment’s hesitation, to take his life. Just tomorrow they can decide to execute him. I ask you to stand in their way and show them that humanity is still alive and well.

Iran: families of political prisoners, human rights activist rally in an anti-govt. protest

More than 500 human rights activists and freedom loving people of Iran’s capital, Tehran joined the families of political prisoners in front of DENA complex on Monday Oct. 19th demanding the freedom of political prisoners. 
Reports indicate that plain clothes agents of the infamous intelligence ministry appeared among the demonstrators posing as taxi drivers, garbage collectors and construction workers tearing up posters and clashing with the demonstrators. 
The protesters’ main demand was to free Mohammad-Ali Taheri who is on hunger strike for more than two months. On Monday he ended his 68th day of hunger strike.
But despite suppressive measures by the government agents to break up the demonstration, more people were joining the rally. At 1130, when the number of the crowd got so large that the demonstration extended few blocks down, the IRGC and the intelligence ministry agents cordoned the demonstration, blocking the two ends of the rally to prevent further expansion and more people to join. 
The demonstration lasted for hours and the suppressive agents were afraid of any aggression, fearing it could provoke a larger and angrier demonstration.

The protesters main demand was to free Mohammad-Ali Taheri who is on hunger strike for more than two months

Iran: protest against the treatment of political prisoner Narges Mohammadi in hospital

A protest has been lodged against the degrading and inhumane treatment of political prisoner, Narges Mohammadi who is currently hospitalized for severe illness in a hospital in Tehran. She was transferred from the notorious Evin Prison to the hospital after having severe convulsions muscle paralysis and lung emboli. 
Mrs. Narges has been arrested Three times so far for speaking out against human rights in Iran. She was last arrested in May at her house in front of her two young children. 
At the hospital, Mrs. Mohammadi has been tied to her bed despite her severe codition and an agent of the infamous intelligence ministry has been assigned to her bed 24-7.  
The medical staff at the hospital where she is being treated for her illnesses have insisted that she must have rest away from psychosocial pressures of being tied to the bed and being watched round the clock. She has twice had convulsions since being hospitalized, but the brutal regime of the mullahs refuse to let this patient observe her medical treatments.  

Narges Mohammadi 

Dissidenten Waarschuwen: Mensenrechten In Iran Slechter Onder Rouhani

POLITICO, 11 Oktober 2015 - Een Iraanse dissident, die zijn land ontvlucht was na vijf jaar lang in Teheran in de gevangenis gezeten teHEBBEN, verklaarde in een interview met POLITICO dat de omstandigheden voor gevangenen verslechterd zijn en mensenrechtenschendingen doorgingen, ook na de machtswisseling door president Hassan Rouhani.

Farzad Madadzadeh, een 29-jarige oppositionele activist, werdWEGENSPOLITIEKE activiteiten in februari 2009 gearresteerd onder het bewind van de vorige president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Hij verklaarde dat na de ambtsaanvaarding van Rouhani in 2013 meer politieke gevangenen gevangengezet werden, dat de omstandigheden in de gevangenis verslechterd zijn en het aantal terechtstellingen dramatisch gestegen is, omdat het nieuwe regime probeert het risico van een volksopstand, gevoed door steeds meer toegang tot informatie van buitenaf, in te dammen.

Zijn interview met POLITICO verscheen drie maanden nadat westerse mogendheden overeenkwamen de economische sancties tegen Teheran stapsgewijs op te heffen in ruil voor de belofte de nucleaire activiteiten te beperken. Maar de sancties wegens mensenrechtenschenddingen en steun aan terrorisme blijven gehandhaafd, en bewijs dat Iran op deze gebieden steeds meer te kort schiet, zou een volledige normalisatie van de betrekkingen met het Westen in de weg kunnen staan, en zou kritiek op de nucleaire deal kunnen oproepen.

“Toen Rouhani verkozen werd, werden alle verloven voor gevangengezette vroegere functionarissen van het regime ingetrokken,” stelde Madadzadeh, een lid van de PMOI- oppositiegroep, die in Iran en onder ballingen in vele landen actief is.

“Toegang tot medische verzorging buiten de gevangenis werd helemaal afgeschaft. Duidelijk meer mensen, waaronder leraren, werden gearresteerd en gevangengezet, enkel en alleen omdat zij voor hun recht op een menswaardig bestaan opkwamen.”

POLITICO schreef: “Madadzadeh vertelde dat hij gedurende zijn gevangenschap praktisch routinematig geslagen, geblinddoekt en onder druk gezet werd om zichzelf van terroristische activiteiten te beschuldigen. Hij werd ook vier maanden in eenzame opsluiting geplaatst, als onderdeel van een ondervragingsprocedure van 15 uur per dag.”

“ToenMIJN vader mij kwam ophalen, nadat ik vrijgelaten was, zei hij: ‘Meneer, hebt u mijn zoon gezien? Zijn naam is Farzad.”. “De gevangenschap had mij zozeer veranderd dat mijn vader mij niet herkende.”

POLITICO schreef dat het geval van Madadzadeh ook in het buitenland bekend werd, en in het openbaar genoemd werd in de correspondentie van het State Department . “Hij spreekt nu in het openbaar over zijn lotgevallen in Iran sinds zijn aankomst in Europa.”

“Amnesty International verklaarde in juli dat dit jaar in Iran meer dan 700 personen ter dood gebracht zijn, een aantal dat de Verenigde Naties “erg verontrustend” genoemd heeft, terwijl duizenden personen gevangenzitten en wegens misdrijven die van drugsmisbruik tot politieke oppositie reiken, in een dodencel op hun terechtstelling wachten,” aldus POLITICO.

“Het Franse Ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken heeft de terechtstelling van verschillende Iraanse gevangenen veroordeeld, waaronder die van Reyhaneh Jabbari, een 26-jarige vrouw, die opgehangen werd wegens moord op een man die volgens haar verklaring haar probeerde te verkrachten.”

“Madadzadeh, die politiek asiel wil aanvragen in een Europees land dat hij niet nader wil noemen, verklaarde dat hij tijdens zijn eenzame opsluiting voortdurend te horen had gekregen dat hij terechtgesteld zou worden.”

“Vanaf dag 1 vertellen ze je dat je terechtgesteld zult worden,” vertelde hij. “Dat is een onderdeel van hun strategie om je te breken, zodat je later op televisie alles zult herroepen waar je ooit in geloofd hebt.”

Een andere dissident, de 18-jarige Paria Kohandel uit Teheran, verklaarde dat zij twee maanden geleden het land ontvlucht was dankzij de hulp van het resistance -netwerk in en buiten Iran, schreef POLITICO. “Zij zat zelf niet in de gevangenis, maar bezocht wel regelmatig haar vader, Saleh Kohandel, een bekendePOLITIEKE activist, die al vanaf haar negende in de gevangenis zat, en ze nam ook deel aan de demonstraties tegen het regime in 2009.”

“Dankzij deze bezoeken aanMIJN vader kon ik mijn vrienden informeren over het gedrag en acties van het volk in het regime,” zei ze. “Veel jongeren zijn ernstig teleurgesteld door deze berichten, die ingingen tegen het beeld dat ze van Rouhani hadden als zijnde een man verandering.”

Kohandel zei dat haar vader, die nog steeds in de gevangenis zit, haar niet opgedragen had het land te verlaten, maar dat hij de beslissing aan haar overgelaten had. Uiteindelijk besloot ze, bij het zien van kinderen van andere vaders die terechtgesteld werden, het land te verlaten.

“Ik ben gekomen om hun stem te zijn,” voegde zij eraan toe, op het moment dat zij later op die zaterdag de dochter van Nelson Mandela in Parijs zou ontmoeten.

http://www.stfa.nl/article/dissidenten-waarschuwen-mensenrechten-iran-slechter-onder-rouhani

Iran: shocking figures – 70,000 high school students have used crack

Drug distribution in various cities, especially in Tehran, has grown and become much easier than ever before, said a regime official in Iran.
2.65% of the country’s population between the ages of 15 to 65 are addicted to drugs, and currently in major cities such as Tehran there are around 200 to 250 so-called contaminated areas, he added.
Back in 2001 five percent of all addicts in Iran were women. However, in 2010 and 2011 their numbers rose to 9%, he continued, meaning the ratio of women addicts in the country has nearly doubled and this is an alarm bell. 
Currently 70,000 of country’s high school students have experienced using crack, he finalized. 

Drug addiction on the rise in Iran under the mullahs

Iran: man who set himself ablaze outside regime judiciary died of his wounds

According to reports from Iranians in the city of Molkan the individual who set himself ablaze last Monday, September 28th outside the mullahs’ judiciary in this city, lost his life to his wounds.
This individual was 45-year old Sirous Neekkhu. This Iranian committed such a horrific suicide protesting how the judiciary treated a case related to his family.
The funeral for this individual was held on Saturday under tight security conditions. 

Such suicides are resulting from repression imposed by mullahs in Iran

Iran: 10,000 arrests in 6 months in 1 province alone!

Manouchehr Amanallahi, head of the repressive state security forces in Kermanshah Province said 10,000 people have been arrested under various charges in the first six months of this Iranian calendar year alone, the state-run ISNA news agency reported Saturday.
“1,000 police missions are carried out in this province in just 24 hours,” he added.
These numbers mean nearly 54 arrests each day in this province, and more than 2 arrests each hour!

Widespread arrests under mullah-fabricated pretexts aimed at cementing a climate of fear

Iran: 20% reduction in food basket

State-run in Iran acknowledge economic mismanagement by the mullahs’ regime has led to Iranians being able to consume 20 percent less food and liquids.
In 2010, each Iranian household on average consumed an annual amount of 2,318 kilograms of food and liquids. In the current year, the average annual consumption stands at 1874 kg, a decrease of 19.15%, according to the state-run Etemad daily.
The difference in consumption rates in the two periods is considerably higher when considering only basic food and beverage.
Iranian households on average consumed 1076 kg of basic food and beverage in 2010 in comparison to 846 kg in the current year, a net decrease of 21.37%, the report said.
The report was published on Wednesday by other state-run media including the Khorasan daily and the Alef and Tabnak websites.
On September 20, Eghtesadnews.com, a state-run website published an advertisement for selling body organs that had been posted in Pasteur Square in Tehran. This square is in the vicinity of the headquarters of Iranian regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the office of the regime’s President Hassan Rouhani .
This advertisement reads: “E

ye cornea, bone marrow, liver blood type B+ for immediate sale.”
This website wrote that many government officials probably pass this advertisement for selling body organs every day on their way to work.
Such advertisements are posted on the walls by the very poor who have no money to buy food or receive medical treatment.
There is rampant poverty in oil-rich Iran which ranks eighth in the world for natural resources and mines. The ruling mullahs’ regime spends most of country’s resources on its nuclear bomb project, domestic suppression, and meddling and terrorism in the Middle East.
Reports from Tehran indicate that these advertisements may readily be seen in other streets of the capital.

Poverty skyrocketing in Iran

Separated Iranian diplomat sheds light on IRGC role in Saudi Hajj incident

At a time when Iran’s aggressions and attacks have increased by this country’s political and military officials against Saudi Arabia have escalated, and Khamenei held Riyadh responsible for the unfortunate Mecca incident that left hundreds killed, a separated Iranian diplomat has revealed that six Revolutionary Guards officers were behind the entire Mena incident, Al Arabiya.net reported on Sunday. He accused Tehran of preparing this plan to kill a large number of pilgrims and launch a violent demonstration as a result.
Farzad Farhangian, the separated Iranian diplomat said prior to the Hajj pilgrimage he had warned that Khamenei’s regime has an intention to carry out terrorist attacks during this pilgrimage, adding after the incident he heard remarks from Iran that were not in line with diplomatic customs.
Farhangian used to serve as a Foreign Ministry advisor, and was then transferred to Iran’s embassies in Dubai, Baghdad, Morocco and Yemen. His last post was serving as Tehran’s 2nd man in Iran’s embassy in Belgium.
Investigations show the Mena incident was a terrorist attack and Iran was involved, he says. There were 5,000 IRGC members amongst the Hajj pilgrims and their plan was to cause the highest number of deaths possible and provoke the following demonstration and violent measures. However, Saudi security apparatuses immediately controlled the situation and Tehran’s plot ended in complete failure.

Farzad Farhangian, separated Iranian diplomat

Amnesty Urgent Action: Narges Mohmmadi trial to begin Oct. 6th

The trial for Iranian human rights defender Narges Mohammadi on national security-related charges will begin on 6 October in Tehran, Amnesty International reported. She is still being denied the specialized medical care she requires. She is a prisoner of conscience.
Narges Mohammadi’s trial is to begin on 6 October, on charges including “spreading propaganda against the system” and “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security”. She told Amnesty International, before her arrest in May 2015, that these charges stemmed solely from her peaceful human rights activism. She said the “evidence” used against her included her media interviews, the fact that she had taken part in gatherings outside prisons before executions to support the families of death row prisoners, her connections with other human rights defenders and her March 20 14 meeting with the European Union ’s then High Representative forForeign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton. Narges Mohammadi has also been charged with “membership of an illegal organization whose aim is to harm national security”, because she set up a group campaigning against the death penalty in Iran, Step by Step to Stop Death Penalty.
Narges Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, has told Amnesty International that neurologists have recommended she be hospitalized to receive specialized medical care, but the authorities have rejected such a transfer. She is now receiving her medications regularly.
The office of the Prosecutor General has also been denying Narges Mohammadi the right to make phone calls to her children, eight-year-old twins who moved abroad to live with their father as there was no one to look after them in Iran. It has been over two months since she last spoke with her children.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Narges Mohammadi had begun serving a six-year jail sentence in April 2012, for “gathering and colluding to commit crimes against national security” and “spreading propaganda against the system” through her peaceful human rights activism. She was released three months later, after being granted leave from prison to obtain medical treatment for a health condition that caused partial paralysis, which was exacerbated by her imprisonment. Narges Mohammadi has also suffered from seizures and temporary loss of vision. She was mainly at liberty until her arrest in May 2015. It appears that her arrest is related to her previous trial.
She wrote a lengthy open letter from Evin Prison to the Public Prosecutor of Tehran in July 2015, in which she said: “And I, a mother in pain who is tired of hurt and suffering, have stayed behind. My heart has been torn into hundreds of pieces. My hands – without even trying – face the sky. Dear God, please take my hands and give me the patience I need. For a long time, I won’t be able to see their [her children’s] innocent faces. I won’t be able to hear their voices. I won’t be able to smell them while holding them in my arms. Oh God, my arms feel so cold and empty without the presence of my children. My hands move towards my chest which feels as if it’s on fire. My cheekbones burn from the tears that run down my face. The lava flowing from my eyes feels like fire from the depths of my heart.”

The Iranian authorities frequently transfer prisoners in need of medical care to hospital, but Amnesty International understands that prisoners are not always provided with actual medical care and instead are simply returned to prison. Whether done intentionally or by neglect, failing to provide adequate medical care to prisoners is a breach of Iran’s international human rights obligations. The denial of medical treatment may amount to a violation of the absolute prohibition of torture and other ill-treatment, under Article 7 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Iran is a state party. Article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, to which Iran is also a state party, specifically recognizes the right of every person to the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. The UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (Mandela Rules) also state that prisons must provide adequate medical care to prisoners without discrimination (Rules 24-35). Rule 27(1) of the Mandela Rules provides that “Prisoners who require specialized treatment or surgery shall be transferred to specialized institutions or to civil hospitals.”

Iran’s own prison regulations are also routinely flouted by prison and judicial officials. The regulations governing the administration of Iranian prisons stipulate that a prisoner suffering from a serious medical condition that cannot be treated inside prison, or whose condition will worsen if they stay in prison, should be granted medical leave in order to receive treatment.

Narges Mohammadi

Iran: Court trial date assigned for Atena Faraghdani, lawyer

After Atena Faraghdani’s lawyer shook his client’s hands in their meeting, and this relationship was considered an illegitimate relationship by state officials, a court date has been assigned to see into such allegations, websites reported. 10 am next Saturday in branch 116 of Tehran’s general criminal court is the time set for this case. 
It is worth noting that Mohammad Moghimi will be represented by Houshang Pourbabaie. These allegations, along with insults by prison guards, led Faraghdani to go on hunger strike for three days while in prison.
It should be noted that Faraghdani’s mother described such behavior that harassed her daughter in prison as “false allegations” and “illegal and against sharia”.
After spending two months in detention of the Revolutionary Guards, Faraghdani had said her critical cartoons were the main aspect of interrogations against her. She is currently held in the women’s ward ofEvin Prison .

Atena Faraghdani in prison

“Laleh” speaks of women’s conditions in Iran job market

Women in Iran are facing numerous problems at their working environments. While undergoing higher education and after entering the production cycle looking for work, they are deprived of the minimums and tasting gender discrimination in all aspects of the society.
The state-run IRNA news agency published a piece describing the conditions of a woman employee:
Lale is a woman stepping into the country’s economy. She is 30 years old and has a senior degree in environmental labs and 5 years of experience recorded in her portfolio . What Lale remembers is sexual corruption at her place of work. 
“In the early days I used to work in a lab near Tehran famous for its environmental activities. However, from the very beginning we were only paid once every 2 or 3 months. We were never told about this officially and under various reasons the paychecks would be delayed.
“All the employees of the lab at that time were women. On the other hand the company had divided that year’s New Year bonus through the course of the year and it practically gave us nothing as a New Year gift. The reasons provided later on down the road by the director was that if I wanted to pay you each month I would have hired male employees! Your fees are paid by your father and the other has a husband. Let this money be in my hands as your savings!”
Lale believes the lack of adequate job opportunities has forced people to endure inadequate conditions at work and not say a word. Furthermore, many of the women are unaware of the employment laws. Therefore, the employers easily take advantage of their lack of knowledge and no one protests at all 
“When someone enters a place where before her there were many other people working there, like it or not this individual will be looking at how they behave, as if some things are enshrined and cannot be changed. If those before me did not have patriarchal beliefs, and if they understood that receiving their paychecks and demanding them is not a sign of weakness or poverty, this issue would not have become so ordinary.”

Iranian women facing discrimination at work

AP: Iraans - Amerikanen Rally In De Buurt Van De VN

AP

New York (AP), 28 September 2015 - Duizenden Iraanse-Amerikanen en hunSUPPORTERS verzamelden zich vanmiddag voor het gebouw van de Verenigde Naties, alwaar de minister president van Iran zijn jaarlijkse toespraak houdt. 

De demonstranten eisen het onmiddelijke vertrek van de Iraanse delegatie uit het VN gebouw.

Zij spreken hun afkeer uit voor de executie van de meer dan tweeduizend Iraanse dissidenten in de afgelopen twee jaar. 

Een belangrijk agendapunt dit jaar is het zogenaamde "Iran Deal" dat onlangs door het Amerikaanse Congres is goedgekeurd. Hierin is vastgesteld de opgelegde economische sancties op Iran op te heffen in ruil zal het land haar nucleaire programma beperken.

Bill Richardson, een voormalig Amerikaanse Ambassadeur bij de VN, sprak de demonstranten toe. Hij zei de Iran Deal in het gedeeltelijk te steunen, maar baart zich zorgen over de mogelijke wapenescalatie, die een direct gevaar vormt voor Israël.

Deze demonstratie was georganiseerd door de Organisatie van de Iraans-Amerikaanse Gemeenschap en de Nationale Raad van Verzet van Iran.