Week 41 - 2012

Prisoners’ News

A- Transfers

• Mohammad Nazari who sew his lips, transferred to prison clinic after 38 days on hunger strike.
• Blogger Mohammad Reza Pourshajari is back in prison before completing treatment in hospital.

B- Arrests/Incarcerations

• Ehsanollah Amanian, Gonabadi dervish, receives 50 lashes and goes to prison to serve his 5 months sentence.
• Student activist Behrouz Faridi, arrested at home to serve his 1 year sentence.
• Despite need for medical care, furlough extension for political prisoner Kazem Motamed denied, he is back in Evin.
• Baha'i Adib Shoaei arrested in Mashhad.
• Iran arrests 16 forex market manipulators.
• 150 arrested in party in Gilan province.
• 4 more people arrested at 'Maghreb' newspaper, charges unknown.

D-Other News

• Imprisoned defrocked cleric, blogger, journalist Seyyed Ahmad Reza Ahmadpour  started hunger strike on Wednesday.
• Mohammad Eskandarzadeh banned from leave.
• Vahid Habibcheshmeh banned from leave.
• Mehdi Hashemi banned from visits.
• Vahid Rastgoo banned from leave.
• Abdolfattah Soltani awarded with IBA Human Rights Award.
• Since Friday Oct. 5, political prisoner Farah Vazehan has been on hunger strike.
• Evin 350 was raided by guards, political prisoners and their belongings searched, prisoners responded by roaring chants - During raid political prisoners sang Ey Iran anthem, chanted Ya Hossein Mir Hossein, Death to Dictator and more.

News of injustice in Iran

• Mohammad Eskandarzadeh, Azeri activist, sentenced to 1 year in prison.
• Hasan Fatemi, two legs paralyzed, sentenced by Appeals to 3 years in prison; he is in Saqqez prison.
• Vahid Habibcheshmeh, Azeri activist, sentenced to 1 year in prison.
• Appeals confirmed 8 year jail sentence + 10-year ban on working as journalist of Sam Mahmoudi, editor for history and book services of Shargh paper.
• Political prisoner Ali Moezzi refused again to appear in court as he deems it illegal "puppet court".
• Behnoud Ramezani's parents sentenced to 8 months, his aunt sentenced to 4 months for holding memorial services for him.
• Vahid Rastgoo, Azeri activist, sentenced to 1 year in prison.
• Sentence of one year in jail confirmed for Gonabadi Dervish, Alireza Roshan.
• Afsaneh Toghi, Azeri activist, sentenced to 1 year in prison.
• 5 people executed in Zahedan on Saturday.
• Due to medical negligence a prisoner has died of food poisoning in Zahedan.
• 5 people executed in Shiraz on Sunday, two of them publicly.
• Two people hanged at Dizel Abad prison in Kermanshah on Monday.
• Supreme Leader pardons 30, reduces prison terms of 67 serving sentences in Qazvin prison.
• From October to October: 488 executions in Iran, 333 on the row.
• Iran was the only country in 2010 and 2011 to still execute those under the age of 18 at the time the crime was committed.
• 4 men hanged in Tabriz prison on Wednesday.

University – Culture

• Eutelsat condemns jamming of broadcasts from Iran.
• Vafa news Agency's licence revoked; Keyhan caricature magazine banned (over a controversial cartoon).
• Managing Director of Setareh Sobh publication has been found guilty of slander.
• Roohollah Bayat denied Master's Degree studies for the second year.
• Beirut Film Festival: Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s ‘The Gardener’ wins Best Documentary.

Protests

• More than 200 bus drivers in Tehran protested in front of the main building of the Municipal Council in Tehran. Thousands of Vahed Company workers join protestors.
• About 200 family members of people on death row gathered in front Khamenei's compound asking for abolition of death penalty.

Iran Economics

• Iran website posts foreign exchange rates but suspends gold prices.
• $ 1 = 3500 toman on Tuesday.
• Some media outlets in Iran put real exchange value of US dollar as 6,300 tomans.
• Turkey confirmed that there had been an explosion in the natural gas pipeline between Iran and Turkey on the night between Sunday and Monday.

Iran  abroad

• German government calls for the release of Shiva Nazar Ahari.
• Iran sends supertanker to deliver crude oil to South Korea.
• Iranian aid workers in Libya freed.
• Foreign airlines, including Malaysia AirAsia, Britairways, Tajikistan and Britain BMI, ceasing services to Iran amid its mounting economic problems.
• Azerbaijan sentenced 22 people to jail for assisting IRGC in Iran in alleged terror plots against US and Israeli targets
• Statement by Catherine Ashton's spokesperson on the imminent execution of Gholamreza Khosravi.

Politics in Iran

• Khamenei refuses to meet with Ahmadinejad.
• MP and Ahmadinejad opponent: 'Ahmadinejad asked twice for the end of Mousavi and Karroubi's house arrest!
• Ahmadinejad fired competent ministers: Asgarouladi.
• Heads of Evin Prison call on Ahmadinejad’s advisors to prevent his visit to the prison.

Miscellaneous

• Iran blocks cyber-attack on its oil drilling platforms.
• Tabriz Police: 19 traditional restaurants have been ordered closed and 62 people arrested for not observing Islamic laws.
• Iran sees 500 cyber-attacks a day; says Communication Minister. Cybercriminals are targeting Skype users, using ransom ware and click fraud.
• An earthquake with a 4.8 magnitude shook Shiraz in Fars province on Wednesday.
• 2 billion cubic meters of water transferred to Lake Urmia in a year.
• AHMED SHAHEED REPORT ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN IRAN http://t.co/eE2gscAp