Executions in Iran hit 20-year high in 2015 - UN investigator

Ahmed Shaheed

Iran's regime executed nearly 1,000 prisoners last year, the highest number in two decades, the United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Iran said on Thursday.

AhmedShaheed told a news briefing in Geneva that he is particularly concerned by executions for crimes committed by children under 18. This was "strictly and unequivocally prohibited under international law," he said.

There had been a "staggering surge in the execution of at least 966 prisoners last year - the highest rate in over two decades", Shaheed said.

U.N. panel rebukes Iran for allowing forced marriage, execution at nine years old

U.N. panel rebukes Iran for allowing forced marriage, execution at nine years old

Iran's regime must reform its laws that allows girls as young as nine to be executed for crimes or forced marriage with much older husbands, a United Nations watchdog said on Thursday.

Iran continues to execute children and youth who committed a crime while under 18 years of age, in violation of international standards, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child said, after its 18 independent experts reviewed Iran and 13 other countries.

The age of criminal responsibility in Iran is discriminatory, it is lower and lower for girls, that is to say 9 lunar years while for boys it is 15. At nine a girl can marry, even if the law sets the age at 13," said Hynd Ayoubi Idrissi, a panel member.

Nine lunar years in the Iranian calendar is equivalent to 8 years and nine months, a U.N. spokeswoman said.

The age for boys having criminal responsibility is 15, but the age for girls at 9 is "extremely low", Idrissi said.

"The Committee is seriously concerned about the reports of increasing numbers of girls at the age of 10 years or younger who are subjected to child and forced marriages to much older men." Girls suffered discrimination in the family, in the criminal justice system, in property rights, and elsewhere, while a legal obligation for girls to be subject to male guardianship is "incompatible" with Tehran's treaty obligations, the panel said.

The concluding observations by U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child states:

“The Committee is concerned at the reports that content-based offenses such as “propaganda against the state” or “insulting Islam” are not clearly defined and interpreted and can incur prison terms, flogging, and even death sentences, thus limiting the right of children to freedom of expression. It is also concerned about the broad interpretation of offences such as “membership in an illegal organization” and “participation in an illegal gathering” infringing the right of children to freedom of association and peaceful assembly.”

“The Committee recommends that the State party take necessary measures to ensure full respect for children’s right to freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly and that these rights are not subjected to undue and vague limitations but that restrictions to these rights comply with international standards. The Committee urges the State party to review its legislation in order to ensure that children under the age of 18 years are exempt from criminal responsibility for such content-based offences.”

Iran’s regime arrests Christians on Christmas day

#Iran’s regime arrests #Christians on Christmas day

Iran's fundamentalist regime arrested a group of practicing Iranian Christians onChristmas Day at an in-house church in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran.

The group of Iranian Christians had gathered together last Friday, December 25, to celebrate Christmas when plain-clothes agents of the Iranian regime's notorious Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) raided the in-house church.

Armed MOIS agents ransacked much of the place and confiscated personal items and satellite dishes, according to eye-witness reports, which also said that the agents behaved 'offensively' towards those detained.

Among those arrested were:

Mohsen Javadi,

Elaheh Izadi,

Ahmad Golshani-Nia,

Reza Mohammadi,

Mahmoud Salehi,

Moussa Sari-Pour,

Alireza Ali-Qanbari,

Mohammad-Reza Soltanian,

And a ninth person whose identity was not established.

Separately on Wednesday, December 23, MOIS agents in the central city of Isfahan arrested Iranian Christian Mr. Meysam Hojjati in a raid on his home.

Mr. Hojjati was beaten and handcuffed while his home was searched and ransacked by four plain-clothes MOIS agents. His books, computer, mobile phone and even his decorated Christmas tree were confiscated. Mr. Hojjati was previously arrested by agents of the intelligence ministry in March 2012.

On the news of the Christians’ arrests, Shahin Gobadi of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) on Tuesday said: “There has been a steady deterioration of human rights abuses in Iran during Hassan Rouhani’s tenure as president including executions and suppression of religious and ethnic minorities. This is just another case in point. Actually the clerical regime is one of the top violators of rights of religious minorities including Christians in the world. The regime has institutionalized repression of the Iranian people as the main tool of its survival.”

In her New Year and Christmas greetings to Christians in Iran and around the world on December 24, Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said: "I wish that 2016 would be a year of unity and victory over Islamic extremism and especially the religious fascism ruling Iran and its evil allies in the Middle East who sow the seeds of enmity in the world."

"Muslims and Christians can rely on their common values to stand up to those who pervert their religions."

"Let us hope for the relief of converted Christians in Iran from the oppression of ruling mullahs and for freedom of the whole Iranian nation from this religious dictatorship."

"On this occasion, I call on the world community to form an international front against the religious dictatorship in Iran and its proxies and militia in Syria and Iraq and to fight Islamic extremism, the enemy of true Muslims, Christians and all followers of other divine religions," Mrs. Rajavi added.

Iran - Brave mothers criticize Khomeini in Iran memorial

Brave mothers criticize Khomeini in Iran memorial

A number of brave Iranian mothers of youths who were martyred in the 2009 nationwide uprising against the mullahs' regime have publicly criticized Khomeini for installing a regime which is murdering Iran's children by the day.

The mothers spoke out at a gathering in Tehran’s Shahriar District last Friday to mark the sixth anniversary of the death of Mostafa Karim-Beigi who was killed by the Iranian regime in the course of the 2009 anti-regime uprisings. Many relatives of martyred opponents of the regime and political prisoners took part in the ceremony.

Ms. Shahin Mahin-Far, whose son Amir Arshad Tajmir was killed in the course of the 2009 uprising, said her heart had been ripped apart by her son's death. The regime's henchmen riding a police vehicle ran over his body three times.

Ms. Fatemeh Golgari, whose son, labor activist Afshin Osanloo, died in mysterious circumstances in prison in Iran on June 20, 2013, said at the gathering: "Now should have been a time for joy among our youths, but instead it's their time to be bured."

"I've got something in my heart which I need to say. Let my dear ones and let even the regime hear this. The day when the Imam [Khomeini] came and sat in a cemetery and said 'they've turned this place into a cemetery but I'll turn it into a garden full of flowers,' we didn't understand what he meant by a garden full of flowers. Now we know, he meant that they will kill our youngsters and bury them, and each time we'll have to go there to law flowers on their graves," Ms. Golgari said.

"I long for the day of freedom, when Iran will be free and blossoming and we can all be friends and good brothers and sisters," she added.

Ex-Argentine FM admits Iran regime blew up Jewish center

AMIA-community-center

Argentine journalist Daniel Santoro on Friday revealed two recordings in which former Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman is heard admitting that Iran's regime “planted the bombs” that demolished the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994.

Timerman was speaking with the president of the local Jewish community Guillermo Burger in 2012, when negotiations with Iran's regime over its responsibility for the terrorist act had just begun.

Santoro said that during the conversation, revealed in Santoro’s new book 'Nisman Must Die', “Timerman pressured members of the AMIA not to release a statement at the start of negotiations with Iran.”

The negotiation was a very dramatic event, Santoro explained, because then President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was officially committed to a policy of “we don’t negotiate with terrorists.”

 “And here’s Timerman, in a conversation, saying he is convinced that it was the Iranians who planted the bomb,” said Santoro, adding, “Imagine the irony—so he applied pressure on the Jewish community, in both recordings,” not to mention his words in public, suggesting it would render the talks with the Iranians ineffective. At one point on the tape, after Burger argued that Iran's regime is not a reliable partner in negotiations, Timerman explodes, “Who do you think we’re negotiating with, Switzerland?”

Argentina’s new Justice Minister Germán Garavano has already announced that he would not appeal a court decision to annul an agreement with Iran's regime which absolved Tehran of responsibility for the AMIA atrocity that killed 85 and left 330 wounded.

Garavano serves in the cabinet of the new president of Argentina, Mauricio Macri, who took office two weeks ago.

Unemployment reaches 40% among young women in Iran

Unemploymentamong women stands at above 20 percent in nearly two thirds of Iran's provinces, according to the regime's own statistics.

The unemployment rate is even higher among young women, the official state news agency IRNA reported on Wednesday.

The unemployment rate among women between the ages of 15 and 24 in Iran stands at over 40%, IRNA said.

Ken Blackwell: Iran's Rouhani falsely depicted as a moderate

Washington, 24 Sep - Iran's President Hassan Rouhani tries to falsely depict himself as a "moderate" or a "reformer" worthy of the trust and engagement of the international community, first and foremost the US, and this charade has only been emboldened by the nuclear deal with which the Obama administration handed a range of unwarranted concessions to Tehran and failed to accomplish its goal of cutting off Iran's pathways to a nuclear weapon ", wrote Ken Blackwell, former US ambassador to the UN human rights commission, in an op- ed in Town Hall.

Next Monday, on September 28 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is scheduled to address the UN General Assembly. That podium has hosted many bad characters who have used it to advocate their sinister policies. But Rouhani's presence stands out precisely because he blends in better than many of his predecessors.

Iran - 2000 executions carried out in Iran under Rouhani

Mr. Peter Mathews

Irish lawmaker: Iran's 'despotic' regime must be held accountable

The mullahs' regime in Iran continues to execute more of its citizens per capita than any other UN member state. Some 2000 people have been executed under Rouhani in the past two years.

Iran is a wonderful country. It has been at the bedrock foundation of the civilization of the human family in the Indo-European context. Some 75 million people live there, roughly half and half men and women, but the country is in the iron grip of a despotic regime that is iron fisted in its narrow fundamentalism by any measure, and it is choking the breath of the people of Iran . Is not it a shame to think that in Canada alone 30,000 doctors work there having qualified in Iran. Something is wrong when the conduct of a country run by a fundamentalist regime masquerading under parliamentary democracy under the leadership of state of President Rouhani who just does what he is told. It is up to us in the various countries from which we come to talk in plain talk in plain images of the suppression of such a wonderfully large people. The other speakers have told us about the summary executions. The presumption of guilt rather than innocence and proper distributions of justice. And the microcosmic expression of that pan-suppression of that people is seen in Camp Liberty [in Iraq, which houses thousands of members of the Iranian opposition PMOI, or MEK.

Maryam Rajavi: Iran's catastrophic water shortage product of regime's policies

karun-river

Mrs.Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, described thecatastrophe of water shortage in Iran a consequence of Iranian regime's antinationalistic policies and the unbounded plunder, jobbery and corruption of this regime's leaders and the revolutionary guards (IRGC) in wasting country's assets in nuclear projects and export of terrorism and fundamentalism. She emphasized: The first step in saving the country from this crisis unparalleled in Iran's history is to topple the religious fascism and establish democracy.

Iran-Statement by steadfast Iranian political prisoner Ali Moezzi

ali-moezi

Iranian political prisoner Ali Moezzi has issued a statement following the suspicious death of labor activist Shahrokh Zamani on Sunday in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj, north-west of Iran's capital Tehran. Mr. Moezzi, a supporter of the People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI / MEK), has constantly been under the most severe pressures and physical and psychological tortures in the Iranian regime's prisons. The following is the text of his statement:

Human rights must be focus of UK policy towards Iran, MPs say

David Jones MP

At a major conference in the House of Commons on Tuesday, September 15, organised by the British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF), MPs and Peers from all major parties of both Houses of Parliament addressed the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran and the urgent plight of Iranian refugees and members of Iran's main opposition, the PMOI, in Camp Liberty, Iraq.