Iran: Negar Haeri, former political prisoner is deliberately ran over

Iran: Negar Haeri, former political prisoner is deliberately ran over

The news has just got out that Negar Haeri, a lawyer and former political prisoner, was deliberately ran over by unidentified persons on December 17, 2015.

She had previously been threatened time and again and finally on December 17, she was chased by a black Peugeot 405 with dark windows and hit after she got out of her car in Shahrara district. The Peugeot then sped away and disappeared.

Ms. Haeri was subsequently transferred to hospital. She suffered a broken right arm and a broken left leg and bruises all over her body.

Ms. Haeri had been summoned on phone to Evin’s Prosecutor’s Office on May 18, 2015, where she was insulted and arrested in front of her mother. She was held in the Evin’s women’s ward for one day and transferred to solitary confinement for another nine days where she was interrogated under torture. She was ultimately released on May 27, 2015.

Before this, she spent eight months in Varamin’s Qarchak prison and was released only after much efforts and on a 2billion-touman bail.

Ms. Haeri’s license for law practice was annulled and she was not banned from giving legal advice to her clients. Security and intelligence officers have instructed her not to leave Tehran in any circumstances.

Iran: Revision court held for Atena Faraghdani

Atena Farghadani

The appeals court of civil activist Atena Farghadani, currently detained in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison, was held on Sunday, December 29.

Her lawyer, Mohammad Moghimi, has said he met with his client on December 15 in Evin Prison in order to prepare her defense. Farghadani, imprisoned since January 10, was sentenced to 12 years and 9 months behind bars in a court chaired by judge Salavati.

Her charges include “insulting members of parliament through drawings,” “assembly and collusion with anti-revolution figures” and “insulting the leader of the Islamic republic”.

Farghadani said earlier this year after being held in a Revolutionary Guards prison for two months that her critical drawings were the main subject of the interrogations. She is currently being held in the women’s ward of Evin Prison.

A woman appointed as Commonwealth secretary-general

Baroness Patricia Scotland

BaronessPatricia Scotland, the first woman to be appointed Commonwealth secretary-general, says she will "put the women's agenda very strongly on the table".

Commonwealth leaders meeting in Malta chose Scotland on Friday, November 27, 2015, after a fraught and extended meeting to choose between three candidates.

She is to take over from Kamalesh Sharma, who has served in the role for eight years.

Scotland, a lawyer who has dual British and Dominican citizenship, served as minister of state, deputy home secretary and attorney-general under the previous Labour government in the UK.

She was the first black woman to be appointed as a Queen's Counsel in the UK and at the age of 35, was also the youngest woman.

After Malta's Prime Minister Joseph Muscat announced her appointment to reporters, she said she was "incredibly proud" to be the first woman to hold the post.

Iran: Cartoonist and her lawyer on trial for “indecency” for shaking hands

Atena Farghdani

Satirical cartoonist Atena Farghadani and her lawyer will be on trial on the charge of “illegitimate sexual relations falling short of adultery” after they shook hands in their meeting.  Atena Farghadani and her lawyer Mohammad Moghimi may face up to 99 lashes if found guilty! 

Amnesty International believes Farghdani has been detained solely for exercising her right to freedom of expression. “It is clearly both absurd and a violation of the right to privacy to consider a man and a woman shaking hands as a criminal offence,” said Raha Bahreini, Amnesty International’s researcher.

“These charges are politically motivated and they are a blatant attempt by the Iranian authorities to harass Atena and hinder her lawyer’s work representing her. Instead of subjecting this young prisoner of conscience to further harassment and intimidation, the Iranian authorities must immediately and unconditionally drop these charges and free her.”

 Amnesty International has learnt that Atena Farghadani is going to tomorrow’s hearing without having secured a lawyer of her own choice and fears that she won’t receive a fair trial.

Atena Farghadani and Mohammad Moghimi were charged with “illegitimate sexual relations short of adultery” after they shook hands in prison after her trial on 13 June. Mr. Moghimi was arrested, and released three days later after he had paid a bail amounting to around $60,000.

In June, Atena Farghdani was sentenced to 12 years and nine months in prison for multiple offences including insulting MPs and its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei after publishing a series of satirical cartoons depicting legislators as monkeys, cows and other animals.

Her conviction also stemmed from her speaking out publicly on the rights of the families of victims of the massive crackdown following 2009 presidential elections in Iran.

(Amnesty International- October 2, 2015)

Iran: Renowned political prisoner to be tried soon

Nargess Mohammadi political prisoner

Nargess Mohammadi is going on trial on October 7, 2015, according to her lawyer who received the summoning.

Ms. Mohammadi is vice president of the League of Human Rights Defenders in Iran and was arrested without warrant on May 5, 2015, by security forces without having any contacts with her 8.5-year-old twins.

She has been arrested for speaking out against repression of Iranian people's fundamental freedom of expression.

property-camp-ashraf

New Book: PMOI’s Property in Camp Ashraf

“PMOI’s Propertyin Ashraf”

A book by the Camp Liberty Legal Committee

consisting of 310 documents and 73 graphic documentaries

property-camp-ashraf