Five men convicted in relation to the recent uprisings and a Kurdish woman in imminent danger of execution. Twenty more in the waiting list!

The Iranian government has no consideration for the international law. Ehsan Fattahian's execution order was full of flaws, but Ehsan was murdered regardless.

Now Zeynab Jalalian, another 28-year old Kurdish activist is in imminent danger of execution. Her sentence has been confirmed. She wrote in a letter from the prison that she was ill as a result of all the brutal tortures she has gone through and that her court was held without her lawyer and she was sentenced to death in a few minutes.

Zeynab is convicted because of her support for the Turkish Kurdish group P.K.K. She also had given refuge to a Pejak member. But she has never used weapons and has never been armed. Death penalty seem to be very harsh.

Five men who were present in mass trials after the uprisings, have been sentenced to death. This is a ridiculus sentence as a few of these men were arrested before the June elections. They took part in the mock trials with the promise that if they would confess to what the government wants, they would be free.

These five men are: Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani, Hamed Ruhi Nejad, Arash Rahmani poor, Reza khademi and Naser Abdolhosseini.

Please call your representatives and inform your friends and family, to call amnesty international and the United Nations and ask for their intervention to stop these executions and the massacre f the other political prisoners.

In memory of Ehsan Fattahian.

Ehsan was executed on the morning of November 11, 2009 in Sanandaj prison. His was denied a last visit with his parents and his lawyer. He was on dry hunger strike when executed. A witness said Ehsan himself kicked the stool from under his legs.

His body was not given to his parents for burial. They were shown a grave in the far corner of Kermanshah cemetery with no name on it. This is how the Iranian regime tries to torture not only the prisoners, but their families and friends.

Shame on the United Nations for letting Iran get away with this systematic abuse of human rights and shame on the Western countries who sweep everything under the carpet for money. 
A video about Ehsan Fattahian:

Kurdish activist, Ehsan Fattahian, to be executed on Wednesday, November 11th.

Ehsan Fattahian is a 27-year old Kurdish activist and a member of the Kurdish opposition group Komala. Ehsan was arrested when he was visiting with his family in Kamiyaran. He was initially sentenced to 10-years in prison, but the order was changed later to execution.

Ehsan's only crime is being Kurdish and being a member of an opposition group. There is no other charge against him. On Sunday he was informed that his execution will be in order for Wednesday in Sanandaj Prison. Ehsan has been on dry hunger strike since Sunday.

Human rights activists inside and outside Iran have been trying to stop the execution. Several other Kurdish activists have announced that they will too go on a hunger strike if the order is not stopped. Human rights activists have called people to gather in front of Sanandaj prion at 2:30 am on Wednesday to stop this unjust order.

The following is  from Ehsan's letter from Sanandaj prison:

Let me add that, shortly before my sentence was changed to the death sentence, I was taken from Sanandaj prison to the Intelligence Ministry’s detention center, where I was asked to make a false confession on camera, show remorse for the actions I had not committed and reject my beliefs. I did not give in to their illegitimate demands, so I was told that my prison sentence would be changed to the death sentence. They were fast to keep their promise and prove to me how courts always concede to the demands of intelligence and non-judicial authorities. How can one criticize the courts then?

All judges take an oath to remain impartial at all times and in all cases, to rule according to the law and nothing but the law. How many of the judges of this country can say that they have not broken their oath and have remained fair and impartial? In my opinion the number is countable with the fingers on my hand. When the entire justice system in Iran orders arrests, trials, imprisonments and death sentences with the simple hand gesture of an uneducated interrogator, what is to be expected from a few minor judges in a province that has always been discriminated against? Yes, in my view, it is the foundation of the house which is in ruins.

Last time I met in prison with the prosecutor who had issued the initial indictment, he admitted that the ruling was illegal. Yet, for the second time, it has been ruled that my execution should be carried out. It goes without saying that the insistence to carry out the execution at any cost is a result of pressures exercised by political and intelligence groups outside the Judiciary. People who are part of these groups look at the question of life and death of a prisoner only based on their own political and financial interests. They cannot see anything but their own illegitimate objectives, even when it is the question of a person’s right to life - the most basic of all human rights. How pointless is it to expect them to respect international treaties when they don’t even respect their own laws?

Last word: if the rulers and oppressors think that, with my death, the Kurdish question will go away, they are wrong. My death and the deaths of thousands of others like me will not cure the pain; they will only add to the flames of this fire. There is no doubt that every death is the beginning of a new life.

Ehsan Fattahian,

Sanandaj Central Prison

Amnesty International's call for urgent action:

http://www.vokradio.com/content/view/978/23/

Please help however you can to stop Ehsan's execution and ask them to pressure the Iranian government to stop Ehsan's execution.

1) Call/ write to  Amnesty International, UNHCR and the Red Cross

2)Call ypur friends, your local media and your legislatures, explain the situation  and ask them to help Ehsan.

3) Sign the following petition:

http://gopetition.com/online/31973.html

The Iranian uprising is very much alive!

Today, the Iranians poured in the streets of Iran (Tehran, Tabriz, Isfahan and many more cities) and protested against the oppressive government. The witnesses report that many were beaten and injured and many were arrested. The police and the plain-clothes ones were even more forceful and brutal, but that did not deter the people.

Yahoo messenger and mobile services were cut from the previous night, so that people could not contact each other. The police and Basijis ( plain-clothes) had spies among people and reported against them.

Mousavi was under house arrest and did not attend the protests. Karubi, however, atteneded the protests and was attacked close to the 7-Tir square. According to his son, one of the police officers threw a tear gas to Karubi's face that was fended off by one of his bodyguards.

The police was very brutal, especially targeting women:





One of the witnesses wrote that the police and Basijis were there to KILL. They hit people with batons and iron rods. Still, people stood up and chanted against the government.

Meanwhile, and not surprisingly President Obama sent a message, not to the Iranian people, but to the Iranian government, asking them to FORGET THE PAST and START RELATIONS! You can read the message here (scroll down for English):

http://www1.voanews.com/persian/news/iran/obama-speech-2009-11-04-69075832.html

NYTime on today's protests: Iran Opposition Protesters Return to Streets

Second Letter from Hamed Rouhinejad, Political Prisoner Sentenced to Death because of participation in demonstrations

Friday, October 30th, 2009




Hamed Rouhinejad is a young prisoner who has multiple sclerosis. He was arrested on bogus charges by agents from the Intelligence Ministry, 40 days before the election.

Following the post-election mass protests, partly because of false promises and partly under threat, Rouhinejad ended up playing a role in the show trials, a role that resulted in a death sentence for him.

The following is the second letter Rouhinejad has written from Evin, where he is detained. In this letter which is addressed to one of his cellmates, he explains his painful ordeal. HRA has previously published Rouhinejad’s first letter.

To my cellmate, on my birthday (Aban 8th, October 30th) which this year coincided with Imam Reza’s birthday,

It was the 40th day of my detention within the horrifying walls of the solitary cell when the guard came looking for me. I was listening to his footsteps approaching. My heart was beating fast. The thought of having to face the threats and promises of my interrogator, who would make me rehearse the scenario, gave me shivers and fear. Then the sound of footsteps stopped, and the door opened. I was told by the guard to put on my blindfold and follow him.

Hurriedly, I put on the blindfold and, with thousands of thoughts in mind, started to follow the guard. Even though my eyes were covered I could feel that he was taking me on a new route. Suddenly he ordered me to stop and face the wall. After a few minutes, as I was standing still and quietly facing the wall, I heard the voice of the interrogator who called me in. I had no idea what to expect. He took a telephone card out of his pocket and asked for my family’s phone number. He then dialed the number and gave the phone to me. I heard my sister’s voice and I could only say hello before I burst out crying. I let the phone go and sat on the floor with my hands on my head. I stood back up when the interrogator yelled that the phone was about to get disconnected. I spoke to my sister as I was sobbing. It was not a conversation; we were both crying. Then I talked to my mother. The tone of her voice told me the whole story. I wish those who inflict so much pain on people knew something about humanity. My mother’s tearful voice and her sobbing will whisper in my ears for the rest of my life.

I was told to end the call fast. Unwillingly and because I was told to, I disconnected the phone and went back to the dungeon. A few minutes after arrival to my solitary cell, the guard came back and told me to pack my belongings because he was taking me to another cell. I did not know what was going to happen to me or where he was taking me to. I packed my belongings and put on my blindfold and started to follow him again. He stopped in front of a cell, opened the cell door and ordered me to step inside. I could feel the presence of one human being but later I found out there were actually two other people inside the cell. I could not believe it. Never in my life had I been so happy to see another human being. It was an endless favor from God, who had given me a cellmate and a friend; someone to whom I could talk without any reservation about all the pain that, until that moment, I had kept only to myself.

I am talking to you who welcomed me warmly; you who gave me the gift of happiness with your welcoming face. You who were the only person to whom I could tell all the unsaid things and you listened to me. I told you how the agents raided our house in the middle of the night and arrested me for no reason.

The only charge on my file was that I had left the country illegally, for which I had good reasons. I told you how I returned to Iran with the approval of the Intelligence Ministry. Do you remember the time that, with tears in my eyes, I explained to you how I had to write down unwillingly, disgusted and under threat and psychological pressure what the interrogators wanted? Not because I was promised that by doing so I could go back to my family and continue my studies, but only because I did not want my MS attacks to start. I did not want to lose sight in my eyes or become paralyzed, even though it happened anyway, and today I have to almost stick my face to the paper in order to see the letter I am writing to you.

As I am writing I have to use all the force that is left in me to stop the pen from slipping out of my numb fingers. These days I have only one leg to stand on, and even when I hit hard objects I can’t feel the pain. You used to say mental and physical health is a gift God has given to us and therefore should be cherished and cared for. I used to answer that that was the reason I confessed to doing things that even my soul was not aware of. I described to you how horrified I was each time I thought my family members would be brought in to Ward 209, and, in order to save me, would confess to things they were not aware of, the same way I did.

I have said everything to you. You know that none of the charges against me are true. Today those charges have formed a noose around my neck. I have to tell you that even the little treatment I used to get has stopped. My only wish now is to get back my sight and feeling in my body when and if my sentence is overturned. I pray to God to give me enough inner peace and patience until the day I can return to my family and society. I am grateful to God for letting me walk on a path with serving people as my goal. I am a captive today because I wanted to serve the people, a crime for which I will have to walk to the gallows. Yet, in my belief, there is no honor higher than being sacrificed for my compatriots.

Hamed Rouhinejad.

Evin Prison
(taken from the facebook page of http://freedommessenger.blogspot.com)

Behnoud Shojaie, 21, was executed this morning.

People had gathered in front of the Evin prison since 2 am. Among the 100 or so, mothers of the martyrs of the recent uprising ( Sohrab Aarabi's mother), a representative from UNICEF , artists and human rights activists could be seen.

The victim's family came and everyone gathered around them. Asked them to forgive Behnoud. They went inside. Behnoud came and fell on their feet, begged for forgiveness. Asked them not to kill him. The victim's mother said she wanted to see the noose on his neck. So they did.

They took Behnoud to a room where everything was prepared to kill him. He was guided to stand on top of a stool. They put the noose on his neck and while everyone was hoping for the family's forgiveness, the parents went forward and pulled the stool from under Behnoud's feet.

And he died! at the age of 21. He had spent 4 years in jail already.

He had killed their son by accident, but the laws of the Islamic Republic made him the victim of a legal homicide. The barbaric laws of Iran need to be changed. NOW!

sources:

http://www.hra-news.org/news/6757.aspx

http://mohegh.blogfa.com/

Next week Safar Angooti might have the same fate. Please call anyone you can and ask them to stop executions in Iran, immediately.

Behnoud Shojaie, Safar Angooti are to be executed tonight.

Behnoud Shojaie (left) will be executed on the early morning of October 11th in the Evin prison, Tehran. Safar Angooti (right) will be executed on October 19th. They have been both convicted of murder when they were 16 and 17 years old.









Iran has signed treateis on the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), both of which prohibit the use of the death penalty against people convicted of crimes committed when they were under 18.

Behnood Shojaie has been taken to the execution chamber 6 times and has been brought back. For three times he has had the rope on his neck, has watched others die and has been taken back to the prison and he is only 20-years old now.

Amnesty International has issued statements asking the stay of execution for Behnoud Shojaie.

According to Iran's Human Rights News Agency, about 100 human rights activists, Behnoud's family and a represenatative from UNICEF are now in front of the EVIN prison, trying to convinve the victim's family to forgive Behnoud. According to Iran's Qesaes (retribution ) law, Behnoud's life has to be taken in exchange to the victim's life. The convict's life however, can be bought with a sum of money determined by the victim's family.

There are no news about Safar Angooti's case and he is in serious danger of being executed at the age of 21, because of a fight over his girlfriend that resulted in the death of a person who had attacked Mr. Angooti.

Iran's barbaric laws take the lives of hundreds a year just by execution. Iran has the record of highest execution numbers per capita and has disregarded the international treaties banning child execution. Unfortunately the US government and the European countries have never demanded such commitments from Iran and have swept Iran's systematic human rights abuse, as long as Iran conceded on the nuclear front.

Amnesty International's call for action on Behnoud's lawyer's blog

36 Iranian dissidents abducted by the Iraqi forces during the raid on Camp Ashraf were released!

On July 28 and 29 of 2009, Maliki's forces raided Camp Ashraf which is home to some 3400 members of the Iranian opposition group People's Mojahedin Of Iran (PMOI).

In the brutal attack, where Iraqi forces used anything from nail-enforced wooden sticks to iron rods, sickles and live bullets,more then 500 were injured and 12 were killed. One was run by a bulldozer. The rest died as a result of blow their heads and faces or live shots to their face or chest. Thirty-six were taken by the Iraqi forces.

The thirty-six hostages and their friends and families in Ashraf along with Iranians all around the world went on hunger strike immediately. This hunger strike lasted 72 days.

The hostages were ordered to release by a judge in Khalis City, but the police refused to release them because of "higher" orders. The case was appealed 3 times and every time the judge ruled for the release of the hostages.

After the last release order, the Iraqi Prosecutor General said the hostages should be freed anywhere in Iraq. That is when the Iraqi police stormed the Khalis police station and beat up the already weak hostages who were on the 66th day of their hunger strike. Two of them were severely injured. The half-conscious hostages were dragged to mini-buses that transferred them to a prison near Baghdad and finally to a prison in Mosanna air base, where the headquarters of the Dawa party ( Maliki's party), police forces, Qods forces and the army are located.

The hostages went on dry hunger strike immediately after they were transferred from Khalis and their already fragile health started to deteriorate rapidly. Two were in critical conditions and were feared to die in a few hours. Finally with colossal attempts from Iranians, human rights organizations, human rights activists and many humanitarian personalities the hostages were released on October 6th and returned to Camp Ashraf. They were in very poor health though and were immediately taken to the Ashraf Hospital.

Iranian boy who defied Tehran hardliners tells of prison rape ordeal

The following article published by timesonline shows a glimpse of what is going on in Iran's prisons in the 21st centuary. Way worse than what happened in Gitmo and Abu-Gharib and yet there is no serious reaction from the world. The silence of Obama adminstration, the West and the United Nartions is most disappointing.

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The 15-year-old boy sits weeping in a safehouse in central Iran, broken in body and spirit. Reza will not go outside — he is terrified of being left alone. He says he wants to end his life and it is not hard to understand why: for daring to wear the green wristband of Iran’s opposition he was locked up for 20 days, beaten, raped repeatedly and subjected to the Abu Ghraib-style sexual humiliations and abuse for which the Iranian regime denounced the United States.
“My life is over. I don’t think I can ever recover,” he said, as he recounted his experiences to The Times — on condition that his identity not be revealed. A doctor who is treating him, at great risk to herself, confirmed that he is suicidal, and bears the appalling injuries consistent with his story. The family is desperate, and is exploring ways of fleeing Iran.
Reza is living proof of the charges levelled by Mehdi Karoubi, one of the opposition’s leaders, that prison officials are systematically raping both male and female detainees to break their wills. The regime has accused Mr Karoubi of helping Iran’s enemies by spreading lies and has threatened to arrest him.
The boy’s treatment also shows just how far a regime that claims to champion Islamic values is prepared to go to suppress millions of its own citizens who claim that President Ahmadinejad’s re-election was rigged.

Reza’s ordeal began in mid-July when he was arrested with about 40 other teenagers during an opposition demonstration in a large provincial city. Most were too young even to have voted. They were taken to what he believes was a Basiji militia base where they were blindfolded, stripped to their underwear, whipped with cables and then locked in a steel shipping container. That first night Reza was singled out by three men in plain clothes who had masqueraded as prisoners. As the other boys watched, they pushed him to the ground. One held his head down, another sat on his back and the third urinated on him before raping him.
“They were telling us they were doing this for God, and who did we think we were that we could demonstrate,” Reza said. The men told the other boys they would receive the same treatment if they did not co-operate when interrogated the next day.
Reza was then taken outside, tied to a metal pole and left there all night. The next morning one of the men returned. He asked whether Reza had learnt his lesson. “I was angry. I spat in his face and began cursing him. He elbowed me in the face a couple of times and slapped me.” Twenty minutes later, he says, the man returned with a bag full of excrement, shoved it in Reza’s face and threatened to make him eat it.
Reza was later taken to an interrogation room where he told his questioner he had been raped. “I made a mistake. He sounded kind, but my eyes were blindfolded. He said he would go look into it and I was hopeful,” Reza said.
Instead, the interrogator ordered Reza to be tied up and raped him again, saying: “This time I’ll do it, so you’ll learn not to tell these tales anywhere else. You deserve what’s coming to you. You guys should be raped until you die.”
He was subjected to further brutal sexual abuse — and locked up for three days of solitary confinement.
Reza was then forced to sign a “confession” in which he said that foreign forces had told him and his friends to burn banks and state media buildings. He was told to identify as the ringleader a 16-year-old friend who had been so badly beaten that he was in hospital.
“I was shaking so much I couldn’t even hear what they were saying,” said Reza. “I just signed whatever they put in front of me without looking at it. I was scared they would rape me again.”
The next day Reza and other detainees were transferred to a police detention centre, where he was held for a further week.
On the third day, police officers entered the cell in the middle of the night, blindfolded him and led him to the toilet, where he was again raped. “My hands began shaking, my legs were weak and I couldn’t stand up properly. I fell down and smashed my head hard on the ground to try and kill myself. I started screaming and shouting for them to kill me. I just couldn’t bear it anymore. I hated myself,” he said, weeping at the memory.
The following morning he was summoned by a police commander, who asked why he had been screaming the previous night. When he explained, he was asked to identify his rapist. The boy said he had been blindfolded, so the chief commander hit him and accused him of lying. He was forced to sign a letter admitting he had made baseless accusations against the security forces.
Reza’s ordeal was far from over. He was taken with about 130 other prisoners to the city’s Revolutionary Court, where they were herded into a yard. The judge told them that he would hang those who had violently resisted the Islamic revolution and read out the names of ten teenagers, including Reza. The message was clear: if they continued to say they had been raped they would be executed.
The judge sent them to the city’s central prison, where Reza was handcuffed and held in a small cell with six other boys for ten more days. In the evenings officers beat the boys and taunted them with the words: “You want to cause a revolution?.
Periodically, the most senior officer would take the boys away, three at a time. “When they returned they would be very quiet and uneasy,” Reza said. When his turn came he and the others were led into a small room and ordered to strip and have sex with each other. “He told us that with this we would be cleansed — we would be so shattered that we would no longer be able to look at each other. This would help calm us down.”
After 20 days Reza’s family finally secured his release on bail of about £45,000 — and with a final warning that he should say nothing about his treatment. His brother said: “A friend of mine who is a guard in the prison where Reza was being held had told me he was ill. The night he was released he was crying uncontrollably; then he broke down and told my mother everything.”
The family persuaded a hospital doctor they knew to treat him, despite the danger to herself. She has treated his physical injuries and given him antibiotics and sedatives but cannot perform an internal examination. Reza is deeply traumatised, terrified of being returned to prison and barely sleeps.
The doctor told The Times that other detainees had suffered a similiar fate. “We have many cases in the hospital but we can’t report on them. They won’t let us open a file. They don’t want any paperwork,” she said.
Drewery Dyke, an Amnesty International Iran researcher, said that Reza’s case was “consistent with other reports we have received in terms of the severity of disregard for human dignity, the unrestricted abuse without any recourse to justice, the involvement even of judicial persons in rape abuse and the denial of the basic right to healthcare”.
Reza, at least, survived to tell the world his story. The 16-year-old friend he had to name as the ringleader has since died in hospital from his injuries.
• The identities of all people mentioned in the article have been withheld.

Mohammad Kamrani-18, killed under torture in Evin prison.

Mohammad Kamrani, 18 was arrested on July 9th in Tehran ( Vali-Asr square) and transferred to Kahrizak prison. Kahrizak is notorious for its inhumane conditions and maltreatment of prisoners. when Mohammad was transferred to Evin prison a few days later. The family was told their son was about to be released. When they went to get Mohammad, the family were told he has been transferred to a hospital. The devastated family rushed to Loghman hospital and found their child in critical conditions , still surrounded by the police. The family persisted in transferring their son to a facility with better care and were able to transfer Mohammad to Mehr hospital, but his condition deteriorated and Mohammad, who was getting ready for the medical school entrance exam, passed away at the tender age of 18. His body was buried in Tehran.(source)

from ireport:

his family said :Mohammad died after 3 hours in hospital @ 16 july. Even when Mohammad was brutally tortured and there was almost no life in him anymore, he was still "locked" to his bed so he could not scape,in the Loghman hospital by the security forces!