Iran news in brief, August 31, 2019

Conference Held in Paris’s District 1 City Hall to Call for Action Over Iran’s 1988 Massacre

An event commemorating Iran's 1988 massacre of political prisoners was held on Friday in Paris District 1's City Hall.
The conference, titled, “Iran: Massacred Human Rights: 31st anniversary of massacre of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988,” brought together French lawmakers, mayors and human rights activists who appealed to the French government and the United Nations to hold Iranian officials accountable for their crime against humanity.
Iranian opposition leader Maryam Rajavi sent a message to the conference, saying:
The time has come for the international community to end three decades of impunity for the clerical regime’s leaders in accounting for their crimes.
The dossier of human rights violations in Iran, particularly the massacre in 1988, must be referred to the UN Security Council.
Khamenei and other leaders of the Iranian regime must face justice for committing crimes against humanity.
The United Nations must launch an international mission to investigate the 1988 massacre in Iran.
And the world must recognize the Iranian people’s right to resist and fight for the overthrow of the ruling religious fascism.

Iran Regime Further Breaches 2015 Nuclear Deal

The Iranian regime has further breached its nuclear deal with world powers, increasing its stock of enriched uranium and refining it to a greater purity than allowed, a report by the United Nations atomic agency said on Friday.
The quarterly report from the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is policing the 2015 deal, confirms Iran's regime is progressively backing out of the deal.
In July, the IAEA said Iran's regime exceeded both a 202.8-kg limit on its enriched uranium stock and its 3.67% cap on the fissile purity to which it is allowed to refine uranium.
Friday’s quarterly report to member states obtained by Reuters said the Iranian regime has accumulated 241.6 kg of enriched uranium and is enriching at around the same level as before, up to 4.5%.

US Treasury Targets Oil Tanker Adrian Darya 1 and Its Captain

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control took action on Friday against Adrian Darya 1, an oil tanker transporting 2.1 million barrels of Iranian crude oil ultimately benefitting the Iranian Regime’s Revolutionary Guards Qods Force. The Adrian Darya 1 was sanctioned based on a law which targets terrorists and those providing support to terrorism or acts of terrorism.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a tweet: Today, the US Treasury designated the Adrian Darya 1 and its captain for providing assistance to the IRGC to sell illicit oil from Iran to Syria. The U.S. will not idly watch the Assad regime use Iranian oil to terrorize its own people.

Irish Lawmaker Says Iran's Regime Is Dying; It Is Time to Support the Opposition

Iran's regime is in its dying days, and Europe should look to the Iranian Resistance as the democratic alternative to the mullahs' rule, former Irish Minister and lawmaker John Perry argues.
In an op-ed for the Eurasia Review on August 29, Mr. Perry pointed out that Iran's regime is "extremely unpopular among both Iranians and regional countries, and is today the greatest threat to a prosperous Iran and to stability and peace in the Middle East and the world."
The Iranian regime and its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps have systematically violated human rights, prosecuted, tortured and killed an uncountable number of Iranians over the course of 40 years.
"A key component that has been overlooked for too long is the organized Iranian opposition."
Mr. Perry pointed out that the NCRI has "both strong support among Iranians as well as politicians and parliamentarians from the US, Canada, Europe and the Arab world."
"Its progressive leader Maryam Rajavi has presented a 10-point plan for the future of Iran, which envisions and guarantees a free, democratic, secular, non-nuclear and peaceful Iran, with an independent judiciary system that respects the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."

Iran news in brief, August 29, 2019

Man Hanged in Public in Iran for Killing a Notorious Mullah

Iran's regime on Wednesday publicly hanged a man for killing a notorious Friday prayers' leader of the city of Kazerun.
Hamid-Reza Derakhshandeh, who stabbed to death mullah Mohammad Khorsand on May 29, was hanged in public at the site of the murder.
Friday Prayer leaders are mullahs who represent the Iranian regime’s supreme leader in different cities, which makes them hated among the Iranian population who are fed up with the repression and corruption of regime officials.
Derakhshandeh, 47, had previously said he had punished the Friday prayers' leader for stealing from poor people.
In comments following the killing of the regime’s Friday Prayer leader in Kazerun, Derakhshandeh said: “Dear people of Iran, I love all of you, I love the poor people of Iran, those who don’t have bread to eat at night, those who have become sick of having to borrow money to make ends meet…”
“I had heard and seen cases of injustice. Hundreds of these cases. There’s only so much I can do to buy and give to the poor. I saw these crimes. I’m not a criminal. This was my first time. My friends know me. I’m not a criminal.”

U.S. Imposes Sanctions on Iranians It Says Are Linked to Regime's WMD Program

The U.S has placed sanctions on the leaders of two procurement networks it says are linked to the Iranian regime for engaging in undercover acquisition activities that benefited the Iranian regime's military.
The Treasury Department said Wednesday one of the networks is led by Iranian national Hamed Dehghan, the CEO and chairman of Pishtazan Kavosh Gostar Boshra, LLC, and manager and board chairman of Ebtekar Sanat Ilya.
The agency said the network operated by Hamed Dehghan used a Hong Kong-based company to evade U.S. and global sanctions, and to target U.S. technology and components for people linked to the Iranian regime and its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The Treasury Department said the second network, led by Iranian national Seyed Hossein Shariat, purchased Nuclear Suppliers Group's aluminum alloy products for the benefit of the Iranian regime's military.

Iran Regime Sentences Woman to 24 Years for Protesting Compulsory Hijab

The Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Court in Tehran has sentenced civil activist Saba Kord Afshari to 24 years in prison for protesting the compulsory hijab and refusing to give a “televised confession.”
Ms. Afshari, in her early twenties, is presently detained in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
Saba Kord Afshari was repeatedly pressured to make video confessions, something that she strongly resisted and refused to do. The Intelligence Ministry even arrested her mother to bring further pressure and force her to force her make false confessions.
Ms. Kord Afshari was first arrested on August 2, 2018 during street protests front of the Daneshjoo Park in Tehran.
The maximum sentenced to be implemented for her is 15 years for “promoting corruption and prostitution by removing her veil and walking in the streets without the veil.”

Amnesty International: UN Must Investigate Iran’s 1988 Massacre

In the lead-up to the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on 30 August, Amnesty International on Wednesday called on the United Nations to set up an independent investigation into Iran’s 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners.
The Iranian authorities’ “continued failure to disclose the fate and whereabouts of thousands of political dissidents who were forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed in secret during Iran’s 1988 prison massacres has sparked a crisis that for decades has been largely overlooked by the international community,” Amnesty International said on its website on August 28.
Philip Luther, Middle East and North Africa Research and Advocacy Director at Amnesty International, said: “The families of those secretly killed in the 1988 prison massacres are still living through a nightmare. They and many others in Iran are haunted by the thousands of missing bodies, which have cast a spectre over the country’s justice system to this day.”
“It is misguided to view the 1988 mass killings as historical events. The enforced disappearances are ongoing and, 30 years later, victims’ families continue to be tormented by anguish and uncertainty over the fate of their loved ones,” he added.

Iran news in brief, August 28, 2019

Iranian Regime's President Wants US to Lift Sanctions Before Any Talks

The Iranian regime's president back-pedaled Tuesday on possible talks with Donald Trump, saying the U.S. president must first lift sanctions imposed on the regime.
Hassan Rouhani’s change of heart came a day after Trump said Monday that there’s a “really good chance” the two could meet on their nuclear impasse after a surprise intervention by French President Emmanuel Macron during the G-7 summit to try to bring Washington and Tehran together.
Rouhani said in a televised speech: “Without the U.S.’s withdrawal from sanctions, we will not witness any positive development.”
“If someone intends to make it as just a photo op with Rouhani, that is not possible,” he said.

Iran Regime Is the World’s Biggest Jailer of Women Journalists

Iran's regime is now the world’s biggest jailer of women journalists; the global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders has announced.
Reporters Without Borders said on its website on Monday that it was "alarmed" by a "new wave of arrests and interrogations of women journalists" in Iran since the start of August 2019.
"The Islamic Republic is now the world’s biggest jailer of women journalists, with a total of ten currently held," the media freedom organization said.
“Already one of the world’s five biggest jailers of journalists, Iran is now holding more women in connection with their journalistic activities than any other country in the world,” said the head of the group's Iran Desk.
“We call on Javaid Rehman, the UN special rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran, to intervene with the utmost urgency to obtain their release and to address the disastrous press freedom situation in this country,” he added.
Iran is ranked 170th out of 180 countries in the watchdog’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index.

Iran Journalist Flees Zarif Delegation to Stay in Sweden

An Iranian journalist covering Foreign Minister Javad Zarif's Nordic tour has fled the official delegation and applied for residency in Sweden, officials in Sweden said Tuesday.
The Swedish Migration Agency said Amir-Tohid Fazel, a political reporter for the Iranian regime's ultra-conservative Moj news agency, had "applied for a residence permit in Sweden on 21 August 2019".
Fazel was travelling with Zarif's delegation as part of an international tour of European countries.
On August 20, "when I was in Sweden, one of my colleagues in Tehran contacted me via internet and said 'four plainclothes came to the news agency with a warrant for your arrest'," he said in an interview with Swedish television SVT.

Iran Court Upholds British Council Worker's 10-Year Jail Sentence

British Council worker Aras Amiri has had a 10-year prison sentence for “cultural infiltration”, which the Iranian regime regards as tantamount to espionage, upheld by the regime's appeals court.
Ms Amiri, who is from Iran but lives in the UK, was identified "because of her cultural infiltration in society through arts and her widespread activities,” a judiciary spokesman said.
State media also named two other people convicted of spying. British-Iranian Anousheh Ashouri was sentenced to 12 years after being found guilty of allegedly sending intelligence to Israel and "for acquiring illegitimate wealth".
Iranian Ali Johari was also given a 12-year prison term, accused of working for Israeli intelligence agencies and visiting Israel to get citizenship.