Majid Tavakolo was taken back to the Revolutionary Court in Tehran in prison uniform and with laceration marks above his right eyebrow. Tavakoli was not given any reason for his appearance before the court. He was detained in solitary confinement for 3 weeks before today’s court appearance. According to Bamdad Khabar, prior to today’s closed [...]

Iran’s leading hardline newspaper, Kayhan, was in court to face defamation charges on Sunday from a number of plaintiffs, including Nobel Peace Prize laureate and human rights campaigner Shirin Ebadi. A close aide to hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the controversial Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, was among the plaintiffs, complaining that the paper had accused him of [...]

by Bahare Farda February 11, or 22 Bahman, marks the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution. On this day, massive street fights between government troops loyal to the Pahlavi dynasty and Iranians opposing its repressive rule culminated in a final collapse of the last monarchy of Iran. With the Military Council’s declaration of “neutrality” [...]

On January 12, Haiti was hit with an earthquake 7.0 on the Richter scale, leaving possibly 200,000 dead and 3 million affected. Much of Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s capital, is now living in makeshift camps with their water, food, and health at risk. While many countries around the world responded with aid, the US and Canada also [...]

We are worried. We worry for his health, his mental well-being, and above all we worry for his life in a prison which is reserved for violent inmates. Mohammad Pour-Abdollah’s family has asked Ban Ki Moon and all human right organization to help save the detained student from the dangerous conditions of Ghezel-Hesar prison, where [...]

In what seems like an extensive effort to justify security measures of the past eight months, Esmail Ahamdi Moghaddam, chief of Iran’s national police, announced that Basij forces extended their services in the post-election events without “any financial gain.” Speaking in the introduction ceremony of Tehran’s new police chief, Ahamdi Moghaddam lauded the Basij militia [...]

Iran’s security forces have killed four members of the PAJAK in an ambush in Western Azerbaijan Province. The four Kurdish guerrillas had killed 3 police forces on December 31 on Mahabad-Miandoab road in northwestern Iran, the Intelligence Ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Security forces tracked the four guerrillas in a region near the [...]

The outstanding vocalist and poet of Baluchistan Kamal Khan Hout died of a weak constitution in his hometown early Sunday. He was 68. Kamal Khan was taken to a hospital in Chabahar on Saturday night and was admitted to the CCU to receive medical treatment but died at 2am Sunday, the Persian service of MNA [...]

At a ceremony on Sunday Hossein Sajedinia replaced Azizollah Rajabzadeh as Tehran police chief. Sajedinia was the deputy national police chief for police operations. At the ceremony, Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam, the national police chief, thanked Rajabzadeh for his precious services. Hossein Sajedinia, for his part, said police would deal firmly with lawbreakers and would implement the [...]