A vocal Iranian women’s rights activist and journalist, charged with “warring against God”, has been released after posting bail of around 500,000 dollars, an opposition website reported. “Shiva Nazar-Ahari was freed from Evin prison after posting bail of five billion rials (around 500,000 dollars),” Kaleme.com said late on Sunday. Nazar-Ahari, 26, had faced trial on [...]

A ranking diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Finland said Friday he has quit his job to protest the Islamic Republic’s treatment of its citizens. Hossein Alizadeh said he had held the No. 2 post at the embassy in Helsinki as deputy head of mission. He said he informed the embassy four days ago of [...]

On the morning of September 9th, Arzhang Davoudi was able to meet his wife Nazanin Davoudi. One prison official [first] extensively searched Nazanin Davoudi using various scanning devices. Families of other prisoners were surprised by the actions of the prison official. Arzhang Davoudi was brought into the visitation room in a wheelchair. His appearance was [...]

Iran’s judiciary has blocked the planned release of one of three Americans held in Tehran’s Evin Prison since last year, a news agency quoted a powerful official as saying late Friday. Iran’s semiofficial Iranian Labor News Agency quoted Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Abbas Jaafari Dowlatabadi, as saying the “legal procedure” to secure the release of 32-year-old [...]

Yesterday morning, the third trial for Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, secretary-general for the National Democratic Front of Iran and spokesperson for the Unity Council for Democracy and Human Rights in Iran, was held in branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court, headed by judge Pir-Abbasi. Jahangir Mahmoudi, Mohammad-Ali Dadkhah, and Giti Pourfazel represented Tabarzadi during the trial. Tabarzadi’s [...]

Children’s rights activist Maryam Zia has been sentenced to one year in prison by branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court. Her charge is “propaganda against the regime”. The court was headed by judge Moghiseh. According to informed sources, the judge did not behave impartially, but rather acted similarly to interrogators of the Ministry of Intelligence. [...]

The list of companies cutting business ties with Iran continues to grow. Earlier I wrote about LyondellBasell. Now another industrial engineering firm is in the process cutting all its business operations in Iran because of economic sanctions against the Islamic state. This time: The Linde Group of Germany, an engineering firm that is also one [...]

Hamid Baghai, head of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organization of Iran, announced that the Cylinder of Cyrus the Great has finally arrived in Iran after 40 years. Fars news agency reports that according to the Cultural Heritage Organization the Cylinder arrived in Iran from the British Museum today. The Cylinder of Cyrus the Great will [...]

Detained Iranian political activists, Abdollah Momeni has written a letter addressed to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, to describe the torture he was subjected to before he participated in the “coerced confessions and the show trials” of last summer. The International Campaign for Human Rights published Momeni’s letter expressing grave concern over the safety of [...]

An Islamic Republic official has informed Reuters that one of the detained Americans in Iran will be released this Saturday. Reuters released no further details about this report from an unidentified government official. The three Americans were arrested in the summer of 2009 in the border region of Iran and Iraq. Iran accuses them of [...]