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Entries in Ahmad Zeidabadi (12)

Saturday
Jan262013

Iran Feature: The Week in Civil Society --- Political Prisoners and Public Executions (Arseh Sevom)

Two Iranian muggers, just before their public execution on Sunday in Tehran


Prison furloughs have been given to a number of prisoners of conscience even as Sakharov Prize winner Nasrin Sotoudeh was called back to prison after just three days. Public executions spark debate. Iranian State Television airs an “exposé” of CIA spying. Parliament debates restricting foreign travel for all women under 40 while the continuing house arrest of former presidential candidates is called into question. Finally the Iranian Coalition for Peace reaches out to President Obama.

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Thursday
Aug022012

The Latest from Iran (2 August): Worrying About Syria

January 2012: From left to right --- Iran's Supreme Leader, Syria's Assad, Yemen's Saleh, Libya's Qaddafi, Egypt's Mubarak, and Tunisia's Ben Ali


2048 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Laura Ashton reports that the lead nuclear negotiators for the 5+1 Powers (US, UK, France, Germany, China, and Russia) and Russia spoke by phone today.

The European Union's Catherine Ashton, speaking to Saeed Jalili, "impressed the need for Iran now to address issues". The two, speaking for the first time since high-level talks in Moscow in mid-June, agreed to reflect and speak again at the end of month.

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Monday
Sep192011

The Latest from Iran (19 September): Ahmadinejad Leaves An Embezzlement Behind

See also Iran Interview: Azerbaijani Activist Fakhteh Zamani Explains the Lake Urmia Protests


1900 GMT: The Supreme Leader's Son and the "Election Coup". On Friday, we published the WikiLeaks-released cable in which Ayatollah Sayed Salman Safavi, the brother of the Supreme Leader's military advisor, told Western diplomats --- four days after the disputed 2009 Presidential election --- that there had been a "coup" orchestrated by a prison "close to the Supreme Leader".

The story is now in the Persian-language Digarban, with a link to the document and Safavi's assertion that the coup had split the Revolutionary Guards.

1645 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. 1535 GMT: BBC Persian has denied that it employed six people arrested by Iranian authorities (see 0630 GMT) for supposedly working for the service, saying they are independent filmmakers. BBC Persian said, as is common in the industry, that it had paid for the rights to show documentaries and programmes produced by the detainees.

Opposition websites identified the six filmmakers as Naser Saffarian, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Hadi Afarideh, Mohsen Shahrnazdar, Katayoun Shahabi and Mehrdad Zahedian.

A source involved in the arrests said, "This network of anti-Iran people were collaborating with the BBC in a cover-up to fulfil the needs of the British secret service in exchange for big sums of money. The anti-Iran intentions of the channel and its collaborators are clear."

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Sunday
Aug072011

The Latest from Iran (7 August): Commemorating "Journalists Day"

1940 GMT: Journalists Day. And here is how President Ahmadinejad marked the eve of Journalists Day, in remarks at the end of the Cabinet meeting, “We hope that Iran’s news community will be vibrant, motivated and committed to human and divine values as before. I hope that our journalists could provide the international community with a suitable model."

Ahmadinejad made no apparent reference to the more than 100 Iranian journalists in prison or under threat of heavy bail.

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Saturday
Aug062011

Iran Special: The List of the 100+ Journalists Detained Since the 2009 Elections --- Part 1 (Alinejad/Irani)

Since the disputed June 2009 Presidential Election, EA has periodically featured the names of journalists on Arshama3's Blog --- a list which is up to 70 entries.

Now another record of those reporters who have been imprisoned --- or who are free on heavy bail but always threatened with a summons back to detention --- has been compiled by Masih Alinejad and translated into English by Azita Irani. There is also the note of at least one journalist who was slain during the initial demonstrations after the election.

We will be presenting the more than 100 entries on a rolling basis over the next few days. And we will endeavour, with the help of Arshama3 and Alinejad, to keep the list up to date.

24. Hossein Nouraninejad

Nouraninejad, the head of Jebhe-ye Mosharekat Melli Eslami (Islamic Coalition Front), was arrested on 17 September 2009 and spent one year in prison. He was a staff reporter at the Iranian Labor News Agency and reformist newspapers. After the Presidential election, he played an active role in organising religious events for reformist groups, particularly in connection with political prisoners.

Nouraninejad was one of 16 political prisoners at Evin Prison who participated in hunger strikes protesting the ill treatment by prison guards. His mother and his wife, Parastou Sarmadi, repeatedly complained to the media about the prisoners’ situation, until the security forces attempted to arrest Nouraninejad's mother. They forced her to sign a consent form to her detention if she continued to protest the imprisonment of her son by talking to the press.

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Wednesday
Aug032011

Iran Special: The List of the 100+ Journalists Detained Since the 2009 Elections --- Part 1 (Alinejad/Irani)

This entry has been moved to the top of EA for 6 August 2011.
Monday
Jul252011

The Latest from Iran (25 July): A Glimpse of Political Prisoners

Claimed footage of frustrated people watching police as they attempt to remove satellite dishes from a neighbourhood in Sarvestan in southern Iran

1840 GMT: The Battle Within. The Supreme Leader has established a "Supreme Board of Arbitration and Adjustment of Relations among the Three Branches of Government" to "regulate the relations between the three branches of government in their interactions and resolve possible disputes".

Ayatollah Khatami appointed Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, former head of Iran's judiciary and current member of the Guardian Council, as the head of the Supreme Board.

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Friday
Jun172011

The Latest from Iran (17 June): Sometimes Numbers Speak Better than Words

1740 GMT: Oil Watch. Emad Hosseini, the spokesman of Parliament's Oil Committee, has said that Iran's oil industry is "ten years behind our partners, meaning Qatar". He continued, "Contrary to promises made, producing natural gas from the 15th and 18th phases of the South Pars oil and gas field is not possible [until March 2012]. Unstable management of the Oil Ministry and appointment of non-experts have had negative impact on the joint South Pars [oil and gas] field as well."

1735 GMT: Economy Watch. Earlier this week, President Ahmadinejad assured the Iranian community in Kazakhstan, "No one is in need of his daily bread in Iran."

Shafaf News, seen as supportive of the Supreme Leader, has a sharp reply: "Mr. President, have you seen these pictures?"

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Sunday
Apr102011

The Latest from Iran (10 April): A Law Professor is Fired

Mohammad Sharif2115 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Activist and blogger Laleh Hassanpour has been sentenced to five years in prison, four of them suspended.

Sarah Mahboubi, a Baha’i student from Sari, has been banned from university and sentenced to 10 months in prison for "membership in an anti-revolutionary Facebook site“.

1855 GMT: Cats and Dogs Watch. Iran's Parliament is discussing a law to prohibit keeping dogs and cats as pets because they are "unclean and dangerous".

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Friday
Apr082011

The Latest from Iran (8 April): A Prize for An Imprisoned Journalist

Ahmad Zeidabadi on trial in August 20091800 GMT: Clashes at Camp Ashraf. Representatives of Camp Ashraf, home to 3500 people including many members of the People's Mujahedin of Iran (PMOI), have said that Iraqi security forces killed at least 25 residents and wounded 320 in an attack in Diyala province, about 90 km (50 miles) northeast of Baghdad.

Ali al-Dabbagh, the spokesman for the Iraqi Government, said five members of the security forces were wounded. He did not give any casualty figures for residen, saying they threw rocks at security forces in a "riot".

A medical source said a hospital in nearby Baquba had received the bodies of three Iranians and that 16 other Iranians, five Iraqi soldiers, and one Iraqi policeman were brought to the hospital with injuries.

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