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NCRI-US WELCOMES SIGNING INTO LAW OF SANCTIONS ON IRAN, URGES IMMEDIATE ENFORCEMENT

WASHINGTON, Aug. 2, 2017 /PRNewswire-US Newswire/ -- The U.S. Representative Office of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI-US) welcomes the signing into law of a legislation, which includes a title, ''Countering Iran's Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017.'' The new law imposes sanctions on the Iranian regime for its human rights violations at home and its ballistic missile program.

NCRI-US also welcomes the imposition of terrorism-related sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), under Executive Order 13224 (50 U.S.C. 1701 note; relating to blocking property and prohibiting transactions with persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism).

These sanctions are long overdue and should be implemented and enforced immediately and fully. As such, there should be no loopholes allowing the regime and its official and unofficial entities, as well as its domestic and foreign interlocutors to evade the implications of this law.

The IRGC has a large number of associated organizations with extensive resources and funding whose profits end up funding terrorism in the region. For instance, the Khatam al-Anbiya Garrison has some 5,000 contractors, which dominate the Iranian economy, and is already a major sponsor of advancing the nuclear and missile program of Iran, as well as funding terror. This is among many entities, which must be included in the sanctions list of IRGC affiliate organizations under Executive Order 13224.

In addition, the IRGC and its affiliated entities must be expelled from Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen and elsewhere in the Middle East, as they are the main source of sectarian violence and terrorism.

Officials responsible for violating the fundamental human rights of the Iranian people, including those in charge of executions, in particular the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, members of the main Iranian opposition movement, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), must be subject to sanctions and be brought to justice.

Over the past few years, the Iranian regime has extensively benefited from its access to U.S. technology, market, and academic and other institutions to advance its nuclear and missile program, as well as its agenda in the United States. The Justice Department must fully investigate any U.S. persons who have been providing services, under various pretexts, to the IRGC, the Ministry of Intelligence, Defense Ministry and other agencies of the Iranian regime.

These materials are being distributed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran-U.S. Representative Office. Additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.

originally published in the prnewswire

THE TRUTH ABOUT PRISON CONDITIONS IN IRAN

INU - Recently, ambassadors of 45 countries visited Iran’s Evin prison, and were given a tour of one ward that was recently renovated. They weren’t shown the rest of the prison where the majority of the prisoners are held.On July 5th, 2017 two political prisoners, Golrokh Iraee and Atena Daemi, wrote an open letter to these ambassadors, explaining the intolerable conditions of the rest of Evin prison.

They pointed out the hypocrisy of Iranian officials in showing the delegation that particular ward, and told them of the terrible conditions of Iranian prisons. They wrote that ward four, where the delegation visited, was renovated by the prisoners, who were taken to solitary confinement on the day of the visit.They said that the new ward does not depict the actual conditions of the prisons, that the ambassadors were only shown what the Iranian officials wanted them to see. The true nature of the prison was hidden, and the world needs to see the inhumane conditions under which Iranian prisoners are kept.

The women said that solitary cells have no windows, or ventilation, or a lavatory. They said that the cells resemble graves, because they are dark and look like dungeons.

They asked the delegation why they had not been shown the women’s prison, where female political prisoners like them are held. They elaborated on the conditions of women’s ward, saying that there is a shortage of detergent and disinfectants. Sanitation and hygiene are absent from the prison cells, and prisoners are forced to drink dirty, unhygienic water which is causing kidney problems. Almost all the prisoners held in Evin prison are suffering from kidney issues.

The food provided to prisoners is not nutritional, and they are no female nurses for female prisoners who become ill. There are no regular health checks, and there is no one to administer an electrocardiograph. Iraee and Daemi accused the prison doctor of not checking the patients. They wrote that the doctor prescribes medicine only by looking at them, and does not bother checking them.

Iraee and Daemi explained to the ambassadors by that although the Head of the Prison Organization claimed that prisoners are allowed family visits every week, this is untrue. They said that family visits are allowed only once a month.

They concluded their letter by urging the UNSR on human rights, Ms. Asma Jhanagir, to visit prisons without prior notice, in Tehran and in other cities, as well, so the reality of the conditions in these prisons can be brought to light. The international community, especially the United Nations, must ensure that around the world, prisoners are kept in basic living conditions and are treated humanely.

EUROPE MUST NOT TURN A BLIND EYE TO IRAN’S HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

By Struan Stevenson

Amnesty International has just published a 94-page report entitled “Caught in a web of repression: Iran’s human rights defenders under attack.” It details 45 specific instances of what the organization has described as a “vicious crackdown” coinciding with the supposedly moderate presidency of Hassan Rouhani, who begins his second term in office this week.

The overall takeaway is that Iranian authorities have repeatedly diminished the standards by which they accuse and convict activists and dissenters of national security crimes, while also increasing the severity of punishments that are meted out to those same people. The abusive nature of those punishments was reinforced by new revelations that emerged alongside the Amnesty International report, mainly regarding the Islamic Republic’s notorious overuse of the death penalty.

Iran has long maintained world-leading rates of execution, and the violence and repression of the past few years have been reflected in a pattern of hangings that includes periodic spikes during which dozens of people are put to death in a single month. Last month saw just such a spike, with at least 101 death sentences being carried out, to say nothing of those that might have gone ahead in secret.

The Iranian Human Rights Organization announced that the Iranian authorities executed over one hundred people during the month of July. (File photo: Reuters)

In Iran, political prisoners are sentenced to hang with some frequency, usually on the basis of vague, religious charges like “enmity against God” or “insulting the sacred.”

Repressive, theocratic regime

Executions speak to the repressive nature of the theocratic regime, which has only grown worse in the era of Rouhani, when the government is fractured between two factions, neither of which represents reform. Maryam Rajavi, the president of the leading coalition of Iranian dissidents, the National Council of Resistance of Iran, responded to the new death penalty figures by saying, “Beset by crises and fearing popular uprisings, Iran’s ruling theocracy has found no other way out but to escalate repression especially by mass and arbitrary executions.”

The NCRI statement went on to recommend that the international community disregard economic and political incentives to expand relations with the Islamic Republic, and instead undertake measures to hold its officials accountable not only for recent crackdowns and executions, but also for long-neglected past crimes, like the massacre of some 30,000 political prisoners in the summer of 1988.

Naturally, being “beset by crises” and the possibility of popular overthrow, the regime is deeply fearful of this sort of pressure, which would imply Western readiness to stand behind a domestic uprising in Iran, and to aid it by making sure that Tehran is not free to carry out reprisals against dissenters as it sees fit.

Absurd claim

Last month, Iran’s own so-called human rights monitor, Javad Larijani, made the absurd claim that the country does not hold any political prisoners. Immediately thereafter, foreign diplomats in Tehran were taken on a tour of the notorious Evin Prison, but human rights investigators were kept far away from the public relations stunt, while the diplomats were kept far away from wards that are known to house political prisoners almost exclusively.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has made similarly bold, easily ridiculed statements asserting the country’s innocence. But with or without the new Amnesty International report, no one with a modicum of knowledge of the Islamic Republic should ever take such claims seriously. Unfortunately, Zarif and other members of the Rouhani administration appear to be masterful at putting a friendly face on Iran’s clerical regime, even as its domestic abuses and foreign provocations continue to escalate.

This is the only explanation for the fact that some Western officials, including European Union foreign policy Chief Federica Mogherini, agreed to attend this week’s re-inauguration of President Rouhani. These decisions were profoundly misguided, insofar as any Western presence at an Iranian state function presupposes that the relevant officials are turning a blind eye to human rights abuses that are not only continuing but escalating on Rouhani’s watch.

It is simply inconceivable that any of those officials are unaware of the information being shared by Amnesty and others. The most charitable explanation for their actions is that they do not hold Rouhani personally responsible for the crackdowns and are willing to offer their support to his administration in the hope that it will finally, after four years in office, begin to promote serious domestic reforms.

But if this is their thinking, it is painfully naïve. Rouhani has never been anything other than a loyal servant of the regime that tortures its citizens and imprisons them for upwards of 10 years simply for protesting previous human rights abuses. Soon after taking office in 2013 amidst the applause of Western officials, Rouhani thoroughly turned his back on human rights by appointing Mostafa Pourmohammadi, a leading figure in the 1988 massacre, as his justice minister.

Such officials must be brought to justice, lest the Iranian regime be convinced that it can get away with thousands of unlawful killings and still enjoy the presence of friendly European faces at its state functions. Justice will only be achieved when the international community has the courage to reject Iran’s absurd, anemic denials and to instead respond with new economic and diplomatic pressure to the regime’s human rights abuses.

originally published in the english.alarabiya

PRISONER ARRESTED AT JUST 15 IS HOURS AWAY FROM EXECUTION IN IRAN

The Iranian authorities must halt the imminent execution of Alireza Tajiki, who was arrested as a child, said Amnesty International today, after learning that he was transferred to solitary confinement this morning and is due to be executed in less than 24 hours in Shiraz’s Adel Abad prison.Tajiki was just 15 at the time of his arrest and 16 when he was convicted and sentenced to death.

He was transferred to solitary confinement in Adel Abad prison in Shiraz, Fars Province, on August 9. His family were told to come to prison in order to make their final visit. The authorities did not inform his legal representatives, contrary to Iran’s own laws, which require lawyers to be informed of their clients’ scheduled execution at least 48 hours in advance.

“This is an utterly shameless act by the Iranian authorities. They are keenly aware that using the death penalty against someone who was under 18 years of age at the time of crime is in flagrant breach of Iran’s obligations under international human rights law, including the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa at Amnesty International.

“Despite this, time and again Iran’s judicial authorities and lawmakers have failed to take any steps to once and for all end the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders. The Iranian authorities must immediately halt any plans to execute Alireza Tajiki.”

Tajiki, now 21 years old, was sentenced to death in April 2013 after a criminal court in Fars Province, southern Iran, convicted him of murder and lavat-e be-onf (male on male rape). The trial was grossly unfair and relied primarily on “confessions” which Tajiki has said where extracted through torture, including severe beatings, floggings, and suspension by arms and feet.

Both the lower court in Fars Province and the Supreme Court relied on state forensic opinions stating that Tajiki was “mature” at the age of 15 and thus eligible to receive the death penalty. In a subsequent response to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in October 2016, the representatives of Iran reiterated their outrageous position that Tajiki “had sound intellect and understanding about unlawfulness of the committed acts and their punishment” at the time of the crime when he was 15 years old and therefore could be punished with the death penalty.

Tajiki was first arrested in May 2012 and placed in solitary confinement for 15 days, without access to his family. He was denied access to a lawyer throughout the entire investigation process. He has said that during this period he was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment to “confess” to the crime. He later retracted the “confessions” both before the prosecution authorities and during his trial, and has since maintained his innocence consistently. However, despite this, his “confession” was admitted as evidence during proceedings against him.

“The Iranian authorities are demonstrating once again their callous disregard for children’s rights as well as fair trial standards. This is now the third time since May 2016 that the authorities have scheduled Alireza Tajiki’s execution. Rather than repeatedly tormenting Alireza Tajiki with execution dates, the authorities must once and for all cancel all plans to execute him, and grant him a fair retrial in accordance with the principles of juvenile justice and without recourse to death penalty.”

Iran is one of the last few countries in the world that still executes juvenile offenders. In January 2016, Amnesty International published a report which found that despite piecemeal reforms introduced by the Iranian authorities in 2013 to deflect criticism of their appalling record on executions of juvenile offenders, they have continued to condemn dozens of young people to death for crimes committed when they were below 18, in violation of their international human rights obligations.

As of August 2017, Amnesty International had identified the names of at least 89 individuals on death row who were under the age of 18 when the crime was committed.

originally published in the amnestyusa

Time for the Trump administration to pursue regime change in Iran

The Hill, July 26, 2017 - Consider three quotes that provide a way of looking back to look forward:
President Obama in 2013 address to the United Nations :
“We are not seeking regime change, and we respect the right of the Iranian people to access peaceful nuclear energy.”
When asked whether the Trump administration supports “a philosophy of regime change in Iran, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the U.S. would work with Iranian opposition groups toward the “peaceful transition of that government.”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) echoed Tillerson’s view, saying “it’s time the Iranian people had a free and open society and a functioning democracy,” effectively a call for regime change.
The Obama quote reassuring the Iranian regime that its survival was not on the table stands in marked contrast to those of Tillerson and McCain, for whom the idea of regime change from the people of Iran is on the table, or at least under the table in and around the Trump White House.
On July 1, an event was held in Paris; there, I had conversations with Rep. Ted Poe (R-Texas), who explicitly called for regime change from within Iran by supporting Iranian oppositionists, in particular, the National Council of Resistance of Iran ( NCRI ).