IRAN

Iranian human rights activist and 2023 Nobel Peace Prize Winner, Narges Mohammadi, has recieved death threats from the Iranian regime, the Nobel Committee said Friday. Mohammadi was threatened with “physical elimination” if she failed to stop her advocacy work, the committee said.

Committee chairman Jorgen Watne Frydnes received an “urgent phone call” from Mohammadi, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said, and “the clear message, in her own words, is that ‘I have been directly and indirectly threatened with ‘physical elimination’ by agents of the regime‘” if she doesn’t stop advocating for democracy and human rights.

[Sources: AP, MSN]

Branch 28 of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced four Baluchi citizens to death: Eidou Shabakhsh, Abdul Ghani Shabakhsh, Abdul Rahim Qanbarzahi and Suleiman Shabakhsh. The four men were convicted of “rebellion and formation of groups opposed to the Iranian regime”.

The context of Israeli aggression is pushing the weakened regime towards repression. Since the ceasefire, at least 115 people have been arrested in Kermanshah province alone for “disturbing security”. Further arrests have been reported by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and police in Hamedan, Hormozgan, Fars (53 detainees), Gilan (36) and Zarand (11 arrested for anti-regime activities). The IRGC and its paramilitary Basij forces set up checkpoints at the entrances and exits of Kurdish towns, searching vehicles and arresting several people. A large deployment of plainclothes security forces, dispatched from other provinces, was observed in the streets of Kurdish towns. These forces arrested individuals they deemed suspicious without presenting a judicial warrant. The IRGC intelligence organization and the Ministry of Intelligence have also summoned and interrogated family members of Kurdish political activists living abroad, threatening and pressuring them to cease their activism abroad.

[Source: Secours Rouge]

At least 56 Iranian prisoners in Iranian prisons are currently facing execution for political reasons. Most of these death sentences were handed down by the revolutionary courts in Tehran. Among them are Kurdish prisoners Ali (Soran) Ghasemi, Pejman Soltani, Kaveh Salehi, Rezgar Beigzadeh Babamiri, and Teyfour Salimi Babamiri (photos), who were recently sentenced to death (see our article), and 15 supporters of the People’s Mujahideen Organization of Iran.

The main charges against many of these prisoners include “armed rebellion” (baghi) and “enmity against God” (moharebeh). Several people, after their verdicts were overturned by the Supreme Court, were again sentenced to death by parallel chambers of the revolutionary courts. Many of them were denied the right to a fair trial, did not have access to an independent lawyer, and were subjected to opaque judicial proceedings.

[Source: Secours Rouge]