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The new, stricter sanctions, authorized in legislation that President Barack Obama signed in December, will be enforced under an order he signed only now. They give U.S. banks new powers to freeze assets linked to the Iranian government and close loopholes that officials say Iran has used to move money despite earlier restrictions imposed by the U.S. and Europe.
The action against the Central Bank of Iran is more significant for its timing than its immediate effect. It comes as the United States and its allies are arguing that tough sanctions can still persuade Iran to back off what the West contends is a drive to build a nuclear bomb. |
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BERLIN (AP) — A German reporter says he was beaten by guards during his nearly five months of imprisonment in Iran and that he heard constant, “horrible cries” of other inmates being tortured.
In the first public comment since being freed a year ago, Marcus Hellwig told the Sunday mass-circulation tabloid Bild am Sonntag he was regularly beaten and constantly interrogated during the first 10 “brutal” days in captivity until a German diplomat intervened.
“Sometimes they claimed that I was a spy, then allegedly a terrorist,” he was quoted as saying. “They wanted to unsettle me with their never-ending questioning, wanted to put me under psychological pressure and create an ambiance of fear,” he said.
Hellwig and German photographer Jens Koch — both working for Bild am Sonntag — had entered Iran on tourist visas and were detained in October 2010 after interviewing the son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery. |
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 While the Iranian standoff continues with European oil sanctions and American vessels crossing the Straits of Hormuz, time is left in Iran to deal with more significant threats.
Just last week, Iranian officials sentenced Aria Aramnejad, a singer, to 10 months in prison. His crime was a song, “Ali Barkhiz” (“Rise up Ali”), written following the Ashura uprising of 2009 — a series of civic protests that turned into one of the bloodiest crackdowns following the rigged elections that year. The song protests the exploitation of God and the Koran and asks the Imams to act so that the name of Ali, the Shi’a prophet, will not be carried in vain. “Imam Hussein was martyred for good to triumph against evil,” he said is his court hearing “so should we not expect the same from his followers? Is it not strange that in these days to ask the Imams for help in battling against evil is considered a crime in our country?” This interpretation, however, was apparently not accepted, at the least by the Islamic justice system. For them, asking the Imams to fight evil means “endangering the national security of the country.”
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 The Iranian government has been intimidating and detaining relatives and friends of foreign-based Persian-language journalists to obtain information or silence them, Human Rights Watch said today. A family member of a BBC reporter whom Iranian authorities arbitrarily detained and held as a hostage for close to two weeks is one of the latest victims in a new wave of arrests against journalists and bloggers prior to parliamentary elections due on March 2, 2012.
In mid-January, security forces raided the home of a BBC Persian employee’s relative in Tehran, searched and confiscated their belongings, and transferred the person to Evin prison. Hours later, a man claiming to be the relative’s interrogator at Evin contacted the BBC employee in London, seeking information about the BBC in return for the family member’s freedom. Human Rights Watch has learned that authorities released the detainee on bail several days ago.
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 Iranian authorities should immediately release dozens of labor and independent trade union activists imprisoned for speaking out peacefully in defense of workers, Human Rights Watch said today. Convictions solely for the peaceful exercise of freedom of association and assembly should be quashed, and charges should be dropped against others facing prosecution for these reasons, Human Rights Watch said.
The latest round of arrests took place in Iran’s Tehran, East Azerbaijan and Kurdistan provinces. The authorities summoned four activists in mid-January 2012 to begin serving long sentences imposed in 2011.
On January 28, authorities arrested Alireza Akhavan, a teacher and labor rights activist, in his home in Tehran. It is not know where he is currently being held. On January 18, security forces arrested Mohammad Jarrahi in his home in Tabriz. |
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 According to reports, the death sentence for two prisoners was carried out in the Lakan Prison in Rasht.
On Saturday January 28, two prisoners were secretly hanged in the Lakan Prison in Rasht. They were identified as Ayoub Kalantari, 28 and Mohammad-Reza Sharifi, 40, who was from Baluchistan. (Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran |
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 RAHANA-Human Rights House of Iran is very concerned about the reinstatement of Saeed Malekpour’s death sentence, and the revival of the IRGC efforts to extract false confessions from political prisoners under duress.
During the past week, 3 imprisoned web developers Saeed Malekpour, Vahid Asghari, and Hossein Ronaghi Maleki were removed from their cells and interrogated by agents from the Cyber Intelligence Unit of the Revolutionary Guards. These agents who are affiliated with the unit battling organized crime, put great pressure on the prisoners and demanded that they make false televised confessions.
The country’s judiciary, intelligence units, and Revolutionary Guards have a need for “televised confessions” to substantiate their allegations of supposed security crimes. |
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 RAHANA-Ali Abassi. Maziar Yazdania, and Rahman Yaghoubi are 3 student activists who were arrested during the student protests at Mazandaran University in June 2009 following the disputed presidential elections. They had spent a period of time behind bars in Sari Intelligence Office holding cells and at Babol’s’s Mati Kola Prison. Human Rights House of Iran reports that in 2009 the Babolsar judiciary sentenced each of these students to 14 lashes and a suspended 6-month prison term. However about 2 months ago after a gathering of students at Mazandaran University, Branch 101 of the Babolsar Revolutionary Court reversed the suspended sentences for unknown reasons, requiring the 3 students to serve their time behind bars.
The first day they were locked up again, these 3 prisoners submitted a written request for a transfer to the public ward to officials at Babol’s Mati Kola prison but to date they have not received any response or acknowledgement of their request. |
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 RAHANA-On October 15, 2011 plainclothes agents who were not in possession of an arrest warrant, while using insults and profanities, violently detained Hooman Fakhar.
According to Human Rights House of Iran this children and women’s rights activist was sentenced to prison and exile to the city of Khaf. He was been released on bail while awaiting the decision of the appellate court.
Hooman Fakhar had previously been arrested on February 12, 2011 and was on temporary release when he was detained again. This 23-year-old electrical engineer and human rights activist from Tehran and resident of the Netherlands.
Article in Persian: http://www.rahana.org/archives/47544 |
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 According to reports, at least one prisoner from Gohardasht [Rajayi Shahr] Prison in Karaj was secretly hanged in Evin Prison. On Tuesday January 24, Ismail Kermanjani, a Kurd man who was about 30 years old and had been detained for close to six years was transferred from Gohardasht Prison to a solitary cell in Evin Prison. On January 25, he was hanged in Evin Prison. According to reports, a number of other prisoners were also hanged with him on Wednesday.
Four days after the execution, the Iranian Judiciary has still kept its silence and refrains from publishing these executions. (Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran |
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 The 15th branch of the Revolutionary Court sentenced Mehdi Alizadeh to death on charges of ‘enmity with God’. Mehdi Alizadeh Fakhr Abad, 30, who is married and is from Mashhad, was arrested on April 9, 2011 and was under interrogations for four months. His initial sentence was announced to his lawyer and family in the past few days. He is a satirist and internet activist. (Kurdistan Human Rights Watch News Agency |
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News 
WASHINGTON (AP) — Targeting Iran’s economy, the U.S. ordered tough new penalties Monday to further pinch the country’s financial system and encourage Israel to give sanctions more time before any military action against Iran’s nuclear program.