Reuters reports from Beirut:
Syrian authorities said on Sunday they had restored order at a military jail near Damascus after a riot, but dissidents said the protest was not over and that dozens of prisoners had been killed.
The riot broke out on Saturday at Sidnaya prison, a huge complex 30 km (19 miles) northwest of the [...]
The lives and safety of 2 more Kurdish activists in Iran are in danger…
Hana Abdi - charged for her involvement in Kurdish and women rights faces charges of 5 years in prison. Just this year, at least one other Kurdish activist has reportedly died in Iranian prison under torture.
Ronak Safarzadeh - charged for her involvement [...]
Human Rights Watch released a report yesterday documenting that the Syrian authorities continue to arrest, try, and harass political and human rights activists. Amidst increasing calls in Western countries to increase diplomatic engagement with Syrian authorities, Human Rights Watch urged that “an improvement in the treatment of these activists be at the heart of any [...]
Human Rights Watch last week called on Iranian authorities to grant three political prisoners access to much-needed proper medical attention.
They are being held in the notorious Evin Prison, a security unit where Human Rights Watch has previously documented abuses. Cleric Ayatollah Kazemi Boroujerdi, journalist and activist Mohammad-Sadiq Kaboudvand, and prominent human rights advocate Emad Baghi [...]
IFEX - News from the international freedom of expression community
ALERT - TURKEY 6 June 2008
Three members of children’s choir face charges of “making propaganda for a terrorist organisation” after singing Kurdish song in U.S. music festival
(Antenna-TR/IFEX) - Three children, members of the Diyarbakir Yenisehir Council Children’s Choir [Koma Dengê Zarokên Amedê - The Children’s [...]
The Leadership Council for Human Rights is outraged and saddened by the world’s lack of concern for the death in detention of Kurdish political activist Kaveh (Kawa) Azizpour, as information has emerged suggesting that torture by Iranian authorities caused the cerebral stroke that led to his passing.
Mr. Azizpour, 25, was originally arrested two years ago [...]
The authorities continued to suppress dissent. Journalists, writers, scholars, and women’s rights and community activists were subject to arbitrary arrest, travel bans, closure of their NGOs and harassment. Armed opposition, mainly by Kurdish and Baluchi groups, continued, as did state repression of Iran’s minority communities. Discrimination against women remained entrenched in law and practice. Torture [...]
Source: Adnkronos International
Tighter security measures had led to a sharp rise in executions in Iran, according to the international rights group Amnesty International.
In its annual report released in London on Wednesday, Amnesty said at least 335 people were executed in Iran in 2007, seven of them children.
Amnesty said the number of executions had increased since [...]
Source: AFP
Iran has sentenced to death a Kurdish teacher for membership in a “terrorist” group and possession of explosives, the judiciary spokesman confirmed on Tuesday.
“Farzad Kamangar is accused of membership in a terrorist group and possession and carrying explosives. He was found guilty of ‘Moharebeh’ (being an enemy of god) and sentenced to death,” Ali [...]
Source: Iranian Political prisoners Association
A Kurdish political activist, Kaveh Azizpour has dies in a hospital in west Iran, after undergoing a double operation, on 16 May 2008. He was reported top have been severely tortured in a so called detention centre.
His relatives have reported that Mr.Azizpour had more than a dozen heart attacks while being [...]
