Brief On Iran, (BOI), Newsletter May 25th, 2015

Besides the five executions that were officially announced, five other unannounced executions have been reported by unofficial sources.

Iran Human Rights, May 19, 2015: Five prisoners were hanged in two Iranian cities Tuesday morning May 19, reported Iranian state media.

According to the official website of the Iranian Judiciary in Fars province (Southern Iran), one man was hanged publicly in the city of Shiraz this morning. The man who was identified as “Hossein A” was sentenced to death convicted of rape, said the report which also mentioned that he was sentenced to 37 years in prison and 111 lashes for kidnapping and robbery.

OIAC- The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement on the case of Jason Rezaian , the Washington Post correspondent and American-Iranian dual citizen who is set to appear in court on May 26 to face charges of espionage after being held in detention since July 22.

The statement points out that according to Rezaian’s attorney, the case file against him indicates no evidence to substantiate the charges of spying, collaborating with a hostile government, and disseminating information on Iran’s internal and foreign policy. This fact supports the notion that Rezaian has been targeted by virtue of his American citizenship and not on the basis of any observed violations of the law.

For the vast majority of Rezaian’s detention, the nature of the charges against him remained undisclosed, possibly indicating that the Iranian judiciary had not built a case against him until long after his arrest.

If that case was indeed viewed by Tehran as an opportunity to send a message of defiance to the US or to secure leverage against it, Rezaian is likely not the only currently imprisoned American of whom this is true. Some advocates for each of these prisoners have accused the US government of doing too little to secure their release. But Iranian officials reject any attempts at intercession on their behalf. The Iranian regime does not recognize dual citizenship and maintains that their dubious cases against American-Iranians are matters for the Iranian judiciary alone.

Statement from Washington Post Executive Editor Martin Baron ahead of Jason Rezaian’s trial in Iran:

Iran Human Rights, May 24, 2015: As many as 22 prisoners could be executed in the coming two days. Iran Human Rights reported about 11 prisoners who were transferred to solitary confinement yesterday awaiting execution in the Ghezelhesar prison of Karaj.

New reports from IHR’s sources show that at least another 7 prisoners were transferred to the quarantine section scheduled to be executed in the coming two days. One source said that the number of prisoners ho were transferred today were 11, making the total prisoners waiting for execution in the coming two days 22.

All the prisoners are sentenced to death for drug related charges and participated in a peaceful gathering inside the prison asking to be pardoned. Some prisoners believe that the executions are authorities’ punishment for participation in the gathering.

IHR is investigating the details.

Iran Human Rights, May 24, 2015: As many as 22 prisoners could be executed in the coming two days. Iran Human Rights reported about 11 prisoners who were transferred to solitary confinement yesterday awaiting execution in the Ghezelhesar prison of Karaj.

New reports from IHR’s sources show that at least another 7 prisoners were transferred to the quarantine section scheduled to be executed in the coming two days. One source said that the number of prisoners ho were transferred today were 11, making the total prisoners waiting for execution in the coming two days 22.

All the prisoners are sentenced to death for drug related charges and participated in a peaceful gathering inside the prison asking to be pardoned. Some prisoners believe that the executions are authorities’ punishment for participation in the gathering.

IHR is investigating the details.

 “[B]oth the ISIS and Islamic Republic [of Iran] use rape as a political weapon against Kurdish women on the basis of ethnicity, gender, and religion. The only difference is that the Islamic Republic denies its well-documented abuses while ISIS publically defends its enslavement of Kurdish women and girls.” – Dr. Amir Sharifi, Director, Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group.”Women in Iran as a whole, and Kurdish women in particular, have very little legal protection against sexual harassment or violence.” – Dr. Amir Sharifi, Director, Kurdish Human Rights Advocacy Group.One of the most savage forms of state-sponsored human rights abuse aimed at women in custody in Iran is the raping of virgins prior to execution.Sixty-nine years after the fall of the Kurdish Republic, the fate of Kurds in Iranian Kurdistan is still in the hands of a regime hostile to them and to all the values of the West.

Gulf countries are right to be concerned about Iran as a “state sponsor of terrorism,” U.S. President Barack Obama said on Wednesday, talking exclusively to Asharq al-Awsat, which marks his first ever interview with an Arab newspaper.

“Iran clearly engages in dangerous and destabilizing behavior in different countries across the region. Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism. It helps prop up the Assad regime in Syria. It supports Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. It aids the Houthi rebels in Yemen. So countries in the region are right to be deeply concerned about Iran’s activities, especially its support for violent proxies inside the borders of other nations,” Obama told the newspaper.

The president was speaking ahead of the Camp David on Thursday, in which he will host GCC leaders.

“The countries in the region are right to be deeply concerned about Iran’s activities, especially its support for violent proxies inside the borders of other nations”.

If Barack Obama has taught the Arab world anything, it is surely that the United States is a weak-willed and perfidious ally. Whether by acceding to Iranian negotiators’ every demand in nuclear talks, or by facilitating the ethnic cleansing of Sunni Arabs by Iranian militias in Iraq, Obama seems hell-bent on making the Islamic Republic, in his own words, “a very successful regional power.” The Gulf states, meanwhile, have been hung out to dry.

Arabs are loath to go down without a fight, however, and Operation Decisive Storm is proof that they are more than capable of confronting the Iranian threat on their own. It also proves that the mullahs are not the unstoppable menace they would have their enemies believe; it took just four days of Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen for Ayatollah Khamenei and his minions to switch from promising “military defeat” for the Arab coalition (on April 9th), to begging for a ceasefire after seeing their Houthi proxies routed from central Aden (on April 14th).

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif now insists – contrary to military and intelligence officials’ earlier jubilation at having “conquered” Yemen and “taken over” Sana’a – that his regime “is not seeking to dominate Yemen.” Statements such as this fool nobody, of course, but are intended to save face in anticipation of an Iranian defeat.