Category Archives: Human rights

Iran: fears grow of security crackdown in Zahedan as anti-regime protests persist

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Checkpoints have sprung up and armed police flood the streets in the restive city where dozens of civilians were killed last year

Protesters say they fear Iran’s security services may be planning an assault in the city of Zahedan – the site of a deadly attack on civilians last year – as reports emerge that there are thousands of armed police on the streets.

Fifteen checkpoints have been put up in the past week across the city, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, and several people have been detained by security forces.

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Iran to execute mentally ill man for allegedly burning Qur’an during protest

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Rights groups say Javad Rouhi, who was sentenced on charges including apostasy, was tortured so badly he can no longer speak

A 35-year-old man from a small village in northern Iran has been sentenced to death on charges including apostasy for allegedly burning a Qur’an and “insulting holy things” during the early phase of the protests triggered by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini.

Javad Rouhi has not been entitled to a lawyer of his choice in court and suffers from a severe mental illness. Human rights groups say he was tortured so terribly in a detention centre run by the feared Revolutionary Guards that he lost his ability to speak and walk, and became incontinent.

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Family of executed British-Iranian national ‘prevented from seeing body’

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Alireza Akbari’s sister and daughter went to cemetery to collect his remains but were told he had already been interred

The Tehran-based family of the executed British-Iranian dual national Alireza Akbari have been prevented from seeing his body or burying him in the grave in which he had asked to be laid to rest in Shiraz, his birthplace, family members have told the Guardian.

Akbari was executed for spying for M16, charges he vehemently denied and for which there is no substantive evidence, save a confession extracted under torture.

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UK looks clumsy and powerless in wake of Iran’s execution of Alireza Akbari

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Culturally insulting language used by Rishi Sunak and James Cleverly will increase tension between the two countries

Britain’s relationship with Iran has a fraught, unedifying history, dating back to the 18th-century imperial tussle between England, Napoleonic France, and tsarist Russia for control of Persia. Iranians have long memories. To this day, they blame the UK for many of their woes.

Britain invaded in 1941 to limit Nazi influence and protect the Anglo-Persian company’s oilfields. In 1953 it intervened again, mounting a coup, with US help, to overthrow a democratically elected government and bolster the rule of the autocratic, pro-western shah.

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Salvadoran environmental defenders detained for decades-old crimes

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Activists worry the arrests are a move by the cash-strapped government to open the country to now banned metals mining

Five prominent environmental defenders who played a crucial role in securing a historic mining ban in El Salvador have been detained accused of civil war era and gang-related crimes, in what rights groups fear is a ruse to restart mining.

Miguel Ángel Gámez, Alejandro Laínez García, Pedro Antonio Rivas Laínez, Antonio Pacheco and Saúl Agustín Rivas Ortega were detained on Wednesday in Cabañas in northern El Salvador, accused of killing an alleged army informant more than 33 years ago during the brutal civil war that claimed 75,000 lives.

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George Pell wrote memo calling papacy of Pope Francis a ‘catastrophe’

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Journalist who published the anonymous memo criticising ‘politically correct’ decisions reveals cardinal was its author

Cardinal George Pell was the author of an anonymous memo condemning the papacy of Pope Francis as a “catastrophe” where political correctness held sway while global wrongs were ignored, says the journalist who published it.

Released last year under the pseudonym Demos, the document accuses the pope of silence on moral issues, including the German Catholic church’s openness to the LGBTQ community, female priests and communion for the divorced.

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Protesters gather at Iranian prison in attempt to stop ‘imminent executions’

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Alarm raised after two men found guilty of running over police officer are moved to solitary confinement

Protesters have gathered outside a prison near the Iranian capital in an attempt to prevent the rumoured imminent execution of two young detainees found guilty of running over a police officer in a car during protests in November.

Footage posted on social media showed the mother of one of the men, 22-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou, pleading for her son outside Rajaei-Shahr prison in Karaj, a satellite city west of Tehran. She said it had been established that her son had not been at the scene when the police officer died.

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UN rights chief urges rapid inquiry after 28 die in Burkina Faso town

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Volker Türk says investigation launched by government into deaths in mainly Fulani and Muslim area should be rapid and open

The head of the United Nations human rights office has called for a prompt, transparent investigation into the deaths of at least 28 people whose bodies were found in north-west Burkina Faso last month.

Volker Türk, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said it was encouraging that authorities had announced an investigation into the incident in Nouna town, a predominately ethnic Fulani and Muslim community.

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Iran condemned for executing two men over alleged crimes during protests

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Campaigners call for greater global action after deaths of Mohammad Mahdi Karami and Seyyed Mohammad Hosseini

Iran drew international condemnation on Saturday after it executed two men for killing a paramilitary force member in November during protests sparked by the death in custody of a young woman.

The latest killings double the number executed so far in connection with the nationwide protests. Two men were put to death in December, sparking global outrage.

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UN envoy calls for release of jailed journalist on hunger strike in Senegal

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Concerns raised over health of Pape Alé Niang, detained since 20 December on charges of revealing confidential government information

Pressure is mounting on authorities in Senegal to release a journalist and human rights defender on hunger strike in detention, after reports of his deteriorating health.

Pape Alé Niang, director of the Dakar Matin news website, has refused food since he was imprisoned on 20 December and has been in hospital since 24 December. A request for his immediate conditional release was turned down on Tuesday.

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Harvard blocks role for former Human Rights Watch head over Israel criticism

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Kennedy School allegedly bowed to donors unhappy with organisation accusing Israel of apartheid in occupied territories

The dean of one the US’s leading schools of government blocked a position for the former head of Human Rights Watch (HRW) over his organisation’s criticism of Israel’s oppression of the Palestinians.

The Harvard Kennedy School’s Carr Center for Human Rights Policy offered Kenneth Roth a position as a senior fellow shortly after he retired as director of HRW in April after 29 years. Roth is highly regarded within the human rights community for the part his organisation played in advances such as the creation of the international criminal court and the prosecution of major human rights abusers.

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Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti released from jail after family post bail

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Alidoosti was arrested for support of women’s movement in Iran, including posing on Instagram without hijab

The celebrated Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti has been released from prison by the authorities after her friends and family provided bail. Pictures of her outside jail with campaigners holding flowers and without a hijab were shown on Iranian social media.

She had been arrested for issuing statements of support for the women’s movement in Iran, including by posing on Instagram without a hijab, the compulsory hair covering in the country.

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MP urges Britons to leave Iran after arrest of ‘British linked’ suspects

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Foreign affairs committee chair says holding of men allegedly involved in protests part of ‘industrialised taking of hostages’

All British people still in Iran should leave immediately because of the “industrialised” level of people being taken state hostage, the chair of the foreign affairs select committee has said.

Alicia Kearns made her call after the Iranian government said it had arrested seven “British linked” suspects including some dual nationals allegedly involved in the country’s anti-government protests, which began 100 days ago.

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UN human rights chief says UK should rethink plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda

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Exclusive: Volker Türk critical of scheme he considers ethically problematic and believes government must look again at how to deal with people-smuggling gangs and the treatment of refugees

The new UN human rights chief has urged the British government to reconsider its plans to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda, warning that in the past similar “offshoring” schemes had led to “deeply inhuman” treatment of refugees.

In his first public comments on the controversy since taking office two months ago, Volker Türk rejected prime minister Rishi Sunak’s description of the £140m deal as “common sense”, saying that as well as being legally and ethically problematic it was also “very costly” and unlikely to work.

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UAE to deport Egyptian-American activist who called for Cop27 protests

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Arrest of Sherif Osman while visiting family in Dubai raises fears for activists at Cop28 climate conference

The United Arab Emirates is preparing to deport an Egyptian-American citizen detained in Dubai who called for protests during the Cop27 climate conference in Egypt, sparking fears about the treatment of civil society during next year’s Cop28 in the Emirates.

Sherif Osman, a former Egyptian army officer who has lived in the US for decades, was detained at a restaurant in Dubai, where he had travelled with his fiancee to see family.

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Iranian actor Taraneh Alidoosti arrested after criticism of death penalty

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Detention of one of Iran’s most famous performers sign state wants to crack down on celebrities who challenge regime

Taraneh Alidoosti, one of Iran’s most famous actors, has been detained by security forces in Tehran days after she criticised the state’s use of the death penalty against protesters.

She had previously posted a picture of herself on her Instagram page in which she was not wearing the hijab and holding a piece of paper reading “women, life, freedom” – the slogan that has come to encapsulate the fight against the current Iranian regime.

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Revealed: MEP in prisoner resolution row made undeclared Bahrain visit

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European parliament due to vote on Thursday on resolution calling for release of Bahraini activist

A senior MEP is facing questions over trips to Bahrain and his support for a “one-sided” resolution on a political prisoner from that country that echoes the talking points of the authoritarian Gulf state.

Tomáš Zdechovský, a centre-right Czech MEP, who chairs the European parliament’s Bahrain friendship group, was found by the Guardian to have made an undeclared visit to the country in April 2022, where he met Bahrain’s chamber of commerce.

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Melilla border crush: Amnesty criticises ‘unlawful force’ and lack of first aid

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Group says Moroccan and Spanish police failed to provide even basic first aid for hours after deadly crush at enclave

The “widespread use of unlawful force” by Moroccan and Spanish authorities contributed to the deaths of at least 37 people who perished during a mass storming of the border fence between Morocco and Spain’s north African enclave of Melilla in June, according to a report.

The Amnesty International report also accuses Moroccan and Spanish police of failing to provide even basic first aid to those injured in the crush as they were left “in the full glare of the sun for up to eight hours”. It says Moroccan authorities prioritised moving corpses and treating security officials above the needs of injured migrants and refugees.

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Scores of executions feared in Iran as 23-year-old hanged in public killing

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Human rights group warns death of Majidreza Rahnavard ‘a significant escalation of violence against protesters’

Fears are growing that Iran is preparing to execute scores more protesters after authorities hanged a 23-year-old man from a crane, in a public killing carried out less than a month after he was arrested and following a secretive trial.

Majidreza Rahnavard was sentenced to death by a court in the city of Mashhad, a centre of the protests, for allegedly killing two members of the paramilitary Basij force and wounding four others. The Basij, affiliated with the country’s feared Revolutionary Guards, has been at the forefront of the state crackdown.

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The £100m Qatar whitewash: how UK advertisers put profit before protest

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Like the players, brands have in the end shied away from confrontation with the hosts during the World Cup

More than £100m will be spent by brands hoping to cash-in on World Cup fever, but when it comes to taking host Qatar to task over its human rights record protest marketing has taken a back seat to sales targets.

In the run-up to kick off of the football tournament in Qatar criticism of the gulf state was akin to shooting at an open goal.

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