Iran Says Detained Officer Involved in Man's Death During Arrest

An Iranian police officer allegedly involved in the death of a man during an arrest in the northeastern city of Mashhad has been detained, the judiciary's news agency reported Sunday.

The rare announcement of an investigation earlier today, and subsequent arrest of a law enforcement member, comes two weeks after Iran's judicial authority banned torture and other violations of defendants' rights.

"The offending officer... was arrested by the order of the military prosecutor's office," Mizan Online reported.

"Two other police officers who transferred the victim to the police station have also been investigated," it added.

The arrest comes after Khorasan Razavi province's police chief Mohammad-Kazem Taghavi announced an investigation into the incident, following reports by media outside Iran claiming the man "was poisoned by pepper spray."

"Special orders have been given ... for quickly investigating the case and finding out why and how" it happened, he told state news agency IRNA.

He expressed "regret" over the "incident" and said the results of the investigation will be announced soon.

The police were called to the scene over a 'family dispute' between the man and his ex-wife's family, IRNA said, adding that he died while being transferred to the police station.

According to Fars news agency, a video circulating on social media shows "a police officer using pepper spray and a taser in response to the arrested individual swearing at him".

"There are claims that the individual has died from suffocation due to being pepper sprayed," Fars added.

Mehdi Akhlaghi, an official with the province's judiciary said on Saturday that the man's family have pressed charges, IRNA reported.

Samples will be taken from the man's lung following autopsy to "investigate the impact of (pepper) spray on his death", Akhlaghi was quoted as saying.

Iran's judicial authority issued an order on October 15 banning torture, the use of "forced confessions", solitary confinement, illegal police custody and other violations of defendants' rights.

It came a week after controversy sparked by videos posted on social media showing police officers beating detainees in pickup trucks in the middle of a street.

In the videos, apparently filmed in Tehran, the detainees were also made to apologise for the "mistakes".

Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi in response said the police action was a "case of violation of civil rights.”

He also ordered measures be taken against those responsible, saying it was "strictly forbidden to attack the accused, even if they are thugs.”

Photo: IRNA

#MeToo in Iran: Women Break Their Long Silence

By Ahmad Parhizi

Three years after the #MeToo movement spread globally, Iranian women have broken their silence on sexual violence, raising awareness about a subject that's taboo in Iran.

For the past week, many mostly anonymous internet users in Iran have come forward with allegations of falling unconscious and being raped after having their drinks spiked, all by the same man.

The method used by the alleged rapist has provoked outrage on social media, encouraging others to reveal cases of sexual assault experienced when they were still youths.

They have taken to Twitter to air their allegations, although they have done so without using the #MeToo hashtag.

Other Iranians, including a school teacher, an academic, a novelist, a renowned painter, a prominent singer, an actor and a tech executive are among the others to have faced accusations of rape and sexual assault.

Society Blamed

The majority of the testimonies date back more than a decade.

This has caused some to deplore the lack of support in the face of such sexual violence that has been ignored for many years.

They have pointed the finger at society, the Iranian intelligentsia and even families as accomplices of the perpetrators of violence against women.

"This movement should have started much earlier," said Hana Jalali, a 25-year-old accountant in Tehran.

"I believe talking about these issues, them being publicized, is a great thing," she told AFP.

Somayeh Qodussi, a journalist with the monthly magazine Zanan ("Women" in Farsi), said the issue is highly sensitive in Iran.

"Rape is a taboo subject in Iran's society and it is difficult to talk about it even in one's own family," she said.

But "now we are seeing girls who seem willing to stand in the central square of the city" and make such allegations, she told AFP.

At least 20 women have come forward with accusations of having had their drinks spiked in the case that sparked Iran's #MeToo movement.

The anonymous Twitter users in Iran have adapted the #Rape hashtag to draw attention to their cause.

The police have called on the accusers to file a complaint against the alleged offender, Keyvan Emamverdi, a former bookshop owner who studied archaeology.

They have sought to assure women that they can do so anonymously and without fear of being accused of drinking alcohol or having extramarital affairs, both of which are illegal in Iran.

'Weapon' for Justice

"They expose the suffering they have endured for years by expressing themselves in order to remedy a long-hidden trauma," said Azar Tashakor, a sociologist.

The scope of the controversy was unexpected, and even the government has reacted.

One of Iran's vice presidents on Friday praised women for speaking out and called on the judiciary to "confront" sex offenders.

"In the absence of a legal structure in Iran to systematically prosecute rapes, victims use disclosure as a weapon to obtain justice," Tashakor said.

But she expressed concerns that such disclosures "will not lead to profound social change.”

On social media, internet users have raised many concerns of their own, including over the tendency to blame and mistreat victims.

"It's hard to know if people are telling the truth or not," said Samaneh Rostami, a graphic designer in the Iranian capital.

"But talking about this issue is still a good thing, to be able to focus the public on what's happening, what's been happening for years," she said.

For the journalist Qodussi, it is crucial that the polemical issue has been brought to the public's attention.

"Many people have gained knowledge of the subject" for the first time, she said, adding that that was a "great achievement for Iranian women,”

Photo: IRNA

US Hits Top Iranian Officials for Human Rights Abuses

The US government imposed sanctions on Wednesday on an Iranian government minister and senior law enforcement and military officials over human rights abuses.

"The Iranian regime violently suppresses dissent of the Iranian people, including peaceful protests, through physical and psychological abuse," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement. 

"The United States will continue to hold accountable Iranian officials and institutions that oppress and abuse their own people."

The sanctions target Interior Minister and chair of Iran's National Domestic Security Council (NDSC), Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, seven law enforcement officials and an IRGC commander.

The Treasury alleged that Rahmani Fazli has issued orders authorizing Iran's Law Enforcement Force to use "lethal force in response to the November 2019 protests, resulting in violence against peaceful protestors and bystanders. His orders led to the killing of many protestors, including at least 23 minors."

Washington also targeted IRGC Brigadier General Hassan Shahvarpour Najafabadi, Law Enforcement Force Commander Hossein Ashtari Fard, and Deputy Commander Ayoub Soleimani.

The sanctions block all US assets and property of the officials and prevent US financial institutions from dealing with them. 

The steps also have implications for foreign banks and businesses which can run afoul of US authorities if they engage in transactions with sanctioned officials or firms.

The State Department also sanctioned Rahmani Fazli for "his involvement in gross violations of human rights," barring him and his family from entering the United States.

The US government said the LEF was "responsible for or complicit in serious human rights abuses that have occurred since the disputed June 2009 presidential election and ensuing protests."

The LEF also operates detention centers associated with physical and psychological abuses, and was implicated in the torture and drowning of Afghan nationals attempting to cross into Iran, according to the US government.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Says Ready for More US Prisoner Swaps

Iran said Monday it was open to more prisoner swaps with the US while stressing an exchange at the weekend was not the result of formal negotiations with its arch-foe.

US President Donald Trump thanked Iran for what he called a "very fair negotiation" after an American scholar was released Saturday in exchange for an Iranian scientist held in the United States.

The exchange involved Xiyue Wang, a Chinese-born American held in Iran since 2016, and Massoud Soleimani, an Iranian scientist detained in the United States since 2018.

But Iran's government dismissed the idea that it was the result of any negotiations between the two countries, which have not had diplomatic ties since 1980.

"This was only an exchange and... regarding exchanges we are ready to act but there are no negotiations," spokesman Ali Rabiei said on state television.

"Negotiations or any kind of talks" can only take place "within the framework of the 5+1 and after America has refrained from sanctions and economic terrorism," he said.

The P5+1 is the group of countries that agreed a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015—the five veto-wielding permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

The nuclear deal has been hanging by a thread since last year, when Trump unilaterally withdrew from the accord and began reimposing sweeping sanctions on the Islamic republic.

Iran's government has long demanded that the US first drops the sanctions for it to return to negotiations under the auspices of the P5+1.

Wang, doctoral candidate at Princeton, was conducting research in Iran when he was imprisoned in August 2016. He had been serving 10 years on espionage charges.

Soleimani, a professor and stem cell researcher at Tehran's Tarbiat Modares University, was arrested at a Chicago airport in October 2018 for allegedly attempting to ship growth hormones.

On Monday, the Iranian spokesman Rabiei said the prisoner swap came despite a US rejection of an offer Tehran made to Washington last year for an exchange of all detainees.

A few months ago, he said, Iran had received a message from "a former US official" saying the Americans were ready to make an exchange.

Rabiei appeared to be referring to former US congressman Jim Slattery who, according to the New Yorker magazine, had approached the Iranians on behalf of the Wang family's lawyer.

In its report, the New Yorker said Soleimani was expected to be deported after pleading guilty under a deal that Slattery had worked on with Soleimani's lawyers.

"In a surprise move, however, the Justice Department instead dropped all charges against Soleimani," before the exchange went ahead, it said, citing an official from the US administration.

Photo: IRNA

Trump Thanks Tehran as American Freed in Prisoner Swap

By Elodie Cuzin

President Donald Trump had rare positive words for Iran on Saturday, thanking the US foe for a "very fair" negotiation to successfully pull off a prisoner swap that saw an American released from Iranian detention amid soaring tensions.

The exchange, which took place in neutral Switzerland, involved a Princeton graduate student jailed in Iran for espionage since 2016 and an Iranian national arrested over a year ago in Chicago.

"Thank you to Iran on a very fair negotiation," tweeted Trump, as Xiyue Wang made his way home to his family. The US leader was expected to welcome Wang in person when he arrives in the United States, after a stop in Germany for medical evaluations.

"It was a one-on-one hostage swap," Trump told reporters. "I think it was great to show than we can do something. It might have been a precursor as to what can be done."

A photo tweeted by the American Embassy in Bern showed Wang on a rainswept tarmac in Zurich with an official blue and white US jet in the background, hugging Ambassador Edward McMullen.

The Chinese-born American was in apparent good health and in "very, very good humor," said a senior US administration official.

Tehran had announced the release of its national, Massoud Soleimani, shortly before Trump revealed that Wang was returning home.

"Glad that Professor Massoud Soleimani and Mr Xiyue Wang will be joining their families shortly," Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted—along with a photograph of himself and the scientist on a plane under the words "Going home."

"Many thanks to all engaged, particularly the Swiss government," which has looked after US interests in Iran in the absence of diplomatic ties, Zarif said.

The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed that the exchange—which it called a "humanitarian gesture"—took place on its territory. Both the US and Iran credited Switzerland with an intensive diplomatic effort to secure the men's release.

"Our country stands ready for further facilitation," the foreign ministry statement said.

‘Hopeful' Sign

The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic ties since 1980, and relations have sharply worsened since Trump withdrew from an international accord giving Iran sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program.

The arch-enemies came to the brink of military confrontation in June this year when Iran downed a US drone and Trump ordered retaliatory strikes before cancelling them at the last minute.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the United States was "pleased that Tehran has been constructive in this matter."

Briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, the senior US official noted that Trump "remains committed to talks with Iran without preconditions" -- about Tehran's nuclear program, its "malign activities" in the Middle East, and the deadly mass protests that have gripped the country.

While Iran has so far rebuffed US offers of talks, the official said: "We're hopeful that the release of Mr Wang is a sign that the Iranians may be willing to come to the table to discuss all these issues."

The official also voiced hope that Wang's release signals "the Iranians are realizing that the practice of hostage-taking diplomacy really should come to an end."

A doctoral candidate at Princeton, Wang was conducting research for his dissertation on late 19th- and early 20th-century Eurasian history when he was imprisoned in August 2016. He was serving 10 years on espionage charges.

"He was not a spy, he was not involved in espionage and, and was wrongfully detained from the start," the US official said.

A statement on the Iranian judiciary's Mizan Online website said Wang had been "freed on Islamic clemency."

Soleimani, a professor and senior stem cell researcher at Tehran's Tarbiat Modares University, was arrested on arrival at an airport in Chicago in October 2018 for allegedly attempting to ship growth hormones, according to Iranian media.

The US official confirmed the Justice Department has dropped charges against Soleimani, calling the swap a "reciprocal humanitarian gesture" and a "very, very good deal for the United States."

"There's been absolutely no payments of cash or lifting of sanctions or any sort of concessions or ransom," the official said.

Spying Allegations

Rob Malley, president of the International Crisis Group consultancy, called it a "rare bit of good news on US-Iran front."

"But several other Americans remain unjustly detained in Iran and they should be released too," he cautioned. "They should not be used as pawns in the two countries' fraught relationship."

Foreign nationals still held in Iran include former US soldier Michael R. White, British-Iranian mother Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, French academic Roland Marchal and Australian university lecturer Kylie Moore-Gilbert.

Two other Australians, travel bloggers Jolie King and Mark Firkin, were released in October by Iran, in another apparent swap for Iranian student Reza Dehbashi.

In September, Negar Ghodskani, an Iranian woman sentenced in the United States for violating sanctions against Tehran was released and returned home after giving birth in custody.

An unknown number of Iranians are detained abroad.

Photo: U.S. Department of State

Iran for First Time Acknowledges Protesters Were Shot Dead

By Yasna Haghdoost

Iran for the first time acknowledged that its security forces shot and killed protesters last month during one of the most violent crackdowns on dissent since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

State television on Tuesday reported that “rioters” had been shot dead in several areas as they joined anti-government protests, including in Tehran, the capital, and Mahshahr in the country’s southwest. The latter has a sizable Arab population, and the report claimed security forces clashed with a separatist group there.

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Saturday that it was investigating reports that its forces had targeted and shot protesters, the semi-official Iranian Labour News Agency reported, citing Brigadier General Mohammadreza Yazdi.

Separately, official figures showed 300 protesters remain in custody in Tehran. Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Esmaeili said most of those arrested during the unrest had been freed, and that the demonstrations have died down.

Iran was rocked by protests in November after the government increased gasoline prices by as much as 300% and introduced rationing as the economy struggles under crippling U.S. sanctions meant to curtail Iranian influence in the Middle East and weaken its leadership.

The International Monetary Fund expects Iran’s recession to deepen this year, with gross domestic product contracting 9.5%.

The unrest soon took a broader anti-establishment turn and authorities responded with a swift crackdown, severing access to most of the internet in a move that made it difficult to track the demonstrations and the government response.

On Tuesday, President Donald Trump, who reimposed the sweeping penalties on Iran’s crucial oil exports, urged the world to take a closer look at the security operation. “The word is that thousands of people are being killed that are protesting. Not just small numbers,” he said in London, where he’s attending a NATO summit.

According to the London-based Amnesty International rights group at least 208 people have died. New York-based Human Rights Watch estimated that up to 7,000 people were arrested.

Iranian officials have put the death toll much lower.

Photo: IRNA

US Sanctions Threaten Iranians' Right to Health: HRW

Washington's sanctions against Tehran have drastically constrained its ability to pay for humanitarian imports and are threatening the health rights of Iranians, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.

US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal last year and reimposed punishing sanctions as part of a stated campaign of "maximum pressure" against the Islamic republic.

Officially, the punitive measures make exceptions for food, medicine and other humanitarian goods, but most companies are unwilling to do any trade with Iran for fear of repercussions in the world's largest economy.

Trump "administration officials claim they stand with the Iranian people, but the overbroad and burdensome US sanctions regime is harming Iranian's right to health, including access to live-saving medicines", said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at HRW.

"The comprehensive web of US sanctions has led banks and companies to pull back from humanitarian trade with Iran, leaving Iranians who have rare or complicated diseases unable to get the medicine and treatment they require," she added.

The sanctions include previously suspended nuclear-related embargoes including on Iran's oil exports and financial transactions, with new ones added.

The US Treasury said they were imposed to make Iran's leaders "cease support for terrorism, stop proliferating ballistic missiles, end destructive regional activities, and abandon their nuclear ambitions".

In a 47-page report, HRW documents how the US-built exemptions for humanitarian imports into its sanctions regime have failed to offset the strong reluctance of US and European companies and banks to finance humanitarian goods.

Iranian patients have struggled with a foreign medicine shortage and price hikes for over a year both due to reimposed US trade sanctions as well as a battered economy with a free-falling currency.

Medicine importers get subsidised currency rates from the government, yet foreign drugs and medical equipment cannot always be found in state-owned pharmacies.

Iran produces 96 percent of the drugs it uses but imports more than half the raw materials to make them, according to the Syndicate of Iranian Pharmaceutical Industries.

It also has to import special medicine which patients with rare diseases require.

HRW called on the US to "get serious about addressing the harm resulting from its cruel sanctions regime".

Washington must create "a viable financial channel with reasonable requirements for companies, banks and groups to provide humanitarian goods for people in Iran," it said.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Women to See Football Freely for First Time in Decades

By Amir Havasi

Iranian women fans are free to enter a football stadium Thursday for the first time in decades, after FIFA threatened to suspend the Islamic republic over its controversial male-only policy.

Iran has barred female spectators from football and other stadiums for around 40 years, with clerics arguing they must be shielded from the masculine atmosphere and sight of semi-clad men.

World football's governing body FIFA last month ordered Iran to allow women access to stadiums without restrictions and in numbers determined by demand for tickets.
The directive came after a fan dubbed "Blue Girl" died after setting
herself on fire in fear of being jailed for dressing up as a boy in order to
attend a match.

Women were quick to get their hands on tickets to attend Iran's 2022 World Cup qualifier against Cambodia at Tehran's Azadi Stadium on Thursday.

The first batch sold out in under an hour, and additional seats were also snapped up in short order, state media said.

A sports ministry official said the 100,000-capacity stadium—whose name means "Freedom" in Farsi—was ready to host even more women.

One of the 3,500 women to have secured a ticket was Raha Poorbakhsh, a football journalist.

"I still can't believe this is going to happen because after all these years of working in this field, watching everything on television, now I can experience everything in person," she told AFP.

'Blue Girl'

But Poorbakhsh said she was aware of many other women without tickets and some were expected to travel from as far away as Ahvaz in southern Iran in the hope of still getting one.

Those lucky enough to attend will be segregated from men and watched over by 150 female police officers, according to Fars news agency.

People on the streets of Tehran said they supported the decision to allow women into stadiums.

"I would like there to be freedom for women, like men, to go freely and even sit side by side without any restrictions, like other countries," said a woman who only gave her name as Hasti.

Nader Fathi, who runs a clothing business, said the presence of women could improve the atmosphere in stadiums.

But he said "they will regret it" if they are exposed to "really bad swear words" and "bad behavior".

The bumpy road Iranian women have travelled in order to gain free access to stadiums has not been without tragedy.

Sahar Khodayari died last month after setting herself ablaze outside a court in fear of being jailed for attending a match.

Dubbed "blue girl" because of the colors of the club she supported, Esteghlal FC, she had reportedly been detained last year when trying to enter a stadium dressed as a boy.

Her death sparked an outcry, with many calling on FIFA to ban Iran and for fans to boycott matches.

Judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili at the time dismissed reports she had been told she would be jailed for six months as "fabricated rumours and hearsay.”

And Khodayari's father told Mehr news agency that she did not "sacrifice" herself for any cause.

Shadow of FIFA

Ahead of Qatar 2022, Iran has come under pressure from FIFA to allow women to attend this round of World Cup qualifiers.

The ban on women in stadiums is not written into law or regulations, but it has been strictly enforced.

Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, women have only had rare access to stadiums in Iran.

About 20 Irish women attended a World Cup qualifier in 2001, and four years later a few dozen Iranian women were allowed to watch the national "Team Melli" take on Bahrain.

In October, as many as 100 Iranian "handpicked" women entered Azadi for a friendly against Bolivia.

But the day after, the prosecutor general warned there would be no repeat, saying it would "lead to sin.”

The issue has been divisive in Iran.

The reformist camp has welcomed the decision to allow women into Thursday's match, while conservatives have argued that football is not a priority for women.

The Donya-e-Eqtesad financial newspaper called it "a step to weaken a taboo and also free Iran's football of the looming shadow of FIFA's punishment.”

But the ultra-conservative Keyhan daily said women were more concerned about economic issues

"There are many girls still single and at home, afraid of the cost of marriage. The government should be thinking of this, not sending them to stadiums," it quoted a mother as saying.

Photo: IRNA

Iran’s ‘Blue Girl’ Dies for Watching Soccer, Blacklash Explodes

Sahar Khodayari loved watching soccer, and ended up paying for it with her life.

In Iran, entering sports arenas is a jailable offense for women. Rather than face the prospect of months in prison for having dared to assert such a small right, Khodayari set herself on fire.

There’s been an outpouring of grief and outrage on social media over the grisly death of this woman in her 20s who’s come to be known as the “blue girl,” a reference to the colors of Esteghlal F.C., the club she went to cheer in the capital, Tehran.

A photo purportedly showing her prone on a hospital bed, her wounds tightly bound in head-to-foot bandages like a mummy, has been widely shared on Instagram and Twitter. Kodayari, which is not her real name, media have reported, apparently slipped into the match covered up, a photo circulated on Twitter has suggested.

The incident has revived calls in some quarters to end the state’s restrictive policies toward women. Some of Iran’s most popular soccer players have called for a boycott of stadiums, and FIFA, the world soccer organization, demanded protection for women fighting to lift the stadium ban.

“She wasn’t just the ‘blue girl’. Sahar was the ‘Iran girl,’ where men decide the fate of women and can deprive them of their most basic human rights, and where there are women who are anti-women and who assist them in this blatant cruelty,” reformist lawmaker Parvaneh Salahshouri tweeted on Tuesday. “We are all responsible for the jailing and the self-immolation of all of the Sahars of this country.”

Soccer Ball Heart

Ali Karimi, a retired soccer player with 4.5 million followers on Instagram, shared a widely circulated meme of a female silhouette, her arms aloft and a soccer ball where her heart would be. A popular former Esteghlal player, midfielder Farhad Majidi, tweeted a photo of an Empty stadium with the caption, “Sahar, my dear, the stands at Azadi stadium will forever yearn to see you.”

So far the only government official to comment is the vice president of women’s and family affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar, who wrote Tuesday on Telegram that she was assured that the government would take unspecified action.

“This is really the height of misery for a society, and exposes how, in the 21st century, a girl can set herself on fire for not being afforded the smallest of rights for any citizen, and not a single official seems to care,” one Twitter user in Iran lamented. “If this doesn’t stop, then it will be the future of an entire youth whose dreams and happiness have been trampled on.”

FIFA Frowned

Most of the public outrage has been directed at Iranian authorities for failing to amend a law that could harm Iran’s standing within FIFA, the global body that organizes soccer’s World Cup. Hundreds of Twitter users have urged FIFA to penalize Iran, and the organization urged authorities “to ensure the freedom and safety of any women engaged in this legitimate fight to end the stadium ban for women.”

FIFA had set an Aug. 31 deadline for Iran to allow women to enter sports venues, but Iranian authorities have only promised to allow women to attend an Oct. 10 World Cup playoff, the semi-official Mehr news agency has reported.

When FIFA President Gianni Infantino last visited Tehran in November, he attended an Asian Champions League match, where hundreds of handpicked women were allowed entry and seated in a special “family section.”

But it was a one-off gesture, designed to placate the most powerful body in football, and authorities reinstated the ban after he left. Such gestures are not enough for those Iranians who want the conservative clergy to loosen its grip on social mores.

“Where else in the world is watching soccer a crime, its penalty death?” an Iranian asked on Twitter.

Photo: IRNA

France Urges Iran to Free Human Rights Lawyer

France on Thursday called for Iranian human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh to be released and warned Tehran that its adherence to a nuclear accord does not give it a blank cheque on human rights.

"We will do all we can to secure the release of Mrs Sotoudeh", French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told the upper chamber Senate.

"She was condemned under astonishing conditions," for "defending the rights of women, in particular those who contest the obligation to wear the Islamic veil," he added.

Sotoudeh's husband Reza Khandan told AFP on Sunday that his wife had been sentenced to a total of 33 years in prison over a case with seven charges, but she is to only serve the longest sentence, 12 years imposed on Sunday for "encouraging corruption and debauchery.” 

She has also been convicted of espionage.

Sotoudeh has also been sentenced to a total of 148 lashes for appearing in court without the hijab Islamic head covering and for another offence.

According to Khandan, Sotoudeh has refrained from choosing a lawyer as attorneys on her previous cases have faced prosecution for representing her. 

"We have been making considerable efforts in recent months to preserve the (Iranian) nuclear accord, despite America's withdrawal," said Le Drian.

"We are doing so because we respect our signature, but Iran must also respect its obligations in particular those international agreements relating to civil and political rights," he added.

Last month the UN atomic watchdog said that Iran has been adhering to its deal with world powers on limiting its nuclear program, as diplomatic wrangling continues over the future of the accord.

The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed that Iran was still complying with the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) with global powers under which Tehran drastically scaled back its nuclear program in return for sanctions relief.

Last week, European nations rejected a call from US Vice President Mike Pence to follow the US lead in withdrawing from the Iranian nuclear deal.

Le Drian said Thursday: "Our wish to preserve the Vienna accord does not grant carte-blanche to Iran and certainly not in the matter of human rights."

Before her arrest, Sotoudeh, 55, had taken on the cases of several women arrested for appearing in public without headscarves in protest at the mandatory dress code in force in Iran.

Sotoudeh won the European Parliament's prestigious Sakharov Prize in 2012 for her work on high-profile cases, including those of convicts on death row for offenses committed as minors.

She spent three years in prison after representing dissidents arrested during mass protests in 2009 against the disputed re-election of ultra-conservative president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

German President Under Fire Over Iran Telegram

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier came under fire for a congratulatory telegram sent to Iran for the Islamic revolution's 40th anniversary, with a Jewish leader on Monday joining a chorus of criticism.

Taking aim at Steinmeier for failing to include criticisms of the Islamic regime in his message, Josef Schuster, who heads Germany's Central Council of Jews, said that "routine diplomacy appears to have overtaken critical thinking.”

"It is incomprehensible that sensitivity was missing," Schuster told the daily Bild.

"If it was necessary to send congratulations on this anniversary, then the president should have at least found some clear words criticizing the regime," he added.

Human Rights Watch's director for Germany, Wenzel Michalski, has called Steinmeier's message "shocking.”

For the foreign policy chief of the business-friendly FDP party, Frank Mueller-Rosentritt, the telegram must have felt like a "resounding slap in the face for our friends in Israel who are exposed to constant threats of annihilation by Iran.”

The telegram has not been made public by the president's office. 

But Bild last week quoted excerpts of the message, which it said included Steinmeier's promise to do all he could to implement a nuclear deal on limiting Tehran's atomic programme.

The newspaper said there was no mention of Tehran's support for Hamas and Hezbollah in the message however.

Steinmeier defended his gesture during a telephone conversation with Schuster, but acknowledged in a statement to DPA news agency that "human rights are disregarded in Iran and Iran plays a destabilizing role in the region.

"The danger represented by an Iran armed with nuclear weapons is that much greater," he said. 

At the government's weekly briefing, foreign ministry spokesman Rainer Breul said there had been a "misunderstanding.”

"To our knowledge, the president did not send congratulations for the anniversary of the Islamic revolution. His congratulations were on the occasion of Iran's national day celebrations. 

They fall on the same day.

"It is common practice for states that have diplomatic relations to send congratulations on national day celebrations," Breul said Friday.

Photo Credit: Wikicommons

France Urges Clarity on Death of Iran 'Activist'

French authorities called on Monday for "light to be shed" on the death of a "blogger and activist" imprisoned in Iran. 

The French foreign ministry said in a statement that it had learned "with consternation of the death in detention" of Vahid Sayadi Nasiri, saying he had been imprisoned "for his political activity.”

It said he had been on a hunger strike since October 13 to protest "the conditions of his detention and the disregard for his rights". 

Iran announced his death on Sunday, but the chief prosecutor of Qom province, Mehdi Kahe, said he had died in hospital of liver disease, according to official news agency IRNA. 

It said he had been in prison for "blasphemy", without giving details.

The semi-official ISNA news agency said Sayadi Nasiri died in hospital on December 12. 

It said he was arrested in Persian year 1394 (between March 2015 and March 2016) and sentenced to five years for "terrorism" over his membership of a group supporting Iran's monarchy, which was overthrown in the country's 1979 Islamic revolution.

ISNA added that he had been released after 18 months under a pardon by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He was rearrested in July after "resuming his work with this terrorist group" including plans for a bomb attack, it said.

France's statement added that the death of Sayadi Nasiri, who was not well-known among activists in Iran, comes at a time of "mounting harassment of human rights defenders in Iran.”

Photo Credit: French MFA

Iran TV Film On Evils of Dancing Online Sparks Controversy

A film on Iranian state television showing social media users being upbraided for allegedly promoting dance online has sparked criticism from reformists in the Islamic republic.

The broadcast, aired Friday on flagship channel IRIB 1, featured men and women whose faces were not shown being questioned and made to repent for activities portrayed as contrary to Islamic law and "family values". 

Daily newspaper Haft-e Sobh, close to Islamic conservatives in Iran, reported that four of those interviewed were arrested at an unknown date and then released. 

Among them was a young woman who became popular for posting Instagram videos of herself dancing without a veil and in t-shirts revealing her tattooed midriff, reformist newspaper Etemad reported. 

In the broadcast footage, the woman identified as Maedeh Hojabri breaks down in tears before admitting that "dancing is a crime", the newspaper wrote.

"But I never posted anything bad on Instagram, never," the woman said in the program. 

Dancing in public is prohibited in Iran under legislation introduced after the Islamic revolution of 1979 and women are required to wear headscarves and long clothing.

But the treatment of the social media "stars" in the broadcast drew a backlash from reformist media and internet users -- especially after Haft-e Sobh said the film was made by the police.

Etemad blasted IRIB and asked whether the authorities should not be going after people blamed for crimes it deemed more serious. 

"Why do we not bring in the crooks?" journalist Abdi wrote. 

The newspaper also cited Hesamodin Ashna, an advisor to President Hassan Rouhani, suggesting that those shown in the film might not have given their "consent."

Online, critics expressed their anger over the broadcast.

On Instagram, Shiite cleric Mohammad Reza Zaeri, a former editor of the popular daily Hamshahri, wrote that it was not "the wiggling of a teenager's hip" that undermines Iran's Islamic system but "the slip of a pen by an old judge."

One hashtag reading "Dance and we'll dance" in Persian and another one saying "Dancing is not a crime" in English spread on Twitter, with users posting videos of themselves dancing.

Another campaign demanding to "Ban IRIB" has also spread on Twitter, calling on the US government to impose fresh sanctions on Iranian state television. 

However, despite the controversy, those behind the programming defended the airing of the film.

IRIB public relations director Mohammad Hossein Ranjbaran wrote in Haft-e Sobn that "many families" had called to demand" that the broadcaster covers the issue and the "damage caused by cyberspace."

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EU Extends Iran Rights Sanctions As US Nuke Deal Deadline Nears

The EU on Thursday extended sanctions against Iran over its human rights record for another year, as Europe battles to stop the US ditching a landmark nuclear accord with Tehran.

The sanctions, first imposed in 2011, include an asset freeze against 82 individuals and one entity, plus a ban on exports to Iran of equipment "which might be used for internal repression and of equipment for monitoring telecommunications."

The European Council of member states said it decided to extend the sanctions—which are not related to the 2015 deal to curb the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions—in response "to serious human rights violations in Iran."

The measures were first put in place following a crackdown during the 2009 election and subsequent protests sparked by the Arab Spring which inspired hopes of reform in Iran.

Britain, France and Germany—the three European countries that signed the Iran nuclear deal—are working to head off US President Donald Trump's threat to walk away from the accord and reimpose stinging economic sanctions by May 12.

Trump has repeatedly condemned the deal and demanded tough new restrictions on Iran over its ballistic missile program and its role in conflicts around the Middle East.

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