As popular rage and protest escalates, head of the Prisons Organization is removed from post and replaced with another criminal

Brutal raid against Evin prisoners – No. 12 

Mullah Larijani  Emphasis that no offense took place in Evin Prison and threat to sternly confront any disruption in national security

With the escalation of popular rage and protest, together with the hunger strikes by the political prisoners and their families and international condemnation for the brutal raid of April 17, on the political prisoners in the Evin Prison, the head of mullahs’ Judiciary removed the head of Prisons Organization head-henchman Esmaeili from his post and appointed him as the head of the First Branch of the Appeals Court and head of Tehran’s Department of Justice replacing him by another infamous criminal by the name of Asghar Jahangir.

The criminal Mullah Sadeq Larijani, head of the mullahs’ Judiciary, plans to reward henchman Esmaeili for his atrocities by giving him a promotion while through removing him from the Prisons Organization he is attempting to save him from the consequences of the great crime committed in Evin Prison. Similarly, back in 2009, with the disclosure of crime against humanity in the Kahrizak death camp, the mullahs’ anti-human regime appointed Saeid Mortazavi who was responsible for those crimes to a higher post.

Asghar Jahangir has been the head of Anti-Intelligence and head of Special Inspection Office of the Judiciary and an advisor to the head of Judiciary. He is one of the most ruthless criminals in the apparatus of torture, execution and slaughter of the mullahs’ regime.

Meanwhile on   April 23, Sadeq Larijani who himself must face trial for crime against humanity, defended the barbaric raid on Evin Prison and said: “The inspection conducted in Evin Prison is an ordinary and lawful duty of the Prisons Organization and as reported by the respectable head of this organization, no offense has been committed. However, it seems that the current of sedition has deemed this totally lawful move as an excuse to come to the scene again and some inside the country are collaborating and cooperating with the enemies and foreign dissidents to keep the sedition current alive.”

Larijani who is clearly horrified of the protest movement by the families and the youth, threatened: “I give strict order to Tehran’s Public Prosecutor and to the public prosecutors throughout the country to firmly and while abiding by lawful regulations confront any attempts for dissemination of fabrications or disruption of the national security and social atmosphere so that all would know that the Islamic system is not a regime to turn passive in face of the seditionists and disrupters of order or their supporters, because of imaginary pretexts and if so far it has shown some conciliation towards them, it would certainly not do so any more.”

This criminal mullah demagogically said: “Where in the world are the prisoners allowed to make phone calls to anywhere they wish from inside the prison without prior coordination and to enjoy such facilities… the police forces in the Western countries treat demonstrators and prisoners in the worst fashion and nobody tells them that their work is against human rights, but the media and the governments of these very states tag ordinary and lawful inspections of prisoners’ cells as an act against human rights.”

Mrs. Rajavi urges Tehran youth to support political prisoners and protest movement of families

Brutal raid against Evin prisoners – No. 10

She underscored the need for independent international investigation on savage attack on Evin Prison

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance praised the resistance and steadfastness of political prisoners in face of despicable religious dictatorship ruling Iran. She also praised the perseverance of their families in echoing the voices of political prisoners. Mrs. Rajavi called on Iranian people, in particular the youth in Tehran,  to support political prisoners and to join the protest movement of the families.

The President-elect of the Iranian Resistance once again reiterated on the need for an independent international investigation regarding the savage attack on Evin Prison  on April 17 by the regime's Guards (IRGC), intelligence, and security agents as well as the regime's crimes in other prisons.  Mrs. Rajavi said that lies and contradictory statements of the regime's leaders in order to cover up or to undermine the scope of this crime underscore the need for an international fact-finding delegation in order to establish the scope of this major crime and to identify those who were responsible.

In this preplanned brutal attack a large number of political prisoners were wounded and 32 of them were transferred to solitary confinement. Agents of the IRGC intelligence unit and Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) were involved in the attack.

Six days passed, suppressive agents refuse to transfer the wounded to hospital for treatment. In fear of widespread public outrage against this criminal act and protests by families of prisoners, the regime has assigned MOIS Minister and Minister of Justice in Hassan Rouhani’s Cabinet as well as the head of prison organization and many other officials to go public to downplay the incident and claim that nothing has happened and only couple of people have sustained minor injuries. They also claim that political prisoners and those affiliated to the PMOI initiated the incident by attacking the agents and breaking the windows. 

Hunger strike by political prisoners in Evin in protest to the raid on Ward 350 and transfer of 32 prisoners to solitary confinement

Protest gathering of families of political prisoners in front of Tehran’s Public Prosecutor’s Office

The political prisoners in Ward 350 of Evin Prison have gone on a hunger strike since Friday, April 18, in protest to the barbaric raid on this ward on Thursday by the suppressive forces and the fact that there is no information on the fate of 32 of their cellmates.

Likewise, in relation to this incident, on Saturday, April 19, the families of the political prisoners staged a protest gathering in front of Tehran’s Public Prosecutor’s Office in Ark Square.

On Thursday, April 17, a large number of revolutionary guards, intelligence agents, and special prison guards, used inspection as an excuse to barbarically batter, insult and humiliate the political prisoners in Ward 350. In this attack, a number of prisoners were severely injured, including Gholamreza Khossravi Savadjani, Assadollah Hadi, Javad Fouladvand, Assadollah Assadi, Omid Behrouzi, Esmaeil Barzegarei and Emad Bahavar. Mr. Assadollah Hadi who has recently had an open-heart surgery is in dire conditions. The henchmen have chained the hands and feet of Omid Behrouzi and Esmaeil Barzegarei to their beds in Evin’s infirmary.

The henchmen in Evin have transferred 32 political prisoners to solitary cells in Ward 240 of Evin despite their injuries and their need for medical treatment and there is no news on their conditions.

Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, called on the international community and all relevant international bodies, yesterday, to strongly condemn this great atrocity and requested effective and immediate measure to prevent the torture and suppression of the political prisoners. She urged all Iranian people and in particular the Tehran youth to rise up in support of and in solidarity with the prisoners and their families and do not allow the clerical regime to continue and intensify its anti-human atrocities in the prisons and against the prisoner in the last days of its infamous existence.

Iranian Resistance demands UN action to save jailed political hunger striker

 NCRI - The Iranian Resistance has called on the United Nations and human rights groups to take urgent action to save the life of a critically ill labour activist on the the 30th day of a hunger strike jailed for his opposition to the theocratic regime.

Shahrokh Zamani, 49, was arrested in June 2011 in city of Tabriz, north western Iran, and was sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges of 'propaganda against the system' and creating an opposition group.

Mr Zamani was then transferred from Gohardasht prison to Qezelhesar prison, where dangerous prisoners are held, on March 8.

In a message from Qezelhesar, Mr Zamani -  a member of Painters Union in Iran - had called for an international labour campaign against repression in Iran.

He has been repeatedly tortured over the past two years, and moved between prisons in Yazd, Gohardasht, Tabriz and Qezelhesar.

A number of Gohardasht political prisoners also went on hunger strike on April 7 and 8 in solidarity with Mr Zamani, calling for unconditional and immediate return of their former cell mate to Gohardasht prison.

The Iranian Resistance calls on human rights organizations and the United Nations Rapporteur on torture, as well as labour and trade unions, for urgent action to address the tragic situation of political prisoners and labour activists in the mullahs’ regime medieval dungeons. 

Preventing entry of utility items to Camp Liberty and their stealing by Iraqi forces... Obstructing entry of generator lubricant; adding to problem of providing electricity to Camp Liberty

Iraqi forces under the command of Iraqi prime ministry prevented entry of utility items to Camp Liberty and after stalling a few days, stole them. These items, purchased by residents, are badly needed to repair cooling systems for food storage, equipment for filtering water, and systems related to drainage of sewage.

In the morning of Sunday, April 6, forces from the Iraqi intelligence forced the truck driver who had brought this load to Camp Liberty’s entrance a few days ago to offload the utility items at the exit point of the airport area and leave the area. Some of the stolen items are: PVC adhesives, electric generator parts, various parts for cooling systems, paint, paint brush, saw blade, drill bit, forklift wheels, wood adhesive, high-pressure hydraulic hose, plastic filler for painting, and carpet glue.

For several consecutive days, Iraqi forces obstructed entry of electric generator lubricant. The vehicle carrying these items have been turned back from camp’s entrance several times since April 3. This is while the only source of electricity for the camp are the worn out generators that without lubricant and spare parts will quickly break down and impose additional problems on Camp Liberty which is already suffering from shortage of electricity.

Despite repeated referrals to UN representatives and observers by the residents’ representatives, the Iraqi forces continue to obstruct entry of maintenance item and parts necessary for the electric generators.

This criminal blockade is in flagrant breach of the Memorandum of Understanding of 25 December 2011 between the United Nations and the Government of Iraq which stresses: “The Government [of Iraq] shall facilitate and allow the residents, at their own expense, to enter into bilateral contract with contractors for provision of life support and utilities such as water, food, communications, sanitation, and maintenance and rehabilitation equipment” and “The Government of the Republic Iraq shall permit the United Nations to carry out monitoring of the human rights and humanitarian situation… and shall establish procedures of the reporting of complaints”.

Khamenei’s representative in Tehran’s Friday prayer: European Parliament should learn lesson from closing up of US spy place and the closed eyes and hands of the American spies

The hysteric reaction of the clerical regime to the European Parliament’s resolution on the human rights violations in Iran clearly indicates that torture, execution, brutal and systematic violation of human rights is this regime’s red line and any flexibility and retreatment in that issue will rigorously speeds up the process of overthrowing of this medieval regime.

On April 4, 2014 Tehran Friday prayer, Mullah Movahhedi Kermani called the European Parliament resolution on human rights violation as rant and regarding the prospect of establishment  of the European Union’s Iran Bureau in Iran, and with pointing out at the hostage taking of American diplomats in Tehran in 1979, he said: “ The Iranian people will not let establishment of a new spy den; learn a lesson from the fate of the United States spy den;  they should  learn lessons as the American spies were blind folded and handcuffed .” (The Terrorist Qods Force News Agency, Tasnim, April 4, 2014)

He added: “It is shameful; they have maximized decency to the highest points, what a strange expectations and accusations! Is the human rights violated in Iran? To what reason is it violated? They say the election in Iran is not consistent with the international standards; The order impudently that Ahmad Shaheed, this anti-Iranian element who is the loudspeaker of colonialism, should have permission to go to Iran and make sedition; the Europeans say the parliamentary delegations trips to Iran must be accompanied by permission of visit to sedition makers and anti-revolutionaries; what a heinous expectations!”

Mullah Makarem Shirazi also said: “The European Union has provided a 20 article plan that we have to watch carefully; our nuclear story is not over yet that they have opened up such a layout. (The IRGC News Agency, FARS, April 4, 2014).

On the other hand, brigadier general Naghdi, commander of Basij forces called the European Union worse than beasts and said: “They say in the resolution you have no rights to execute and they say they want to come to Iran to open bureau; It is none of your business to open up bureau in Iran (The state run Tabnak website, April 3, 2014).

Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliament's national security and foreign policy committee, said:” If the European Union thinks it can regulate its relations with Iran, they must know that they are in a wrong way that undoubtedly will not get any results.”

Hossein Tala, another member of the parliament said: “These Europeans who claim to be defenders of human rights must explain before the Iranian nation why and how they delist the PMOI from the terrorist organizations.” (The regime’s Parliament News Agency- April 4, 2014).

Hamid Abutalebi, Iranian regime's new Ambassador to the United Nations, was the organizer assassination of the Iranian Resistance's representative in Rome in 1993 Abutalebi, who was Ambassador to Italy until 1992, and had returned to Rome with forged documents

Hamid Abutalebi, who has been appointed by Hassan Rouhani as the regime’s ambassador to the United Nations in New York, has a long record of cooperation with the revolutionary guards’ intelligence, as well as with other intelligence services of the regime, and based on investigations by the Italian Judicial Police and eye-witness accounts, he coordinated the assassination of Mohammad-hossein Naghdi, the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) in Italy, on 16 March 1993.

Mohammad-hossein Naghdi, who was charge d’affaires in Rome (the regime’s highest-ranking diplomat in Italy), defected and joined the Resistance in March 1982 in protest at the executions, tortures and massacres by the regime.  Later as the representative of the NCRI in Italy, he actively disclosed the mullahs’ crimes and promoted the Resistance.

Following the assassination of Naghdi, the Iranian Resistance declared that the regime’s embassy in Rome had been involved in coordinating this criminal operation.

In subsequent years, with the investigations by the Italian Police and the accounts of the eye-witnesses, it was determined that Abutalebi, who had been mullahs’ Ambassador from 1988 to 1992, had been the architect and organizer of this assassination.

According to the investigation, at the time of the assassination of Naghdi, Abutalebi entered Italy using a pseudonym and forged documents to implement this crime. The police investigation, including accounts given by an informed witness, read:

“Naghdi’s murder should be considered a political one decided by Iranian government circles and in the framework of a general project to destroy the Resistance abroad. Naghdi is targeted in Italy because of the value and extent of his political activities in Italy. He was talented in establishing connections with senior figures in Italian political circles on a national scale; he had an unquestionable humanitarian character, and loved his struggle against the Iranian regime. This assassination was decided by high-ranking political-religious figures in Tehran, and the execution of the plan was tasked to a team that had entered Italy for this specific purpose. The team had a direct connection with the diplomatic representative in Italy, and in particular with Ambassador Abutalebi.”

Another section of the report by the Italy’s Criminal Police reads: “Abutalebi and Naghdi had known each other since the 1979 revolution. Abutalebi’s personal interest in murdering Naghdi stemmed on the one hand from the fact that it was a religious duty to carry out this death sentence that was ordained by a fatwa and on the other hand because of his several years of acquaintance with the victim, the Ambassador had the means to accomplish this death sentence with no risk. Moreover, such a project, if implemented in this fashion, would be fruitful for his personal goals and promotion.

“The operation had a code name and Abutalebi needed to get the final green light from Tehran before he would give the go ahead for the operation.”

Mohammad-hossein Naghdi’s assassination was one of the murders of opposition officials during the presidency of Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. Three years earlier, in April 1990, Dr. Kazem Rajavi, the representative of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, was assassinated in Geneva.  He too was also the first representative of Iran in the United Nations in Geneva after the fall of the Shah, but he joined the Resistance in protest at the crimes of this regime. The diplomats and the clerical regime’s embassy in Geneva played a large part in organizing and implementing this assassination.

Based on formal reports of the Italian Judicial Police in 2003, Hamid Abutalebi was banned from entering the Schengen Area as a recognized as a crime suspect.

Abutalebi, who from the outset worked with the revolutionary guards’ intelligence and was involved in the hostage-taking of U.S. diplomats in Iran in 1979, joined the Foreign Ministry in 1981 and was transferred to the intelligence section of the regime’s embassy in Paris. Two years later he returned to Tehran and a while after that was transferred to regime’s embassy in Senegal. The Senegal government declared him an undesirable element and he was forced to leave that country. 

As regime’s Ambassador to Italy, he more than ever organized the embassy's actions against Iranian dissidents and employed the intelligence services against the opposition on an extensive scale.

He who cannot deny his role during the hostage-taking is attempting to minimize it by says that he had played the role of an interpreter for the Students Followers of the Imam's Line! (Khabar Online – 9 March 2014)

Iran Newspaper on 18 November 2013 quoted one of the Students Followers of the Imam's Line named as Mohammad-hashem Esfehani as saying: “With the occupation of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979, another wave of the Islamic revolution, or as an Imam put it, a ‘second revolution’, happened.  They began inviting the ‘world liberating movements’ and Mr. Abdei and Mr. Hamid Abutalebi went to Algeria in 1979 on behalf of the Muslim Students Followers of the Imam's Line and invited seventeen world liberating movements to Tehran… meaning that on one hand we (the Muslim Students Followers of the Imam's Line) held the flag of ‘unity among the world’s wretched’ and in the other hand we held the 52 American hostages.”

The appointment of a criminal terrorist by Rouhani as the regime’s Ambassador to the United Nations once again brings this reality to the eyes of the world that claims of moderation by the religious fascism ruling Iran is nothing but an absurd deception of the international community.

This regime and its representatives and diplomats who are generally involved in torture, execution, espionage and terrorism against the opposition should be banished and expelled from the international community.

Sentences for two Baha’i sisters residing in Mashhad implemented

Sunday morning, March 30, intelligence ministry agents arrested two Baha’i citizens residing in Mashhad by the names of “Nava Khulusi” and “Nika Khulusi”.
Intelligence ministry agents in Mashhad went to the house of “Nava Khulusi”, a Baha’i citizen residing in Mashhad on March 30, 2014 and arrested her.The intelligence ministry agents arrested her sister by the name of “Nika Khulusi” who was with her parents in the city of Babolsar for Nowruz holidays on the same day.

It is noteworthy that according to the verdict of Mashhad's revolutionary court, the two Baha’i sisters are charged with propaganda against the regime and membership in a Baha’i organization and are sentenced to imprisonment. According to the aforementioned verdict “Nika Khulusi” is sentenced to six years and “Nava Khulusi” to four and a half years imprisonment. 

Iran intensifies pressure on political prisoners during the Norouz ceremonies of 93 Beating, transfer to solitary confinement, visitors, cutting visits and phone calls, damaging and confiscating equipment …

Henchmen of Special Guards of Urmia Central Prison on March 31 attacked section 12 of political prisoners of this prison. The agents whose number reached 40, on the order of the head of the prison, searched the ward and seized the notes and books of prisoners, and destroyed their personal belongings. The henchmen then transferred several political prisoners to solitary confinement. Four days before, the regime's henchmen threatened and harassed Sami Hosseini, a political prisoner sentenced to death.

On Thursday March 27, at Gohardasht Prison, a henchman by the name of Khazaie vilified ordinary and political prisoners of the prison by loudspeaker. Subsequently, more than 300 political prisoners and ordinary prisoners protested and refused to get breakfast. The protest soon spread to other sections of Gohardasht Prison, so that the henchmen in fear of the upsurge of prisoners’ protest were forced to apologize.

Currently political prisoner Ali Moezzi, a family member of Liberty residents and a political prisoner in the 80s, the Reverend Behnam Irani, and blogger Mohammd Reza Pourrshajary are imprisoned in this prison.

These pressures are in continuation of the regime's repressive measures during the New Year, which are applied with more intensity on detainees.

On the evening of Friday March 21, Zahedan Central prison guards beat and insulted prisoners in section 5 in a brutal attack and transferred them to the prison yard. Henchmen threw personal belongings of the prisoners into prison hallway and proceeded to destroy or steal their personal belongings. Prisoners protested this actionA henchman by the name of Rezai severely beat one of the protesting prisoners. Torturers took him to a solitary cell in quarantine in Zahedan prison while his nose was bleeding.

In Evin prison, after cancelling all prisoners’ leaves, the first weekly visit of the prisoners was also cancelled and they were denied telephone call to their families.

The clerical regime, incapable of addressing internal and international crises facing it, finds repression of the frustrated people as its sole way to confront them. Political prisoners who are captives in the hands of the regime suffer double pressure. Resorting of the henchmen to repressive measures, torture and pressure, is to prevent their protests as they face gradual death in the regime’s dungeons.