Political arrests
More summoned in Iran for BBC ties: ministerIran said Sunday it has summoned 'more people' for their alleged links to the BBC's Farsi service, more than a week after it said six were arrested suspected of gathering information for the channel.
‘Important information has been obtained about those cooperating with and linked to BBC Farsi, and the ministry has summoned more people linked to this so-called media,' Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi was quoted by the state television website as saying.
There was no mention of how many people were called in.
‘The British intelligence services have started new destructive and anti-Iranian activities under cover of BBC Farsi,' Moslehi added, repeating that 'any direct or indirect collaboration is prohibited' with the channel.
On September 17, media announced the arrests of five men and a woman for allegedly gathering information for the BBC's Farsi service, but identified them only by their initials.
They were reported as having been detained for 'providing the BBC Farsi (service) with information, films and secret reports to paint a black picture of Iran and Iranians’.
Iranian opposition websites named the six as Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, co-director of banned film-maker Jafar Panahi's latest film, Nasser Saffarian, Hadi Afariden, Shahnama Bazdar, Katayoun Shahabi and Mohsen Shahnazdar.
‘Iranian documentary film-makers are not allowed to sell their films to channels hostile to the Islamic republic,' a ministry official in charge of supervising cinematic work was quoted by Fars news agency as saying on Sunday.
Iran's House of Cinema, the country's motion pictures guild, has criticised the arrests, issuing a statement carried by some local media that 'there was no law to prohibit the sale of film to foreign television' stations.
The BBC Farsi service, accused by the regime of fuelling unrest following the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, does not have an office in Iran.
Tehran prohibits cooperation with Farsi broadcasters that and are not controlled by the regime, including the BBC and the Voice of America which are very popular in Iran.
Satellite channels are also routinely scrambled by the authorities. (AFP -Sept 25, 2011)
More arrests, threats and sentences for Iran’s journalistsReporters Without Borders firmly condemns a new wave of arrests of Iranian journalists in recent weeks. The following journalists were arrested between 1 August and 27 September without any official reason being given:
Hamid Moazeni, a blogger and journalist who works for several local newspapers in the south-coast city of Bushehr;
Ali Dini Torkamani, a writer and economist who contributes to the online magazine Alborznet;
Hadi Ahmadi, a journalist who works for the news agency ISNA in Karaj, a city 20 km northwest of Tehran;
Mehrdad Sarjoui, a Tehran-based journalist who writes for several English-language newspapers;
Amir Mehdi Alamehzadeh, a journalist who works for the news agency ILNA in Tehran;
Ebrahim Rashidi, a journalist with the weekly Bayram in the northwestern city of Ardabil;
Faranak Farid, a writer and translator who contributes to the Feminist School website. She was arrested on 3 September in the northwestern city of Tabriz.
As already reported, members of the staff of Majzooban Nor, a website that supports Iran’s Sufis, were arrested during raids by intelligence ministry officials on 7 and 8 September, again without any official reason being given.
The following are still held: Alireza Roshan, a book reviewer for the newspaper Shargh, Ali Akrami, editor of the Sheydagooyi blog (
http://sheydagooyi.blogfa.com/), Ali Straki, Mehdi Hossini, Mehdi Osanlo, Hamid Moradi, Mehran Rahbari, Mostafa Abdi, Nosrat Tabassi, Ali Moazemi and Reza Entesari.
These detained journalists are being denied their rights. They do not have access to their own lawyer. Some of them, such as Mehrdad Sarjoui, have been in solitary confinement for weeks. Others, such as Faranak Farid, have been mistreated. Their families are threatened with reprisals if they talk to the media.
Reporters Without Borders is also outraged by the way the various intelligence services are harassing journalists and intellectuals in an attempt to force them to collaborate with the regime and betray colleagues. Several detained journalists are suffering from depression after being pressured in this way. Others who are not in prison have fled the country to escape this form of harassment.
The journalist Narges Mohammadi has meanwhile just been sentenced to 11 years in prison on charges of collaborating with the Human Rights Defenders Centre, “meeting and conspiring against the Islamic Republic” and anti-government propaganda. Until her arrest, she was the centre’s a spokesperson and a close colleague of Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi.
Ahmad Reza Ahmadpour, a theologian and editor of the “Silent Echo” website (
http://www.pejvak-kh.com) who has been held since 18 July, was sentenced on 26 September to three years in prison and 10 years of internal exile on a charge of disseminating false information attacking the government.
A cleric and blogger based in the religious city of Qom, Ahmadpour was previously arrested in December 2009 and was given a one-year sentence on a similar charge. While held, he sent an open letter to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon to draw attention to his arrest.
According to the pro-reformist website Kalameh, Chari Mohammad Moradof, a citizen of Turkmenistan held for the past 26 months in Tehran’s Evin prison, has been sentenced to 21 years in prison on charges of spying and anti-government propaganda. A student and translator, he was arrested while filming a street protest shortly after President Mahmoud Ahmadinedjad’s disputed reelection in June 2009. (Reporters without Borders – Sep. 28, 2011)
Social arrests
Security forces arrest 7 people in partyOn Sunday, September 18, seven Azari citizens were arrested in Salmas. They were all taken to an unknown location.
Hadi, J and Mohammad, three Salmas residents along with another man and four women from Orumieh were arrested in a party in Salmas by security forces.
According to eye witnesses, it was announced that they were arrested for a holding a party. Security forces entered the home without a warrant and arrested them. (Human Rights Activists in Iran – Sep. 26, 2011)
Iran arrests 3 people for selling beerhttp://isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1854477The Damghan State Security Forces commander said that three people were arrested and 976 bottles of alcoholic beverages were discovered.
“After reports from people that a number of people were active in selling and buying alcoholic beverages, the Public Security Police were tasked with investigating the issue”, Colonel Gholamreza Kazem Zadeh said...
He said that on Tuesday, agents annihilated an alcohol distribution gang during an operation.
“Three people were arrested and 976 bottles of foreign alcoholic beverage were discovered and confiscated”, he said.
“Seven people linked to the distribution of alcoholic beverages have so far been identified and arrested”, he added. (ISNA state-run News Agency – Sep. 26, 2011)
دستگيريهاي خودسرانه
دستگيريهاي سياسي
وزير [اطلاعات ايران] : نفرات بيشتري در ارتباط با بي.بي.سي در ايران احضار شدند
روز يکشنبه ايران گفت، ”نفرات بيشتري ”را در رابطه با سرويس فارسي بي.بي.سي احضار کرده است، بيش از يک هفته قبل ايران گفت که 6نفر مشکوک به جمعآوري اطلاعات براي اين کانال را دستگير کرده است.
وبسايت تلويزيون دولتي بهنقل از حيدر مصلحي وزير اطلاعات گفت: ”اطلاعات مهمي درباره آنهايي که با بي.بي.سي فارسي در ارتباط هستند بهدست آمده است و اين وزارتخانه نفرات بيشتري را در ارتباط با اين باصطلاح مطبوعات احضار کرده است“.
به اينکه چند نفر فراخوانده شدند، اشاره نشده است.
مصلحي اضافه کرد: ”سرويس هاي اطلاعاتي انگلستان فعاليتهاي جديد مخرب و ضدايراني را تحت پوش بي.بي.سي فارسي شروع کردهاند ”و تکرار کرد که ”هرگونه همکاري مستقيم و غيرمستقيم ”با اين کانال ”ممنوع ميباشد“... (خبرگزاري فرانسه- 3/7/1390)
دستگيري، تهديد و محکوميت بيشتر براي خبرنگاران ايران
خبرنگاران بدون مرز موج جديد دستگيري خبرنگاران ايراني در هفتههاي اخير را قاطعانه محکوم ميکند.
خبرنگاران زير در فاصله زماني اول اوت تا 27سپتامبر بدون ارائه هيچگونه دليل رسمي دستگير شدند:
حميد موئزني (Hamid Moazeni ) …
علي ديني ترکمني…
هادي احمدي…
مهرداد سرجويي…
امير مهدي علامه زاده…
ابراهيم رشيدي…
فرانک فريد…
خبرنگاران بدون مرز از نحوه اذيت و آزار خبرنگاران و روشنفکران توسط سرويسهاي مختلف اطلاعاتي در تلاش براي اجبار آنها به همکاري با رژيم و خيانت به همکارانشان به خشم آمده است. (خبرنگاران بدون مرز- 6/7/1390)
دستگيريهاي اجتماعي
يورش ماموران به يک مهماني و بازداشت هفت نفر
روز يک شنبه، بيست و هفتم شهريور ماه هفت تن از شهروندان آذري در شهرستان سلماس بازداشت و به مکان نامعلومي منتقل شدند.
بنا به اطلاع گزارشگران هرانا، ارگان خبري مجموعه فعالان حقوق بشر در ايران، هادي. ج و محمد . سه شهروند آذري از اهالي شهرستان سلماس به همراه يک مرد و چهارزن ديگر از شهروندان آذري و از اهالي شهرستان اروميه در سلماس در يک مراسم مهماني توسط نيروهاي امنيتي ايران بازداشت شدهاند.
به گزارش شاهدان عيني اتهام بازداشت شدگان برگزاري ميهماني شبانه (پارتي) اعلام شده است، نيروهاي انتظامي بدون ارائه مجوزي وارد منزل شده و شرکت کنندگان در اين مهماني خصوصي را بازداشت کردند (خبرگزاري هرانا – 4/7/90)
فرمانده انتظامي شهرستان دامغان خبرداد:
كشف 976 بطري مشروبات الكلي و دستگيري سه نفر
http://isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1854477
فرمانده انتظامي شهرستان دامغان از دستگيري سه نفر و كشف 976 بطري مشروبات الكلي از اين افراد خبرداد.
سرهنگ غلامرضا كاظمزاده در گفتوگو با خبرنگار «حوادث» خبرگزاري دانشجويان ايران(ايسنا)، با اعلام اين خبر گفت: در پي دريافت گزارشات مردمي مبني بر فعاليت عدهاي در بحث خريد و فروش مشروبات الكلي، بررسي موضوع در دستور كار ماموران پليس امنيت عمومي شهرستان دامغان قرار گرفت...
وي با بيان اينكه ماموران روز شنبه و در يك عمليات پليسي اين باند تهيه و توزيع مشروبات الكلي را منهدم كردند به ايسنا گفت: در همين رابطه سه نفر دستگير و تعداد 976 بطري مشروبات الكلي خارجي از اين افراد كشف و ضبط شد.
كاظمزاده افزود: تاكنون هفت نفر از افراد مرتبط با توزيع مشروبات الكلي شناسايي و دستگير شدند. (ايسنا – 4/7/90)