DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Iran: Journalists who reported on Mahsa Amini's death stand trial
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Mostafa Salem | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —Two journalists responsible for breaking the story of Mahsa Amini, the Kurdish-Iranian woman killed after being held in custody by Iran’s morality police last year, stood trial in an Iranian court this week. The two women separately stood trial on Monday and Tuesday in a revolutionary court presided over by notorious judge Abolghasem Salavati, according to Iranian pro-reform outlet SharghDaily. Protesters in downtown Tehran, Iran, after the death Mahsa Amini. Mohammadi, who also stood trial in a separate hearing, was arrested after reporting on Amini’s funeral in September, according to RSF and the UN. Hamedi, Mohammadi and another detained journalist, Narges Mohammadi, were awarded the prestigious 2023 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize for outstanding contribution to press freedom.

Persons: Mahsa Amini, Niloufar, Elaheh, Abolghasem Salavati, Amini, Hamedi, SharghDaily, Mohammad Hossein Ajorloo, Mohammadi, RSF, Narges Mohammadi, Guillermo Cano, ” Zainab Salbi Organizations: CNN, UN, Twitter, UNESCO, “ Locations: Kurdish, Iran, Tehran

☆ Opinion: A button, a love story, and an Iranian couple who will not be silenced
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( Opinion Jeff Kaufman | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

We were also moved by the continued defiance represented by the “I Oppose the Mandatory Hijab” button that Nasrin wore on her jacket. Iranian couple Nasrin Sotoudeh and Reza Khandan, with their friend and fellow activist Farhad Meysami (center) after being released from prison earlier this year following a lengthy hunger strike. Nasrin: When Reza and I first met, we were working at a magazine that presented a dialogue on social issues. Kaufman: Nasrin, you have one of the last “I Oppose the Mandatory Hijab” buttons in Iran (the government destroyed the rest). Reza KhandanFor example, when I was arrested, Reza and Farhad made the ‘I Oppose the Mandatory Hijab’ buttons in the hope that people would wear them.

CNN —The US is imposing new sanctions on groups in Russia and Iran accused of taking Americans hostage as it works to prevent more captive-taking and potentially secure the release of citizens currently being detained. The sanctions ordered up Thursday would punish organizations the US accuses of being responsible for holding hostage or wrongfully detaining Americans. Officials said the steps should act as a warning to those thinking of taking Americans hostage. The order also mandated a better flow of information to the families of Americans held hostage or detained overseas. Officials said it was possible the sanctions could be lifted if Americans held in Russia or Iran were released.

☆ These Iranian activists fled for freedom. But the regime still managed to find them.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Salma Abdelaziz | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

“Whatever actions you take against the Islamic Republic, there in France, is a crime,” the man is heard saying. They have done nothing wrong.”Massi Kamari, an Iranian activist living in Paris, says Iranian intelligence threatened to send her family to Tehran's Evin prison if she continued her activism against the regime abroad. I mean these criminals were hired by the Islamic Republic. So, you see the Islamic Republic itself is a criminal organization. “But even the week after I received the call (from Iranian intelligence officials), I was out doing my political work.

☆ American imprisoned in Iran for seven years launches hunger strike, asks Biden to secure release of Americans held in Iran
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Dan De Luce | Dan De Luce Is A Reporter For The Nbc News Investigative Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

An American imprisoned in Iran for seven years launched a hunger strike Monday to protest his “soul crushing” plight and that of other Americans held in Iran, appealing to President Joe Biden to take action to secure their release. “Yet seven years and two presidents later, I remain caged in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.”Namazi accused former presidents Barack Obama and Donald Trump of having failed him and criticized Biden for not meeting face-to-face with the families of Americans imprisoned in Iran. “In the past I implored you to reach for your moral compass and find the resolve to bring the U.S. hostages in Iran home. His elderly father, Baquer Namazi, was imprisoned in 2016 after having traveled to Iran to try to help his son. Two other U.S. citizens are imprisoned in Iran, Morad Tahbaz and Emad Sharghi, as well as an unknown number of permanent U.S. legal residents, including Shahab Dalili.

☆ Jailed Iranian American appeals to Biden, starts hunger strike
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-16 | by ( Arshad Mohammed | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Siamak Namazi made the plea in a letter to Biden seven years to the day that Iran released five other U.S. citizens in a prisoner exchange choreographed to coincide with the implementation of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Namazi, whose father was allowed to leave Iran in October for medical treatment after being detained on espionage-related charges rejected by Washington, said he would be on a hunger strike for the same seven days. read more"All I want sir, is one minute of your days' time for the next seven days devoted to thinking about the tribulations of the U.S. hostages in Iran," he added. Asked for comment, a White House national security council spokesperson said the government was committed to securing Namazi's freedom. "We are working tirelessly to bring him home along with all U.S. citizens who are wrongfully detained in Iran," the spokesperson said.

☆ Factbox: Alireza Akbari: the British-Iranian executed by Tehran
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 14 (Reuters) - Iran has executed British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari, the judiciary's Mizan news agency reported on Saturday, after sentencing the former Iranian deputy defence minister to death on charges of spying for Britain. - According to a caption in a video aired by Iran's state news agency IRNA on Thursday, Akbari moved to Britain after being briefly detained and released on bail in 2008. Reuters could not verify if Akbari had moved to Britain in 2008, or when he returned to Iran. - In the audio recording, Akbari said he had made false confessions as a result of torture. In the video, Akbari did not confess to involvement in the assassination, but said a British agent had asked for information about Fakhrizadeh.

☆ Top Iranian Sunni cleric says torture of protesters un-Islamic
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

DUBAI, Jan 6 (Reuters) - A top dissident Iranian Sunni cleric on Friday denounced as un-Islamic Iran's alleged use of forced confessions to convict detained protesters, as weekly demonstrations continued in the county's southeast. Meanwhile, the authorities' crackdown following nationwide protests continued with arrests, including that of a celebrity chef and a prominent journalist. "If someone does not accept the accusation, they torture him to accept it. After the sermon, demonstrators marched in Zahedan, chanting "Death to the Islamic Republic", according to videos posted on social media. Officials are yet to announce the reasons for the detention of Beik, who had interviewed relatives of arrested protesters.

☆ Iran frees actress Alidoosti, jailed over anti-government unrest
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBAI, Jan 4 (Reuters) - Iran has released top Iranian actress Taraneh Alidoosti on bail, state media reported on Wednesday, weeks after she was detained for criticizing a crackdown on anti-government protests that have rocked the Islamic Republic for months. The semi-official ILNA news agency, citing her lawyer, said "Alidoosti, who was arrested on December 17, was released today on bail", without giving further details. Her picture, taken in front of Tehran's notorious Evin prison, was widely shared on social media. The Islamic Republic has so far executed two people involved in mass protests. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group has said that at least 100 detained protesters face possible death sentences.

Hacking and repressionAfter Nika went missing, her aunt and other protesters told CNN that her popular Instagram and Telegram accounts had been disabled. On October 12, two of Nika’s friends noticed her Telegram account briefly back online, they told CNN. As with Negin’s case, the reactivation of Nika’s accounts raises questions about whether Iranian authorities were responsible for accessing her social media profiles, allegedly to phish other protesters or compromise her after her death. “Usually what happens is, they do the target phone number, then they send a login request to Telegram,” Rashidi told CNN. However, references in Iranian state media indicate authorities did access Nika’s Instagram account and direct messages, stating they had permission from the judiciary to access them.

☆ Daughters of Americans imprisoned in Iran appeal to Biden for action
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-16 | by ( Dan De Luce | Dan De Luce Is A Reporter For The Nbc News Investigative Unit. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +6 min

The daughters of two Iranian Americans imprisoned in Iran for more than four years appealed for a face-to-face meeting with President Joe Biden and called on him to take the tough decisions necessary to bring their fathers home. Morad Tahbaz has been imprisoned in Iran since 2018. It is his duty to bring Americans home who are wrongfully detained,” Tahbaz said. She said Biden was committed to securing the release of Americans wrongfully detained overseas. The third American held in Iran, Siamak Namazi, has been imprisoned for seven years.

☆ Niece of Iran's Supreme Leader urges world to cut ties with Tehran over unrest -online video
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-27 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

"O free people, be with us and tell your governments to stop supporting this murderous and child-killing regime," Moradkhani said in the video. "This regime is not loyal to any of its religious principles and does not know any rules except force and maintaining power." HRANA said 450 protesters had been killed in more than two months of nationwide unrest as of Nov. 26, including 63 minors. On Nov. 23, Mahmoud Moradkhani reported her sister's arrest as she was heeding a court order to appear at the Tehran prosecutor's office. Criticism of the Islamic Republic by relatives of top officials is not unprecedented.

☆ EU piles pressure on Iran's leaders with more sanctions
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Macron said the crackdown by Iranian leaders would make it harder to reach agreement on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal, which would give Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear programme. "I don't think there will be new proposals which can be made right now to save the nuclear deal." Speaking after he met four Iranian women activists in Paris over the weekend, Macron said that more European Union sanctions would be adopted in reaction to Tehran's actions. Iranian leaders blame foreign enemies including the United States for what they call riots. In a letter published by Emtedad news website, some 2,300 graduated students of Amirkabir University in Tehran urged authorities to release students detained.

☆ Cleric killed in restive Iranian city, protests rage on
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Amnesty International said security forces killed at least 66 people in a crackdown on protesters in Zahedan on Sept. 30. The Sistan-Baluchistan region around Zahedan is one of the country's poorest and has been a hotbed of tension where Iranian security forces have been attacked by Baluch militants. Forty prominent Iranian human rights lawyers publicly criticised Iran's Shi'ite theocracy, saying crackdowns that have crushed dissent for decades will no longer work and protesters seeking a new political order will prevail. Human Rights Watch said Iranian authorities had escalated their assault against widespread dissent and protests by filing dubious national security charges against detained activists and staging grossly unfair trials. Iran has denied allegations by human rights groups that it abuses prisoners.

☆ Videos showing Iranian crackdown on protesters go viral as anger grows
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

DUBAI, Nov 2 (Reuters) - Videos on social media showing Iranian security forces severely beating protesters have gone viral as anger grows at a widening crackdown with arrests of prominent figures from rappers to economists and lawyers aimed at ending seven weeks of unrest. One video dated Oct. 22 that went viral on social media showed a dozen riot police beating a man at night on a street in southern Tehran. Other videos of the beating of protesters, which Reuters has been unable to verify, have also spread online. Iran said at least 36 members of the security forces were also killed. On Monday night, security forces went to the house of prominent economist Davoud Souri and arrested him.

☆ Gulf states use new oil riches to gain regional influence
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-31 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +13 min

“Money talks,” Michael Maduell, president of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute in Las Vegas, told CNN. Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, last week announced that the nation’s wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), is establishing five regional companies worth $24 billion across the Middle East. One of the key regional investment destinations for both Abu Dhabi and Riyadh has been Egypt. Once a regional rival, Turkey is now an economic ally of Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Despite a political thaw, Gulf investments in Iran and Syria are unlikely for the time being, say analysts.

☆ U.S. slaps sanctions on Iranian officials over protest crackdown
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERSWASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - The United States on Wednesday imposed new sanctions on Iran, targeting Iranian officials and entities over internet censorship and a crackdown on protesters following the death of a young woman in the custody of the morality police. The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said it imposed sanctions on Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) officials, provincial and Iranian prison officials, as well as two entities accused of "efforts to disrupt digital freedom" in Iran. Seyyed Heshmatollah Hayat Al-Ghaib, the director-general of Tehran Province Prisons - which the Treasury said gave him oversight of Evin - was also named. The commander of the IRGC intelligence organization, Mohammad Kazemi, and Abbas Nilforushan, the deputy commander for IRGC operations, as well as other officials were also named. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.

☆ U.S. issues fresh sanctions against Iranian officials for 'brutal' crackdown on peaceful protestors following Mahsa Amini's death continue
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-26 | by ( Chelsey Cox | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

The U.S. Treasury announced a fresh round of sanctions Wednesday against Iranian officials for brutal violence against peaceful demonstrators as protests following the death of Iranian woman Mahsa Amini continue. The new sanctions come 40 days after the 22-year-old Amini's death in the custody of Iran's morality police. Iranian officials have continued their crackdown on protesters while limiting access to internet services. "The United States is imposing new sanctions on Iranian officials overseeing organizations involved in violent crackdowns and killings, including of children, as part of our commitment to hold all levels of the Iranian government accountable for its repression." Treasury designated 10 Iranian officials, two Iranian intelligence actors and two Iranian entities involved in the Iranian government's efforts to interfere with internet access:Mohammad Kazemi: Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Intelligence Organization.

☆ EXCLUSIVE Deadly Iran jail fire erupted as police clashed with inmates, sources say
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

A view of the aftermath of the fire in Evin prison in Tehran, Iran October 17, 2022. The patrols at the Tehran jail began without any apparent provocation by inmates, the sources said. The prisoner and other sources spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity due to concern for their safety. Ward 7 holds prisoners convicted of general crimes and political prisoners, and is in the same building housing ward 8. "Prisoners from ward 7 tried to break the door of ward 8 to let them out too.

☆ Iran prison fire death toll rises as protests rage
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Iran's judiciary said all the victims of the prison blaze had been held in a section of the prison designated for prisoners of robbery-related crimes. Evin also holds political prisoners and many detainees facing security charges, including Iranians with dual nationality. State media reported on Sunday that the first four deaths had been caused by smoke inhalation and that more than 60 had been injured, four of them critically. Iran, which has blamed the violence on enemies at home and abroad, denies security forces have killed protesters. State media said on Saturday at least 26 members of the security forces had been killed by "rioters".

☆ Iran Protests Spread With Uprising at Prison
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Benoit Faucon | David S. Cloud | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

The protest movement sweeping Iran spread to a Tehran prison known as a symbol of political repression in a new challenge to the Islamic Republic, with detained dissidents chanting antigovernment slogans before violence erupted and a deadly fire engulfed the facility, activists said. Authorities said the fire killed four inmates and blamed a planned escape attempt on Saturday for the mayhem at Evin Prison, a complex in north Tehran erected by the shah five decades ago that the U.S. says is a political prison for dissidents and foreigners. A large fire was visible at Evin from the densely populated neighboring communities, and loud bangs were heard through much of the night.

☆ At least four killed in fire at Iran's notorious Evin Prison, amid anti-government protests
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Henry Austin | Henry Austin Is A London-Based Editor For Nbc News Digital. | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +4 min

At least four people were killed and 61 injured after a large fire broke out at a notorious prison housing political prisoners and anti-government activists in Iran‘s capital, state-run news agency IRNA reported Sunday, citing the country's judiciary. Damage caused by a fire at the Evin Prison in Tehran, Iran late Saturday. Iranian state media has reported that at least 60 people have died since the beginning of the protests in Iran. He is safe and has been moved to a secure area of Evin Prison. Several other dual national Iranians and foreign citizens are held in Evin prison.

☆ Iran’s Evin Prison Set on Fire as Protests Spread
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Benoit Faucon | Aresu Eqbali | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Protesters during a demonstration at Trafalgar Square in London following the September death in Iranian police custody of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained for allegedly not adhering to strict Islamic dress code. TEHRAN—A fire on Saturday engulfed an Iranian detention center known for holding political prisoners, including protesters from the demonstrations sweeping the country, as an uprising against the Islamic Republic entered its second month with no signs of abating. Since opening five decades ago under the shah, Evin prison has been a symbol of political repression in Iran. It is the detention center for an untold number of protesters who have demonstrated against the Iranian government since the Sept. 16 death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman in police custody for allegedly not adhering to strict Islamic dress code, authorities said.

☆ Iran airs video from Evin prison hours after fire, tells Biden to stop interfering
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( Parisa Hafezi | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Iran, which has blamed the violence on enemies at home and abroad, deny security forces have killed protesters. The footage of Evin aired on state television showed firefighters inspecting a workshop with fire damage to the roof. State news agency IRNA said on Saturday eight people were injured in the fire at the Evin prison. Video obtained by Reuters showed protesters marching amongst traffic towards Tehran's Evin prison on Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Iran's notorious Evin prison, which holds criminal convicts as well as political detainees, has long been criticised by Western rights groups and was blacklisted by the U.S. government in 2018 for "serious human rights abuses".

☆ Fire, gunshots at Tehran jail holding political prisoners, dual nationals
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-16 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A fire broke out on Saturday in Tehran's Evin prison, where many of Iran's political and dual-national detainees are held, and witnesses reported hearing gunfire. An Iranian judiciary statement said a prison workshop was set on fire "after a fight among a number of prisoners convicted of financial crimes and theft". The prison, located in the foothills at the northern edge of the Iranian capital, holds criminal convicts as well as political detainees. Another witness said families of prisoners had gathered in front of the main prison entrance. Early on Sunday, IRNA carried a video it said showed prison areas damaged by fire.

Search resuls for: "Evin"

25 mentions found