10.11.2007 - Source: Iran Focus

The Supreme Court has upheld the death sentence on a Kurdish dissident journalist Hassanpour; he was found guilty of mounting armed struggle against the system ("Iran court upholds death sentence on dissident") [ID 22062]

Document(s): Open document

24.06.2007 - Source: Iran Focus

Mounting crackdown on dissidents, including labour leaders, universities, press, women’s rights advocates, former nuclear negotiator and Iranian-Americans ("Iran cracks down on dissent, parading examples in streets") [ID 21457]

Document(s): Open document

16.06.2007 - Source: Iran Focus

Arrests, interrogations, intimidation and harassment of thousands of Iranians as well as purges of academics and new censorship codes for media ("Iran curtails freedom in throwback to 1979") [ID 21463]

Document(s): Open document

01.2007 - Source: Human Rights Watch

Akbar Mohammadi and Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi, held for their political beliefs, died in prison ("World Report 2007") [ID 18995]

"In 2006 two prisoners held for their political beliefs, Akbar Mohammadi and Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi, died in suspicious circumstances in prison. The authorities prevented their families from conducting independent autopsies. The government has taken no action to investigate the cause of the deaths."

Document(s): Open document

08.03.2006 - Source: US Department of State

Killing of political dissidents ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2005") [#46058],  [ID 18197]

"(...)There were reports of political killings. The government was responsible for numerous killings during the year, including executions following trials that lacked due process. Exiles and human rights monitors alleged that many of those supposedly executed for criminal offenses, such as narcotics trafficking, actually were political dissidents. (...)"

Document(s): Open document

08.03.2006 - Source: US Department of State

After 26 years in prison former deputy prime minister Abbas Amir-Entezam was first released in 2002 but reimprisoned in 2003 for a referendum on the clerical rule; since 2 years he has been on leave from prison for medical reasons ("Country Report on Human Rights Practices 2005") [#46058],  [ID 18598]

"Former Deputy Prime Minister and longtime political dissident Abbas Amir-Entezam has been imprisoned for 26 years and reportedly tortured. He has been on leave from prison for more than two years for medical reasons but could be forced to return to prison at any time. He was first released in 2002 but reimprisoned in 2003 for calling for a referendum on whether the country should remain under clerical rule."

Document(s): Open document

16.09.2003 - Source: BBC News

Abbas Abdi and other political prisoners in the country jailed in extremely difficult conditions ("Fears for Iran's political prisoners") [#16139],  [ID 9314]

"Reformists say there are about 40 prominent political prisoners in the capital alone, including journalists, liberal political figures and student leaders."

Document(s): Open document

11.2001 - Source: Austrian Centre for Country of Origin and Asylum Research and Documentation

00.11.2001 - ACCORD: In the early years after the revolution most opposition groups were brutally and systematically crushed ("7th European Country of Origin Information Seminar Berlin, 11 - 12 June 2001: Final Report - Iran") [#7661],  [ID 9315]

"Especially in the early years after the revolution most existing opposition groups in Iran were brutally and systematically crushed. Members of groups such as the Mudjahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), the Organization of Fedayan (majority and minority), the Tudeh Party as well as the Communist Party of Iran, who had actively participated in toppling the Shah were one by one rounded up, prosecuted, executed and made to inform on other groups or on their own members. Although this slow elimination process happened in the 1980s this does not mean that individuals who had affiliations with one of the above groups do not face any risk of persecution today.

As a consequence of the systematic repression after the Revolution, at present there is hardly any organized traditional opposition to the present Islamic Government. Although abroad there are many opposition groups, ranging from leftist parties, to nationalist, monarchist, ethnic or clerical Islamic groups, none of these groups has any power basis inside Iran."

Document(s): cois2001-irn.pdf