03/21/2012

WASHINGTON (AFP)— US President Barack Obama on Tuesday accused Iran’s leaders of imposing an “electronic curtain” of censorship, announcing steps to use software and social media to help Iranians gain freer access to the Internet.Obama also directly told Iranians in a message for Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, that if their government took a “responsible path” on its nuclear program the country could enjoy the benefits of exiting isolation.But Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, firing his own shot in the propaganda war, warned that Tehran would hit back hard at any US or Israeli attacks, and again denied seeking nuclear weapons.Obama said in his YouTube message carried in English, Persian and Arabic, coming at a time of rising tensions between Washington and Tehran, that there was “no reason” for Americans and Iranians to be divided.

03/20/2012 

Radio Zameneh: In a message written for the Iranian New Year, Kurdish political prisoner Reza Sharifi Bukani reminds the public that hundreds of political prisoners will spend Norooz away from their families in “the dark cells” of the Islamic Republic.In a letter that reached Zamaneh today, Sharifi Bukani writes: “As a political prisoner behind bars for over two years in Rejaishahr Prison in Karaj, I have no visitation rights. I am not allowed any furloughs or even the right to phone my family.”Reza Sharifi Bukani was arrested in May of 2010 in an internet café in Tehran. He was primarily charged with “enmity against God” and “corruption on Earth” and was sentenced to death. His sentence was later reduced to 30 years in jail, and in a final review of the case, he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison.

03/20/2012

The Wall Street Journal

Faced with U.S. pressure to move faster in isolating Iran’s financial sector to choke off funds for Tehran’s nuclear program, the European Union took an action last week that officials in Brussels admit goes well beyond the carefully-calibrated sanctions they originally intended.

In January, divided between countries who wanted to move quickly to toughen up sanctions and others who were more reluctant, the EU agreed a compromise: They would start a full oil embargo on Iranian crude exports on July 1, they sanctioned a number of Iranian individuals, banks and other firms, and slapped partial restrictions on the central bank.

Radio Zamaneh

Parvin Mokhtareh, Arya Aramnejad, Alireza Falahati and Ahmad Miri are among the political prisoners who have been temporarily released in Iran.

The Human Rights Reporters Committee reports that Mokhtareh was released on Sunday afternoon after eight months in jail.

She has been charged with “propaganda activities and assembly and collusion against the regime” and sentenced to 23 months in jail, which the appellate court has turned into a suspended sentence.

03/19/2012

Status report of the last two political prisoner by the group of “Human Rights and Democracy in Iran” 

This report is about the condition of a student with a history of arrests and another political prisoner with the history of imprisonment since the 80ies.The article is reported as follows: 

Mostafa Nili:

 Mostafa was born on 31st of January in 1980.He was accepted at Ghazvin University in 2003 and was recognized as an active student of the University.These political activities of his, in the presence of the students lead to his expelling in 2005.He was fully familiar with the regime’s encounters and aware about his illegal activities of the laws of the Islamic republic of Iran.He later decided to graduate and this time with motivation he managed to stand up against this injustice and get his bachelor’s degree in the field of Law.

03/19/2012