Libyan forces storm protest camp

Moammar Gaddafi stepped up a crackdown on protesters in several eastern Libyan cities (AP)

Libyan special forces have stormed a two-day-old protest encampment in the country's second largest city, clearing the area, witnesses said.

EU parliament chief denounces Iran’s hanging of Dutch woman

BRUSSELS, January 30, 2011 (AFP) – President of the European Parliament Jerzy Buzek on Sunday denounced Iran’s hanging of a Iranian-Dutch woman arrested after anti-government protests in 2009 then convicted of drug trafficking.

“The hanging of Sarah Bahrami, who was a Dutch and hence a European citizen, is a cowardly act of arbitrary justice,” he said in a statement.

UN resolution on human rights violations approved

Nov 21, 2010

The Third Committee of the United Nation has approved a draft resolution condemning the Islamic Republic for human rights violations.

Reuters reports that General Assembly’s Third Committee, which is also referred to as the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee, passed the resolution 80-44 with 57 abstaining last night in New York.

Iran arrests two Germans for interviewing family of accused adulterer Ashtiani

October 12, 2010

Kabul, Afghanistan
Iranian authorities have arrested two Germans who entered Iran on tourist visas allegedly to interview the family of a woman sentenced to death by stoning.
The pair was arrested Sunday while talking to the lawyer and son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, who Iranian authorities accuse of adultery. Ms. Ashtiani’s case has been the source of much international outrage and her sentence was suspended in July, but now Iranian officials are considering hanging her for the murder of her late husband, reports the BBC. Her lawyers insist she is innocent of all charges.

Iran: End Intimidation and Harassment of Lawyer and His Family

Unable to Arrest Mohammad Mostafaei, Officials Detained His Wife, Brother-in-Law
July 31, 2010

"The authorities have provided no reason for the arrests of Fereshteh and Farhad Halimi. The burden is squarely on the Iranian government to explain why these arrests do not essentially amount to state-sanctioned hostage-taking."
Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch
(New York) - Iranian authorities should immediately charge or release the wife and brother-in-law of a prominent lawyer, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should also stop harassing and intimidating Mohammad Mostafaei, who has spent his career defending juveniles and the underprivileged, including many who were sentenced to execution.