http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/feb/20/iran-death-for-blogging/

Iran has an easy way of dealing with people who do things online that displease the mullahs. Kill them.

For four years, computer programmer and Canadian resident Saeed Malekpour has languished in an Iranian jail cell. He was arrested in 2008 while in the country to visit his ailing father. The regime charged him with spreading corruption a catchall crime that can apply to many supposed affronts to the Islamic theocracy, but in this case referred to allegedly spreading pornography. A third party had used software Mr. Malekpour developed to upload graphic images without his knowledge.

At his trial, Mr. Malekpour confessed to abetting the act, but he later contended the confession was coerced. ‘A large portion of my confession was extracted under pressure, physical and psychological torture’, he wrote in a letter smuggled from prison, ‘threats to myself and my family, and false promises of immediate release upon giving a false confession to whatever the interrogators dictated’. He was found guilty and sentenced to death.

Iran’s Supreme Court later ordered a review, and last October, the death sentence was reaffirmed, with 7 1/2 years in prison added for good measure.

Last week, it was learned that Mr. Malekpour’s case file had been transferred to the Circuit Court for Execution of Sentences and his execution could take place at any time. Mr. Malekpour’s family sent a letter regarding the case to United Nations human rights commissioner Navi Pillay. The U.S. State Department formally protested the sentence against Mr. Malekpour and called on Iran to allow unfettered access for U.N. Special Rapporteur Ahmed Shaheed to investigate widespread allegations of human rights violations in the Islamic republic.

Mr. Malekpour is one of several people who have been imprisoned on charges of polluting the minds of Iran’s youth. Vahid Asghari is an Iranian blogger who faces death for anti-government agitation and insulting Islam, also allegedly for uploading pornography. In January, the regime arrested at least six journalists, bloggers and other netizens as part of a crackdown ahead of the March parliamentary elections. Two of them, Parastoo Dokouhaki and Marzieh Rasouli, are female journalists who have been active in promoting the rights of Iranian women. Another arrestee, Mohammad Solimaninya, ran a social-networking website called u24 and designed and hosted websites for Iranian intellectuals and civil-society organizations. The charges against him haven’t been made public, but anyone who facilitates communication among thoughtful people in Iran is a threat to the mullahs.

Independent Iranian journalists are a courageous lot to begin with. According to the latest press-freedom index from Reporters Without Borders, Iran ranks 175th out of 179 countries, edging out only Syria, Turkmenistan, North Korea and Eritrea on the scale of oppression. Death sentences for Mr. Malekpour and Mr. Asghari are intended to send a message to others that building informal information networks on the Internet won’t be tolerated. While the world is focused on Iran’s nuclear weapons program, its military support for the Assad regime in Syria and its attempts to use its international terror network to bomb Israeli diplomats, it should not forget the Iranians languishing in cells whose offense to the regime was the desire to tell their country’s increasingly tragic story. (The Washington Times – Feb. 20, 2012)

ISNA – Hojatol Islam Mosa Qorbani, the assistant head of the spokesman of the Majlis Laws, in an interview with ISNA, explained the changes in the new Islamic Penal Code and pointed to the removal of stoning as a punishment, and execution for apostasy and witchcraft. “In this law, article 223 has been replaced with some of the [punishments] that have been removed”… [Children] under 18 will not be executed if they are unaware of the nature of the crime: He said regarding the penal responsibility of children who are under 18 and commit crimes that carry execution, “If a mature person under 18, does not understand the nature of the crime committed or if there are doubts regarding their mental maturity, in light of their age, they will be sentenced to the anticipated punishments”. “This law is intended for the execution sentence and other punishments to be carried out [in other words, the priority is for the child to be executed] except in cases when the child is in a condition that he\she does not know that his\her action is a crime”, Qorbani stipulated. “If a child carries out a murder with knowledge, even if he\she is under 18, he/she will stay in a correctional facility and will be executed after he/she reaches the legal age [18]”. (ISNA state-run News Agency – Feb. 20, 2012)

The head of the Ilam Welfare Organization warned that suicide had turned into a social crisis in Ilam adding that it was “very alarming”. “In light of the fact that we do not have exact figures on the numbers of suicides, investigations show that in certain months, four people died in one week due to suicide in the province”, Sadeq Rostami said.

He said that most of the suicides are carried out by women… “In some towns especially in Eivan, the suicide rate has exceeded the point of crisis and compared to other towns, it does not have a good condition”, he added saying that suicide age had gone below 30. The head of the Welfare Organization said that one of the reasons behind the high suicide rate in women was divorce and ensuing problems from divorce. (ISNA state-run News Agency – Jan. 1, 2011)

 [In a press conference] Hojatel Islam Val Moslemin Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejeyi cited those who bring up the issue of boycotting the elections and said that “if the statements of these people endanger security and these people invite others to seditions naturally this measure is a crime”…

Regarding the reason behind the filtering of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani’s website he said, “A law was passed in 2009 in Majlis to deal with internet crimes and this law was carried out in June”…

“If examples of crimes are seen in websites, they will receive notices. If they pay attention to the notice and the [content] which is considered a crime is removed there will be no problem but if it is not removed, depending on the kind of criminal measure, they will receive up to three notices and then the website will be filtered”… “The same thing happened to this website”, he added.

“After some time, the previous content and new content were once again put up on the website and they received notices again to remove it but no measures were taken in this regard until this website was filtered on December 28 and is still filtered now”. (ISNA state-run News Agency – Dec. 31, 2011)

A Kurd political prisoner was paralyzed after receiving an injection in prison.

According to reports, 26 year old political prisoner Ali Chak, who is from a village in Sardasht in Western Azarbaijan Province, was transferred to the Mahabad Public Prison infirmary where he received an injection. He became paralyzed in both legs a short time after the injection.

This Kurd political prisoner was once again returned to his cell despite his critical condition and was only transferred to Orumieh Hospital after other political prisoners severely protested this issue.

No measures have reportedly been taken for Ali Chak’s treatment and his condition is deteriorating.

Ali Chak has been sentenced to seven years of prison on charges of cooperating with   a Kurd opposition group. (Kordpa website – Jan. 2, 2011)

The session to see to the cases of ‘Tehran Emrouz’ and ‘Afarinesh’ dailies were held in the 78^th branch of theTehran Penal Court with the presence of the plaintiff, defendants and the jury.

According to reports, the cases of the editors in chief of the Tehran Emrouz and Afarinesh were seen to on Sunday in the Media Court presided over by Judge Baqeri. After the bill of indictment issued by the Tehran Public andRevolutionary Courtwas read out, the suspects defended themselves.

According to this report, Tehran Emrouz was charged with publishing lies with the intention of instigating public opinion while Afarinesh was charged with publishing false information. (ISNA state-run News Agency – Dec. 6, 2011)

Political prisoner Kobra Amirkhizi who is detained in the women’s cellblock in Evin Prison and Hossein Ronaqi Maleki were transferred to the hospital because of their critical condition in prison.

According to reports fromTehran, Hossein Ronaqi Maleki was taken to theHashemiNejadHospitalinTehranbecause of his kidneys started bleeding again.

This prisoner has been taken to the hospital several times because of a kidney infection and hemorrhage but he is still denied a medical leave to receive a through medical treatment.

Mrs. Kobra Banazadeh was also taken to theLabafiNejadHospitalfor an eye surgery and was once again transferred back to prison after the surgery.

Keeping this political prisoner in the unsanitary atmosphere of prison after her eye surgery can pose a danger to her health including an eye infection but relevant officials have not paid any attention to this issue. (Human Rights Activists in Iran – Dec. 4, 2011)

Participants in a night party were arrested with the efforts of the Moral Security Police in theFarsProvince.

Security forces were informed that a number of young men and women were having a party in a garden in the north western region ofShiraz. After further investigations, they entered the garden and saw that drunk, half-naked [it is important to note that the Iranian regime calls anything other than the so-called Islamic clothing ‘half-naked’] boys and girls were dancing with each other.

Agents arrested 60 people and discovered alcoholic beverages in the garden.

Notably, the detainees were transferred to prison on orders of the Shiraz Public andRevolutionary Court. (Kayhan state-run Daily- Dec. 4, 2011)

A member of the Law and Judicial Commission of the Majlis [Iranian Parliament] criticized the report of the UN Special Human Rights Rapporteur and called ‘Qisas’ [retribution, eye for an eye, execution] the ultimate democracy.   

“Retribution is an option which Islam has given to families and this is the ultimate democracy”, Salman Zaker said.

“We cannot count execution as one of the weak points of the Islamic government”, he added.

“Ahmad Shahid has gathered his report from people who are guilty in the minds of the Iranian people and the claims and testimonies of these people have no legal value in the international community”.

“One cannot take heed of the claims of a person who has lost his independence and has ran off to another country because in the minds of his people, this person is known as a traitor and someone who has turned his back on his country”, he added. (ISNA state-run News Agency, Nedaye Sabze Azadi website – Dec. 8, 2011)

Report on brutal torture and degrading treatment of inmates, overcrowded conditions in the cells and the lack of minimum human rights in Qezel Hesar Prison in Karaj:

Unit 3 is made up of nine halls and each hall consists of 12 cells. Twelve to 15 prisoners are detained in each of the 12 cubic meter cells. The overcrowded conditions of the cells have robbed prisoners of their sleep. They have to sleep in shifts or on their sides next to each other on the ground. Some prisoners are forced to sleep in the corridors or restroom halls and stairways. There are more than 250 prisoners in every hall. In addition to this, some of the hall ceilings have water leakages.

On orders of the head of the prison, Hosseini, prisoners have to spend most of their time during the day in the hall courtyard. This is while it is very cold and the freezing temperatures have caused many hardships for prisoners. Those who are unable to leave the hall to go outdoors are taken to the basement where they are violently tortured and usually sustain broken feet and hands as a result.

Prisoners come to prison with only the clothes on their backs and according to prison regulations, their families can only bring them clothes once every six months. The prison does not give them any clothes. With the start of winter and the cold weather, prisoners suffer from not having enough warm clothes.

Prisoners are also denied safe drinking water and are forced to use water contaminated with diesel fuel which tastes and smells like fuel. This has been going on for a few months and prisoners have no right to protest these conditions.

There is only 2 hours of warm water a day for prisons to take showers. Because of the lack of warm water, low number of shower stalls and the water contamination, prisoners can only take a shower once in a few weeks.

Prisoners who protest the intolerable medieval conditions are taken to the basement where they are violently tortured. There is a small pool with cold water in the basement. Prison guards force prisoners to take off their clothes and go into the pool. Then they are taken out of the pool and beaten with batons with the intention of breaking their hands and feet. Prisons are also degraded by being marched naked in the halls. (Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran – Dec. 1, 2011)