Iranian-American journalist and peace activist Roxana Saberi, who will present the HOPE Concert at the Velodrom in Berlin on June 7, announces the concert at a press conference on May 21, 2013.

On June 7, Iranian-American journalist and peace activist Roxana Saberi, who was arrested in Iran in 2009 and freed after international outcry, will present the HOPE Concert at the Velodrom in Berlin in worldwide support for the Iranian people. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran welcomes this opportunity to raise awareness of the state of human rights in Iran and to add to the voices in solidarity with the Iranian people.

Iranian and international musicians will lend their voices to let the people of Iran know they are not alone in their struggle for human rights and freedom. In Iran, musicians—as well as artists, filmmakers, writers, and journalists—are not only regularly banned from working due to their political activities, they are routinely imprisoned and tortured.

Global stars Alanis Morissette, Natasha Bedingfield, DJ Steve Angello, and lead singer John Martin of the Swedish House Mafia, two of the most successful Iranian musicians Andy Madadian and Ebi, the Greek musician Alkistis Protopsalti, the co-founder and original guitarist of the band The Police Henry Padovani, the American songwriter Shani, the international singer Liel Kolet, the new “Bluesman” Stephen Dale Petit, multi-cultural musician Valy Hedjasi, and the Greek pianist, producer and composer Yanni, will all perform at the HOPE Concert in solidarity with the Iranian people.

The legendary artist Stevie Wonder is also lending his support to the people of Iran and contributing his song “My Love.” Renowned music producer Humberto Gatica will produce the finale of the concert, in which all the musicians will raise their voices to perform Stevie Wonder’s song of unity, harmony, and peace.

The goal of the HOPE Concert is to show worldwide support for the Iranian people, and to strengthen their voices on the international stage. The artists and the concert represent no political direction or views of political groupings, but stand independently for universal human rights, democracy, and peaceful coexistence. All proceeds from the tickets will be donated to the NGO Children of Persia to finance medical treatment for children in Iran, and to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

Tickets for the HOPE Concert on June 7 at 8pm are available by phone at +49(0)30-4430-4430 or online here.

The unusually increased presence of police and security forces on Tehran streets in May 2013. Photo by International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, taken by an eyewitness citizen journalist.

One day after the names of Iranian presidential candidates were announced by the Guardian Council, there was a tense security atmosphere in several areas of Tehran on May 22, following news of the disqualification of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei as candidates, several eyewitnesses told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

According to eyewitnesses, on Tehran’s Vali-e-Asr Square and the streets leading to it, police forces were monitoring vehicles. Eyewitnesses also said that in some city squares and high-traffic spots of Tehran, they observed a larger presence of security forces. “Several times I saw many armed security forces on motor bikes on the main streets. The number of police forces all over the city is higher than on normal days, though nothing is happening. People are looking at the groups of police forces on the streets with surprise,” one eyewitness told the Campaign.

Iran was one of the first countries in the Middle East to allow women to study at university, and since the 1990s, more than 60 percent of Iran’s university students have been women.

But at the start of the new Iranian academic year this past September, the government began imposing restrictions on university students, and the most affected are women. More than 30 universities introduced new rules banning female students from almost nearly 80 different degree courses – from engineering, nuclear physics and computer science, to English literature, archaeology and business.

The new rules also include quotas that limit the percentage of women students in certain fields of study, as well as segregation in classrooms and facilities. This means many women will no longer be able to pursue the education and careers of their choice.

Our guest today is Dr. Nayareh Tohidi, Professor of Gender & Women Studies at California State University, Northridge. She is also the Research Associate at the Center for Near Eastern Studies of UCLA where she has been coordinating the Bilingual Lecture Series on Iran since 2003.

The father of Kahrizak victim Amir Javadifar withdrew his lawsuit against former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi (pictured) and released him of responsibility for his son’s death. The reason for the release prior to court adjournment is not clear.

The tenth session of the trial of former Tehran Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi and two other officials for the deaths in Kahrizak Prison of three detainees in 2009 opened yesterday with the father of one of the victims withdrawing his “participation in murder” suit against Mortazavi. The eleventh and final session of the trial is being held today, and so far none of the plaintiffs’ witnesses have been summoned.

The father of Amir Javadifar released Mortazavi of responsibility prior to the commencement of the tenth session of the Kahrizak trial at Branch 76 of the Tehran Penal Court. According to Iran Student News Agency, the elder Javadifar’s lawyer Mohammad Saleh Nikbakht told reporters at a court recess that his client provided the release to the court without his knowledge, and when asked whether his client may have been intimidated or bribed to withdraw his lawsuit, he said, “I don’t know.”

Nikbakht added that the release is only for Saeed Mortazavi’s “participation in murder” charge, and that the rest of Mortazavi’s and other defendants’ charges are still under review.

According to Mehr News Agency, the father of Mohammad Kamrani, another young man who lost his life at Kahrizak, said that he was unaware of the Javadifar release until the session. “I learned at the trial session that he went to the court branch yesterday [May 19] to submit his release,” he told Mehr. It is not yet clear why Javadifar has withdrawn his lawsuit. There is only one more session left of the Kahrizak trial, set for today, and so far none of the witnesses offered by the plaintiffs have been summoned to testify.

Over the past ten sessions, the plaintiffs offered a number of witnesses, including some Kahrizak detainees who experienced the events of the summer of 2009 firsthand. Other witnesses introduced to the court were Head of the National Inspection Organization Mostafa Pourmohammadi, Prosecutor General Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei, and Dorri Najafabadi. “So far, only those witnesses the judges deemed necessary have appeared in court sessions; they are the ones deciding on the witnesses,” Kamrani’s father said.

At the eighth court session, when asked by a reporter why the three witnesses with official positions had not been summoned to testify, Judge Siamak Modir Khorasani said, “I did not see a need to summon those witnesses.”

The May 20 session was held in the presence of plaintiffs, their lawyers, and Saeed Mortazavi, the case’s top defendant, as well as Ali Akbar Heydarifar, another defendant in the case. As in previous court sessions, at this session Judge Hassan Zare Dehnavi, the case’s third defendant, was not present. According to the plaintiffs and their lawyers, Saeed Mortazavi was the only defendant who defended himself today. Mortazavi did not accept any of the charges. His defense was left incomplete and the rest of his defense and that of the other two will be heard at the next session.

The eleventh session will be held today, May 21. All Kahrizak trial sessions have been held behind closed doors and the plaintiffs have not been allowed to provide court details to the media.

The Kahrizak court sessions have so far been held February 26, March 10, March 11, April 29, May 1, May 5, May 7, May 13, May 15, and May 20. The case has three defendants: Saeed Mortazavi, Hassan Zare Dehnavi, and Ali Akbar Heydarifar. According to the Prosecutor’s indictment, Saeed Mortazavi has been indicted for “participation in murder,” “participation in illegal detention,” and “participation in issuing untrue reports through ordering or encouraging related officers to prepare reports addressed to himself,” and Zare Dehnavi and Heydarifar have been charged with “participation in illegal detention.”

After the disputed presidential election of 2009, dozens of protesters arrested by security forces were transferred to Kahrizak, a horrific detention center in Southern Tehran, where according to numerous reports of eyewitnesses, detainees were subjected to psychological and physical torture and sexual abuse.

Mehdi Karroubi, a presidential candidate in 2009, asked Members of the Parliament to pursue allegations of rape inside the Kahrizak Detention Center in 2009. After an initial flurry of reports, the subject was dropped and the individuals responsible for finding facts about the situation were imprisoned. The mistreatment and torture of detained protesters inside Kahrizak led to the deaths of at least three young men, Mohammad Kamrani, Mohsen Rooholamini, and Amir Javadifar. The families of the three victims insisted that the “judicial official who issued the orders that led to the set of events” be put on trial, and more than three years after the incident the trial began in early 2013. After the media attention, the Kahrizak Detention Center was closed down in 2010.

Saeed Mortazavi has not accepted any of his charges so far, and has said that he and the other judges are neither guilty nor responsible and that there is no shred of evidence for the charges leveled against them. He has also stated that the court is not qualified to review this case and that it should be held publicly. But while the former Tehran Prosecutor considers himself and the other defendants innocent and without responsibility, at the third session of the trial, Ali Akbar Heydarifar told the reporters that he is responsible for the whole situation and that he ordered the transfer of the detainees to Kahrizak in the summer of 2009.

Mohammad Saleh Nikbakht, one of the lawyers representing the Kahrizak victims’ families, spoke to reporters about the charges raised against the defendants. “I and other lawyers representing the plaintiffs continue to believe that the main defendant in this case is Saeed Mortazavi, because while he was aware of the physical capacity of the Kahrizak Detention Center and its conditions, he agreed to the transfer of 145 detainees on July 9, 2009. He was fully aware of the physical conditions and the way the detainees were treated inside Kahrizak. He did not take any action to prevent the dispatch of the detainees to this detention center, nor did he provide any oversight of the detention center after the detainees were transferred there. He additionally dragged his feet in returning the detainees to Evin Prison. The cause of death for all three victims of Kahrizak, according to the findings of the 13-member Medical Examiners and faculty members of Tehran Medical Sciences University, was ‘repeated blows on their bodies, wounds on their bodies, infection of the wounds without any treatment or attempt to treat them,’” the lawyer said.

Bahman Ahmadi Amouee, an economics reporter with reformist newspapers, was arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential elections and sentenced to five years and four months in prison. He has been recalled from furlough and must turn himself in May 21.

Two journalists and a blogger previously released on furlough have been recalled to prison and are expected to turn themselves in today, and imprisoned lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh’s promised furlough has not been granted. Security forces have also recently summoned several other journalists in Tehran and have made telephone calls warning them not to support a candidate supported by reformists, a local journalist told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

The source added that there has also been one journalist arrest but did not provide further details about the case. According to a post on the Facebook page of Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan, officials have not granted the furlough request for the human rights activist currently inside Evin Prison, despite earlier promises.

Bahman Ahmadi Amouee and Massoud Bastani, two journalists furloughed on bail in March, were recalled to prison in the past few days and will have to turn themselves in by this afternoon, May 21. Jila Baniyaghoub and Mahsa Amrabadi, also journalists and the wives of the two men, are being held at Evin Prison’s Women’s Ward. The couples were allowed visits with each other last Sunday inside Evin Prison.

Bahman Ahmadi Amouee, an economics reporter with reformist newspapers, was arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential elections and sentenced to five years and four months in prison. Massoud Bastani, a political reporter with reformist newspapers, was arrested on July 14, 2009, and sentenced to six years in prison.

Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, a dissident blogger and human rights activist on medical furlough since fall 2012, has also been recalled to Evin Prison and must turn himself in today. “Let me share something personal with you: going to prison is a strange experience. I tell my mother that it won’t make any difference whether it is today or tomorrow. For the one who has got to go, it won’t matter whether he goes one hour sooner or later. She says, ‘You don’t get it! It makes a difference to me!’ Her smiling face gets sad again,” Ronaghi Maleki wrote on his Facebook page. Ronaghi Maleki suffers from kidney disease and bladder and prostate inflammation, and is currently under medical treatment.

The IRGC Intelligence Unit arrested Hossein Ronaghi Maleki following the 2009 presidential elections, and Judge Pirabbasi of Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to 15 years in prison. While on prison furlough in fall 2012, Ronaghi Maleki volunteered at an earthquake relief camp and was one of several volunteers arrested by Tabriz police forces. According to a new ruling by Branch 112 of Tabriz General Courts about the West Azerbaijan earthquake relief camp, he was sentenced to an additional six months in prison on charges of “threatening public hygiene through distribution of moldy bread” and “disobeying an officer.”

Reza Khandan, Nasrin Sotoudeh’s husband, wrote on his Facebook page that judicial authorities had previously promised Sotoudeh that she would be released on furlough in a manner that would lead to her permanent release. The promise has not been fulfilled. “Three weeks ago, they started a new game with Nasrin. They gave her a definitive promise for furlough that would lead to permanent release. With what happened yesterday, it became clear that, as usual, these promises are some type of psychological game with the prisoner and her family, and nothing more than a lie,” Khandan wrote on his Facebook page.

Nasrin Sotoudeh was arrested on September 4, 2010. A lower court sentenced her to 11 years in prison, 20 years’ ban on her legal practice, and 20 years’ ban on foreign travel. An appeals court reduced her sentence to six years in prison and 10 years’ ban on her legal practice.

Mostafa Mesri, a prisoner serving time at Orumiyeh Prison on charges of “acting against national security,” has sewn his lips to demand a transfer to a prison facility near his mother’s residence.

Mostafa Mesri, a 26-year-old Kurdish political prisoner from Oshnovieh in Western Azerbaijan Province who has been in prison for the past two years, sewed his lips shut and embarked on a hunger strike on May 19 to protest Orumiyeh Central Prison officials’ lack of attention to his request for transfer to Naghadeh Prison, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

According to the human rights activist, after the political prisoner began his hunger strike, prison officials transferred him to a solitary cell and banned him from having calls or visitations with his family. The political prisoner had previously been on two hunger strikes for the same reason, and officials from the West Azerbaijan Prisons Organization had made favorable promises to him. Mostafa Mesri’s mother lives in Oshnovieh, close to Naghadeh Prison. Since his father has passed away, his mother has had to travel a very long distance to visit him at Orumiyeh Prison, and officials agreed to transfer him to the Naghadeh Prison facility; however, the transfer has not occurred.

The human rights activist added that Mostafa Mesri has been sentenced to 3.5 years in prison on charges of “acting against national security.” He has served a total of two years at Oshnovieh and Orumiyeh prisons.

“More than two years ago, on the day my parents were put under illegal house arrest, security forces raided my home, broke the locks, and occupied it for 20 days. After the raid, they went to my children’s schools, took their educational records, and confiscated them for four months. My passport has been confiscated for more than three years and I have not been allowed to leave the country, not even to the Hajj pilgrimage,” Mohammad Hossein Karroubi wrote in his letter to the Supreme Leader.

Mohammad Hossein Karroubi, the son of political dissident under house arrest since February 2011 Mehdi Karroubi, has written a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei decrying the continued confiscation of personal items security forces took in February 2013.

“On February 11, 2013, security forces accompanying a representative from the Prosecutor’s Office, who had covered their heads and looked like thieves, stormed my home and that of two of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s daughters, and during the search, more than 30 personal items, including identification documents, property deeds, financial documents, cell phones, laptops belonging to myself and other members of my family, and other items, were confiscated and taken away. After three weeks, only the birth certificates, national ID cards, and two other items were returned,” Hossein Karroubi said in his letter, which he published on his personal Facebook page.

“More than two years ago, on the day my parents were put under illegal house arrest, security forces raided my home, broke the locks, and occupied it for 20 days. After the raid, they went to my children’s schools, took their educational records, and confiscated them for four months. My passport has been confiscated for more than three years and I have not been allowed to leave the country, not even to the Hajj pilgrimage,” he continued in his letter.

Comparing the treatment methods of security forces in the Islamic Republic to those of the security forces under the Shah, the son of the former Iranian Speaker of the Parliament addressed his concerns to the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader. “During the previous regime, SAVAK [the Shah’s Intelligence and Security Organization] raided the home of my combative grandfather and my courageous father, but none of these raids, not once, led to the confiscation of their personal and familial properties, and as repeatedly stated by combatants prior to the Revolution, SAVAK never attempted to confiscate the personal properties of political dissidents. The SAVAK security forces at least had a modicum of self respect and did not enter people’s private domain, but it appears that for the present security forces, boundaries and borders have no meaning. Did the Imam [Khomeini] and the nation have an uprising so that an organization rougher and more immoral than SAVAK to take over security affairs in Iran?” Karroubi wrote.

Mohammad Hossein Karroubi ended his letter by asking Ali Khamenei to prevent the repetition of such events by reprimanding individuals involved in the situation. “You correctly recognized the act of Mr. Ahmadinejad in the Parliament against the Larijani brothers as ‘an act that is against the Sharia, morality, and the law!’ Isn’t confiscation of the personal property of political-social activists against the Sharia, morality, and the law? (I find it necessary to inform you that confiscation of documents and personal papers as a tool for abusing political dissidents has become an established norm by the Islamic Republic security apparatus.) Therefore, it is expected of you to issue the orders required for the correction of these norms in order to maintain the reputation of the religious state by reprimanding these individuals and preventing the repetition of these immoral and anti-Sharia acts. As necessary, I will inform you of the degree to which security forces obey your commands in this area in future letters,” Mohammad Hossein Karroubi concluded.

On May 8, 2013, world-famous political satirist Jon Stewart of The Daily Show held a discussion about censorship and power in Iran, followed by a lively Q&A, at an event hosted by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and the PEN American Center. In conversation with Iranian-Canadian film director Maziar Bahari and CPJ’s Executive Director Joel Simon, Stewart explored issues ranging from incarceration and torture to foreign policy to free speech and creativity under repression.

The discussion followed the New York premier of director Maziar Bahari’s film Forced Confessions. Watch the full discussion, including introduction and Q&A, in this video!

Mahabad security forces arrested more than 10 Kurdish students in February 2013 and transferred them to the Intelligence Office Information Unit Detention Center. Pictured: Four of those arrested, from right to left, Ghassem Ahmadi, Khosrow Kordpour, Farough Samani, and Khedr Rasoul Morovat.

Several Mahabad citizens arrested in February have been released on bail from Mahabad Prison over the past several weeks, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Two detainees, Farough Samani and his cousin Reza Samani, however, remain in “temporary detention” in a state of limbo. Another Kurdish citizen, Khedr Rasoul Morovat, remains in the custody of security forces 70 days after his arrest.

According to the human rights activist, Mahabad security forces arrested more than 10 Kurdish students in February 2013 and transferred them to the Intelligence Office Information Unit Detention Center. Cousins Farzad Samani and Reza Samani were arrested on February 17, but the identities of the other detainees were not announced. Five days after Farzad Samani’s arrest, security forces went to his father’s house, where they searched the premises, acted disrespectfully towards his family, and arrested his older brother Farough Samani, an artist and former political prisoner. On February 25, security forces arrested Khedr Rasoul Morovat, a cultural activist and former political prisoner.

The human rights activist told the Campaign that Reza Samani suffers from a blood disease, his health is currently in a critical state, and he must be immediately hospitalized outside the prison, but judicial and prison authorities have not agreed to his hospital transfer request.

Regarding Khedr Rasoul Morovat’s latest status, the source told the Campaign that security forces transferred him from the Mahabad Intelligence Office Information Unit Detention Center to the Orumiyeh Intelligence Office Detention Center, and that since his arrest he has only been allowed two short phone calls to his family, informing them of his detention location. His family’s and lawyer’s efforts to visit him have been fruitless, and his investigative judge, Mr. Zaheri, has stated that there can be no visits by his family and lawyer without authorization from Orumiyeh Intelligence Office officials.

Habibollah Golparipour, sentenced to death for “membership in PJAK,” has been transferred twice in the last two weeks.

A Kurdish political prisoner sentenced to death has been transferred back to Orumiyeh Central Prison after spending 15 months inside the Semnan Central Prison, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Habibollah Golparipour had been transferred from Semnan Central Prison to an undisclosed location in the second week of May. His lawyer, Massoud Shamsinejad, was also reportedly arrested the week of May 12, 2013.

According to the local human rights activist, on May 9, officials of Semnan Central Prison summoned Habibollah Golparipour and announced that he would need to pick up his personal effects for transfer to an undisclosed location. On May 10, the Police Intelligence Unit forces transferred the political prisoner to Mahabad Cental Prison’s solitary cells. He was then transferred again on May 11 to Orumiyeh Central Prison.

Mukrian News Agency also reported the arrest of Massoud Shamsinejad, Golparipour’s lawyer, in Orumiyeh this week. Reasons for the lawyer’s arrest have not been announced, but according to the source, he was transferred to Orumiyeh Central Prison after several hours of interrogation.

In a May 10 interview with the Campaign, Habibollah Golparipour’s family had expressed concern about his sudden transfer to an unknown location. It is not yet clear why he was transferred to Orumiyeh, but a source familiar with Golparipour’s case told the Campaign that in the years since the execution of Kurdish political prisoner Hossein Khezri in January 2011, pressure on political prisoners inside Orumiyeh Prison has increased. During recent years, political prisoners have been routinely transferred to the Intelligence Office Information Unit and pressured to provide television confessions. The Intelligence Office has also summoned political prisoners inside the Orumiyeh facility to the prison Intelligence Unit for interrogations that have lasted for hours, occasionally threatening them with exile or enforcement of their death sentences. Habibollah Golparipour’s exile in March 2012 took place under similar pressure as an act of punishment.

Mahabad IRGC Intelligence forces arrested Habibollah Golparipour on September 27, 2007, just outside Mahabad and imprisoned him at security detention centers in Mahabad, Orumiyeh, and Sanandaj. Sources close to his family told the Campaign that while in detention, he was “subjected to the most severe physical and psychological torture, to the point where his arm and leg were broken under torture.” The prisoner was then transferred to Mahabad Prison and sentenced to death by Branch One of Mahabad Revolutionary Court on March 14, 2010, in a minutes-long trial on charges of “membership in PJAK,” the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan. Golparipour embarked on a 15-day hunger strike on May 12, 2010, to protest his death sentence. However, Branch 31 of the Supreme Court upheld his death sentence.

In an open letter in March 2012, Habibollah Golparipour wrote about the psychological and physical torture he endured in the Intelligence Office detention centers in Orumiyeh and Mahabad. “In my long-term detentions and physical and psychological torture, I almost died. I filed a grievance explaining the details and sent it to various government organizations, but in this country, our voices don’t even pass through our prison cells, let alone finding an audience,” Golparipour wrote.

According to sources close to Habibollah Golparipour, he was transferred to the Central Prison of Orumiyeh on December 3, 2010, and on March 15, 2012, he was abruptly transferred from Orumiyeh Prison to the Central Prison of Semnan, where he has been kept among regular prisoners.