Union Says 28 Iranian Journalists Still In Custody

In a statement on Wednesday Amnesty censured the arbitrary executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini on January 7 and called on the Islamic Republic to halt issuing death penalty for demonstrators.

The international body also warned that another protester, Mohammad Ghobadlou and several others risk the same fate.

On January 2, Iran’s supreme court upheld the death sentence of Mohammad Ghobadlou, 22, in connection with the ongoing protests.

In the past week, Iranian courts also issued five more protest-related death sentences to detainees after sham trials.

“It is abhorrent that the Iranian authorities persist in their state-sanctioned killing spree as they desperately seek to end the protests and cling to power by instilling fear among the public,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa.

“The arbitrary executions of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Seyed Mohammad Hosseini, just days after their death sentences were upheld, reveal how the Iranian authorities continue to wield the death penalty as a weapon of repression, and serve as a chilling reminder that scores of others remain at risk of execution,” she added.

Iran’s judiciary has so far executed four young protestors after holding trials that according to human rights activists were unfair and without due process.

According to Norway-based Iran Human Right Organization at least 109 protesters are in danger of receiving death penalty or being executed.

Iranian state media reported Wednesday that Alireza Akbari has been sentenced to death for allegedly spying for MI6.

In a statement published by Iran's Intelligence Ministry, Akbari was described as "one of the most important infiltrators of the country's sensitive and strategic centers".

He was detained more than three years ago and has been in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran since then.

Akbari had been deputy defense minister under the reformist President Mohammad Khatami, from 1997 to 2005. He was also close to Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran.

He was an advocate for the Iran nuclear deal known as the JCPOA that was eventually signed in 2015 with world powers.

Britain's Foreign Office has urged the Islamic Republic to immediately release the dual national.

However, Akbari's wife Maryam said an official asked her to visit her husband in jail for a 'final meeting' before his execution.

Reports say he has been moved to solitary confinement, indicating that his execution is imminent.

However, no details have provided about his specific charges and court proceedings.

"Our priority is securing his immediate release and we have reiterated our request for urgent consular access," a UK Foreign Office spokesperson said.

Nournews, which is affiliated to the country's top security agency reported that Akbari's death sentence has been upheld by Iran's Supreme Court.

Hamid Nouri, 61, received a life sentence last July for his leading role in the massacre of large numbers of jailed opposition members.

Nouri’s life sentence by the primary court, can keep him in prison for 25 years according to Swedish law 25 years in prison in Sweden. He has appealed the court’s verdict.

According to Iran International’s correspondent from the court of appeal, during the Wednesday session, Nouri constantly complained about not being transferred to the general ward and his lack of access to ophthalmological examination.

However, the judge said this issue has nothing to do with the court and should be discussed with the prison authorities by Nouri's lawyers.

Earlier, Majid Nouri, his son, had complained about his father's glasses and had cited the interruption of serving him tea as examples of torture.

This comes while Nouri’s colleagues in Iran execute innocent young protesters for setting fire to a trash bin.

Sweden arrested Nouri upon his arrival at Stockholm Airport in 2019 and in 2021 put him on trial over the mass execution and torture of prisoners at Gohardasht Prison in July and August 1988.

Most victims were linked to the opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK) and also other leftist organizations.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Sullivan pointed out that it has been "five terrible years" since Morad Tahbaz was detained in Iran.

“We again call on Iran to release immediately Morad and fellow Americans Emad Shargi and Siamak Namazi. Reuniting these Americans with their families is a top priority of this Administration,” he added.

In a similar tweet, Robert Malley also described the “wrongfully” detainment of Morad Tahbaz for five years “too many”.

“We have no higher priority than making sure that Morad and fellow wrongfully detained U.S. citizens Emad Shargi and Siamak Namazi return home and are reunited with their loved ones,” reads his tweet.

Iran routinely arrests people with Western passports and uses them as bargaining chips.

Tara Tahbaz, the daughter of Iranian-British-American Morad Tahbaz, told CNN on the fifth anniversary of her father's arrest that her family still is calling on the United States and United Kingdom to do whatever they can to bring him home.

Morad Tahbaz, 66, is a British-US-Iranian triple national who was arrested in January 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison on “espionage” charges.

Siamak Namazi, is a 50-year-old dual-national businessman, who was arrested and imprisoned in October 2015 on charges of "collaborating with the US government".

Emad Shargi is another Iranian-American businessman who was convicted of espionage without a trial and sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2020.

According to Mizan news website, affiliated with the judiciary, Olivier Vandecasteele in addition to his long prison term must get 74 lashes for alleged “spying and cooperation with the United States, money laundering and currency smuggling.”

The Belgian aid worker had earlier denied the charges, but on Tuesday he was handed four jail terms, as well as sentences of 74 lashes and a fine.

Belgium is summoning the Iranian ambassador, Foreign Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib said Tuesday in a statement.

Brussels announced in July that Vandecasteele, a former employee of the Norwegian Refugee Council, had been arrested in the Islamic Republic.

Based on Iranian law, he would be eligible to be freed after serving 12.5 years.

Vandecasteele has the right to appeal the verdict within 20 days, ISNA news agency reported.

He worked in Iran for humanitarian organizations for more than six years and left the country. Later, he was lured back by “a girlfriend” and was detained in February 2022.

A spokesman for Vandecasteele’s family announced in December that he has been sentenced to 28 years in prison.

Belgium and Vandecasteele’s family believe he is innocent and a victim of hostage taking by the Iranian regime. They say Tehran intends to force Brussels to release Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in Belgium in 2021.

Asadi was accused of plotting a bomb attack on a meeting of an Iranian opposition group outside Paris.