Free Lantern » Human rights

Happy 8th of March

admin — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:28:33 +0000

To say happy 8th of March I made this image in Inkscape, I got the idea from the booklet of 1 million signature campaign that was distributed today in Iran.

Maziar Bahari’s letter to Khamenei

admin — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 08:39:17 +0000

Maziar Bahari’s letter to Khamenei (NYT):

Your government issued me a press card. But I was coerced to make a false televised confession admitting that I was acting as an agent of evil Western media. I was forced to say the media are trying to overthrow the Islamic government. I was beaten and threatened with execution to make that confession. I was beaten again after the show because I did not perform as well as my interrogator would have liked. Yes, Ayatollah Khamenei, I had to apologize to you on television to stop my torturer from punching me in the head.

Basij member describes election abuse

admin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:03:19 +0000

A former Basij member -the Iranian religious militia- in an interview with Channel 4 has revealed part of the abuse and killing they’ve been ordered to do. It is a short video worth watching (Might contain graphic images).
You can also hear to the whole interview in Persian and read the article here.

Human rights worst in the last 20 years

admin — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 15:16:31 +0000

Human rights violations in Iran are now as bad as at any time in the past 20 years, Amnesty International has said in a new report on the aftermath of last June’s presidential election. (Read the whole article here)
Bellow you can watch the interview of Dr. Arash Hejazi who was the witness of Neda’s death with Amnesty International:

Maziar Bahari Free after 118 days

admin — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 20:38:07 +0000

Maziar Bahari, Newsweeks journalist who has been arrested and in the notorius Evin prison since june 12th has been released. Read his story in News week and watch Fareed Zakaria’s interview with him.

Trial Scam

admin — Sat, 01 Aug 2009 15:03:46 +0000

The first trials of opposition political activists and protesters arrested after June’s disputed Iranian presidential election began today. A trial Scam with confessions prepared under torture, without any jury and defense lawyers.
Looking at the face of Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the former vice president and blogger tells all that the prisoners have been through during their prison time. Abtahi has lost 18 kilograms during 43 days in prison. just compare his photo before and after his prison time. Also read the English translation of Mowjcamp that Naj has made in his blog.
A Country In Shock, A People In Fury

If you haven’t yet watched the Jason Jones report (the Daily Show) where he interviews Abtahi watch it here.

Some photos from the United For Iran demosntration in Dusseldorf

admin — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:03:00 +0000

These are some photos I took from the United for Iran demostration in Dusseldorf on 25th of July. Special thanks to Azadi for Iran (Freedom for Iran) for organizing this event.

Watch a video of the event in Dussseldorf in the rest of this post.

9th of July

admin — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 09:05:44 +0000

Today is the anniversary of 9th of July student uprising in Iran. The protests which were violently cracked down, many were arrested, some killed and some students disappeared. There are some protests planned for today in many cities while the Iranian “Police” is threatening people not to take part in “illegal demonstrations”. (see: Iran vows tough answer to marches)
Arresting journalists and activists continues as a few days ago a French university professor was detained on charges of espionage! (Read it in Reporters without borders website).
The Iranian authorities are using prolonged harsh interrogations, beatings, sleep deprivation, and threats of torture to extract false confessions from detainees arrested since the disputed June 12 presidential election, Human Rights Watch said yesterday. According to the authorities still about 500 people are in the arrest cells.

This is part of an article in Guardian about Khamenei’s son, who is in control of anti-protest militia:
Within Iran, Mojtaba is widely believed to control huge financial assets. There are claims on Iranian dissident websites that the current anti-British campaign in Tehran is motivated in part by Britain’s announcement on 18 June that it had frozen nearly £1bn in Iranian assets, in accordance with UN and EU sanctions. The frozen funds included a lot of Mojtaba’s money, it is claimed.

Statement by a group of Iranian bloggers about the Presidential election and the subsequent events

admin — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:18:40 +0000

1) We, a group of Iranian bloggers, strongly condemn the violent and repressive confrontation of Iranian government against Iranian people’s legitimate and peaceful demonstrations and ask government officials to comply with Article 27 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution which emphasizes “Public gatherings and marches may be freely held, provided arms are not carried and that they are not detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.”

2) We consider the violations in the presidential election, and their sad consequences a big blow to the democratic principles of the Islamic Republic regime, and observing the mounting evidence of fraud presented by the candidates and others, we believe that election fraud is obvious and we ask for a new election.

3) Actions such as deporting foreign reporters, arresting local journalists, censorship of the news and misrepresenting the facts, cutting off the SMS network and filtering of the internet cannot silence the voices of Iranian people as no darkness and suffocation can go on forever. We invite the Iranian government to honest and friendly interaction with its people and we hope to witness the narrowing of the huge gap between people and the government.

 A part of the large community of Iranian bloggers 
June 26, 2009

Defy torture

admin — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:05:48 +0000

Amnesty International has released another short anti-torture ad and asks everybody to join Amnesty to defy torture. The advertisement is really effective. So if you’re not a member of Amnesty International after watching the video think of Joining Amnesty international with as few as 2 Euro’s a month and help defying torture.

Also read: They don’t want you to watch this film