Mohsen Shekari, executed by Iran authorities on December 8, 2022

See also UPDATES: Iran Protests — Sinking Currency Breaks 400,000:1 Mark v. Dollar

UPDATE 1436 GMT:

The Australian chapter of PEN International has condemned the detention of award-winning Baha’i writer and poet Mahvash Sabet in Tehran’s Evin Prison.

Sabet is being held in solitary confinement after she and fellow Baha’i member Fariba Kamalabadi were arrested in July and given 10-year prison sentences on December 10.

Sabet has already spent 10 years in Iranian prisons.

PEN Sydney called on the Iranian authorities to “immediately release [Sabet] and other Baha’is unjustly detained in Iran, including Fariba Kamalabadi”.

The organization noted “grave concerns for her life and safety”: “Sabet has certificates from medical specialists stating that she needs regular medical attention and that she does not have the health condition to serve a prison term.”

UPDATE 1421 GMT:

Iran’s authorities are reporting a surge of more than 10% in the value of the rial.

Having collapsed to a historic low of 440,000:1 v. the US dollar, the rial is now trading at 395,000:1.

The nature of the Central Bank’s intervention to prop up the currency has not been revealed, but it followed Thursday’s resignation of the Bank’s governor Ali Salehabadi.

UPDATE 1138 GMT:

Kurdish rights group Hengaw says one person was killed and eight wounded by security forces on Saturday in western Iran.

The casualties occurred in Javanrud in Kermanshah Province. Protesters were marking the 40th day of the killing of seven Kurdish demonstrators.

The Human Rights Activist News Agency says 508 protesters, including 69 juveniles, have been killed by security forces. Another 19,199 have been arrested.

UPDATE 1131 GMT:

Residents of Zahedan in southeast Iran again took to the streets after Friday Prayers, calling for rights and justice as well as chanting, “Death to [Supreme Leader] Khamenei”.

The city in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, with Iran’s leading Sunni cleric Molavi Abdul Hamid as its Friday Prayer leader, has become a center of the 15-week protests. Demonstrations have continued despite security forces killing more than 90 protesters and worshippers on September 30.

In his sermon yesterday, Abdul Hamid challenged the regime’s persecution of the Baha’i religious group, including imprisonment, seizure of property, and denial of education and jobs.

See also 70+ Activists Criticize Iran’s Detentions, Denial of Rights to Baha’i Community

Abdul Hamid said:

The new generation of Baha’is are not former Muslims who can return to Islam. They were born non-Muslims and cannot be charged with apostasy

We sympathize with all Iranians. Muslims and non-Muslims must respect human rights.

UPDATE, DEC 31:

Iran’s Supreme Court has quashed the death penalty imposed on a protester accused of damaging public property.

The Court sent the case of Noor Mohammadzadeh, 25, back for review, said the Iranian judiciary.

Mohammadzadeh was arrested on October 4 and sentenced to death earlier this month for “waging war against God”. His supposed crime was trying to break a highway guardrail and setting fire to a bin in Tehran.

The detainee, saying he was forced to “confess”, went on a hunger strike two weeks ago.

UPDATE 1030 GMT:

Lawyer Saeed Sheikh has been given a 3-year prison sentence on charges of “gathering and colluding against the country’s security” and “propaganda against the Islamic Republic of Iran”.

Sheikh was arrested on October 12 at a rally, in front of the Iran Central Bar Association in Tehran, challenging detentions and rights violations during nationwide protests for rights, justice, and gender equality.

At least 44 lawyers have been arrested during the 15-week protests.

UPDATE 0954 GMT:

Author and illustrator Mehdi Bahman has reportedly been sentenced to death by Iranian authorities, eight months after he gave an interview to an Israeli TV channel.

Bahman was arrested in October and charged with espionage.

The author spoke with Israel’s Channel 13 in April after he approached an Israeli woman for the translation of one of his books into Hebrew.

In the interview, Bahman criticized the Iranian regime and called for normalization of relations between Israel and Iran.

Bahman advocated religious coexistence, working with Shia cleric Masoumi Tehrani to create artworks containing symbols from various religions.

UPDATE, DEC 30:

Writing for the Guardian, EA correspondent Deepa Parent and Ghoncheh Habibiazad profile five men — an actor, a radiologist, a poultry business employee, a karate champion, and an engineer — sentenced to death on claims that they killed a Basij militiaman on November 3.

The alleged attack occurred at the 40th day commemoration for protester Hadis Najafi, shot dead by Iranian security forces on September 21.

The Guardian, speaking to family and friends of the men, “The five – none of whom appear to have been acquainted with each other – were probably forced to give false confessions.”

Dr. Hamid Ghare-Hasanlou, a radiologist from Karaj, was charged with “corruption on earth”. His wife, Farzaneh, was sentenced to up to 25 years in prison after she was reportedly forced into making false statements against her husband.

Ghare-Hasanlou’s brother, Hasan, said that the couple were protesting peacefully when security forces “arrested them and beat Hamid in front of their 13-year-old daughter”.

We know that he was tortured in custody as well. Five of his rib bones broke while they tortured him into confessing what he had not done. His left lung got punctured and he started bleeding. They delayed in taking him to the hospital, so a blood clot formed in his lung.

A close friend adds, “They put a knife under Hamid’s throat when they wanted to arrest him while his daughter was right there. They threatened his daughter that they would kill her parents if she told anyone about what had happened before sunrise.” The son of the Ghare-Hasanlous, a student at a medical university, is” going from one safe house to another so that they don’t arrest him in order to put more pressure on his parents”.

Reza Arya, an engineer at an electricity department, was driving to visit relatives on the day of the protest, said a close relative. When the road was blocked by traffic, he got out of his car and saw people gathered at the spot where the militiaman was killed: “He was already dead when Reza got there.”

An independent lawyer was not allowed to defend poultry business employee Mohammad Hosseini. However, he did meet the detainee:

His story was devastating – from torture to getting beaten up with his eyes closed and hands and feet tied up, to kicks in the head to the point that he passed out. From iron rods used to beat him on the soles of the feet and shocks in different parts of the body.

His statements in court were made under torture and they have no legal grounds [for the trial].

UPDATE 1753 GMT:

Central Bank Governor Ali Salehabadi has quit amid the collapse of the Iranian currency.

He has been replaced by Mohammadreza Farzin, an economist who prepared President Ebrahim Raisi’s economic plan going into the managed Presidential election in 2021.

Salehabadi’s departure was rumored — and denied — earlier this month as the rial crashed to a historic low and broke the 400,000 level v. the US dollar.

After losing almost 30% of its value this month, the rial improved slightly to 430,000:1 v. the dollar on Thursday.

UPDATE 1204 GMT:

Writer and artist Sepideh Rashno has been given a five-year suspended sentence for refusing to wear the hijab in public.

A court convicted Rashno on Wednesday on charges of “gathering and colluding against the country’s security”, “propaganda activity against the government”, and “appearing without a hijab in public”.

Rashno was arrested on June 15 after a viral video of her challenging a woman trying to enforce compulsory hijab on a Tehran bus. The women threatened to send the footage to the Revolutionary Guards.

Rashad disappeared for several days. She was then shown on State TV, bruised and beaten in a “confession”.

In late August, more than 1,000 Iranian citizens and civil activists highlighted Rashno’s case in a statement protesting “four decades of oppression of Iranian women”.

Rashno was released on bail days later.

UPDATE, DEC. 29:

The Iranian currency, already at a historic low, has dropped more than 1% in 24 hours.

The rial is currently at 434,300:1 v. the US dollar. It fell as low as 440,000:1 on Wednesday.

UPDATE 1238 GMT:

Iranian authorities have arrested another journalist.

Davood Baqeri, editor of the Jame’e Farda and Atr-e Yaas daily newspapers, was seized by the Revolutionary Guards’ intelligence branch in Arak in west-central Iran.

More than 60 journalists have been arrested during the 15-week protests. Iran leads the world in per capita imprisonment of media personnel.

UPDATE 0929 GMT:

The Iranian currency, already at a historic low and falling quickly, has declined another 3% on Wednesday morning.

The rial now stands at 430,300:1 v. the US dollar. It has lost almost 30% in value this month.

Iran’s judiciary blamed “disruptors” on Tuesday, saying it will team up with the Finance Ministry’s financial intelligence unit to identify and arrest them.

The Economic Security Police in Tehran Province announced the arrest of 88 people for illegal involvement in future trading of foreign currency and gold, through channels and groups on social media platforms.

The Intelligence Ministry has blocked hundreds of bank accounts for “illegal trading of foreign currency in the unofficial market”.

Addressing a Tehran ceremony on Tuesday, President Ebrahim Raisi insisted:

Economic conditions must change with the participation of the people. I am sure that with the participation of the people, the inflation rate and the currency rate will definitely change and decrease, because wherever people have been present, many problems have been solved.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Amid 15 weeks of nationwide protests in Iran for rights and justice, 100 detainees face the death penalty.

The Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights issued a summary report on Tuesday. At least eleven of the protesters have already been sentenced, and two — Mohsen Shekari and Majidreza Rahnavard — have been executed.

Five women are among those who face charges such as “war against God”. They include journalists Niloofar Hamedi and Elahe Mohammadi, who broke the news on September 16 of the hospitalization, coma, and death of Mahsa Amini —seized and reportedly beaten by “morality police” three days earlier. The news galvanized demonstrations across Iran.

See also Iran Protests — Regime Executes 2nd Demonstrator

On Saturday the Supreme Court ratified the death sentence of Mohammad Ghobadlou, accused of running over security personnel with a car.

Ghobadlou’s father has issued a plea on social media calling for his son’s release, saying “he made a big mistake” and “so far had no criminal record”. He added that his son suffers from a mental disorder.

The judiciary rejected the plea, saying Ghodablou had undergone psychiatric evaluation and “was aware of the nature of his crime”.

At least 18,000 people have been arrested during the protests.

IHR also issued an updated toll of 476 protesters, including 64 children and 34 women, killed by Iranian security forces. Killings have been recorded in 25 of Iran’s 31 provinces.

The death toll is an absolute minimum. Reports of protester killings in the last few days are still being investigated. Iran Human Rights has received a high volume of reports of deaths which it continues to investigate with security considerations and internet disruptions.