Austrian Lawmakers Sponsor 183 Jailed Protesters In Iran

Maryam Jafari Azarmani, wife of the jailed cleric Vahid Heroabadi said Tuesday on twitter that her husband has been taken to Evin Prison while he has one more case pending against him.

Posting content on social media, Vahid Heroabadi was tried in the summer of 2020 by the Special Court of the Clergy on charges of “spreading lies with the intention of disturbing public opinion and propaganda activities against the state.”

The cleric, who is reportedly grown at odds with the regime, was detained at the Bazargan border with Turkey on May 31.

He formerly worked as a cultural missionary at Tehran University. However, he continued to slam policies like mandatory hijab, internet filtering, the persecution of Baha’is, a religious minority, and wide-ranging censorship of public discourse.

Once he wrote about the Baha’i community, “We can have two approaches. Killing the Baha'is, or [accepting] that they are our compatriots, Iranians, with social rights…. In the end it will be one of these two, and I will definitely be choosing the second one.”

After being dismissed from the university in 2018, he started selling small items in downtown Tehran while his photos dressed in his religious robes went viral.

Florida Republican Senator Marco Rubio told Iran International's Arash Aalaei that “the regime in Tehran feels threatened by peaceful protesters...I think what's the most interesting to see is some clerical dissension.”

Iranians have begun to express the belief that their society should be more open, more transparent, and people have a right to express themselves, he said. 

Referring to American lawmakers taking political sponsorship of Iranian political prisoners like their German and Austrian counterparts, Rubio welcomed the idea calling it “innovative.”

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South Dakota Republican Senator Mike Rounds told us that the extent of the crackdown on peaceful protests in Iran is "unfortunate, but when you have this type of regime which clearly doesn't respect life and who wants to maintain power at any cost you have this type of an outcome. It's unfortunate, and the people of Iran deserve better."

Echoing similar remarks, Texas Republican John Cornyn also expressed concern over the crackdowns on peaceful protesters in Iran, saying, “It's not a free country, it's a theocracy. We have been doing as much as we can to support Iranian people against this sort of intolerable backlash."

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Louisiana’s Republican Senator Bill Cassidy censured the Iranian regime for “killing its own people,” Saying, “We could start with the young woman who was abused in prison to the point where she died. And now we have sights of them shooting with high-power weapons.”

“The regime has lost its legitimacy and it's only being held in force by that oppression. And there's a little bit of an irony: the regime that took the place after a revolution in which the Shah was felt to be no longer a representative of his people, now no longer represents the people,” he added. 

He also criticized President Joe Biden for his remarks earlier in the day about not announcing the death of the 2015 nuclear deal. 

In a video clip, posted in social media Tuesday, Biden apparently at a campaign walk-about during November’s Congressional elections is asked why he does announce the 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) dead, the president clearly replies: “It is dead, but we’re not going to announce it.”

Cassidy said that “Iran has been assassinating people in Europe... So I think there needs to be a hard line not against the Iranian people who are great and incredible people who go back to the Persians and the Medes, but against a government which has ceased to represent those people, and instead has become a force of repression.”

Hamid Farrokhnejad, in an exclusive interview with Iran International, stated that "the regime is such a coward and so humiliated that it seeks legitimacy by terror, imprisonment, torture and execution.”

He also compared the Islamic Republic with Bashar al-Assad’s in Syria, saying that he is the ruler of Syria, but his rule is of no use and meaningless.

Farrokhnejad has been criticized by the state media and supporters of the Islamic Republic due to his stance against Khamenei within the past few days.

Earlier, a post by Farrokhnejad against Ali Khamenei's “dictatorship” on Instagram incited a wave of reactions among regime supporters.

In his post he compared Iran’s authoritarian ruler with other dictators such as Francisco Franco, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini, saying he is “mentally ill” just like his “colleagues”.

In response to Farrokhnejad's comment, Director of the Cinema Organization of Iran, Mohammad Khazaei said “You have no right to insult our leader, our sage, and our mentor. Here is still the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

Farokhnejad was banned from traveling abroad by the regime, but he managed to leave Iran is currently is in the United States.

Referring to the “increasing suppression” by regime forces, the 12 medical professional groups called the current situation in Iran a “human catastrophe” and asked the German federal government to do everything in its power to put an end to this.

“We write to you as medical professionals who are gravely concerned about the human rights and medical situation facing the civilian population of Iran. Since the violent death of Mahsa Amini…people from various social groups across the country have put their lives at risk to gather in protest against the Islamic Republic; among those protesting are many medical students and practitioners,” reads the letter published on twitter.

They added that the regime is attempting to suppress these protests by any means including rape and torture.

“It is extremely concerning to see the start of criminal trials against political prisoners in these times. Since political prisoners can face execution in Iran, we fear that the lives of countless people are acutely at risk,” adds the letter.

In another part of the letter, the signatories warned about the “treacherous nature of the security service’s violence against medical professionals,” saying that “doctors have been forced to treat their patients secretly, often outside of health centers; and the medical professionals have, themselves, become the target of repression.”

They also expressed solidarity with medical colleagues in Iran demanding that they are permitted to continue practicing their necessary work in accordance with the Geneva Convention for the protection and wellbeing of their patients.

This comes after Hamid Ghareh Hasanlou, a radiologist doctor, and his wife, Farzaneh, were sentenced to death on charges of collaborating in the killing of a Basiji member in Karaj, west of Tehran, and the suspicious death of Aida Rostami, a young doctor living in Tehran.

While the Islamic Republic claims a young female doctor, Aida Rostami, died after “falling from an overpass,” her family told the media that signs of harassment, torture and assault were observed on Rostami's body. Security agents have told her family that they should announce she had died in an accident.

Some sources and social media users have stated that Aida Rostami was killed because she helped injured protesters.

Earlier, in a letter to Iranian PresidentEbrahim Raisi, the World Medical Association demanded safe working conditions for physicians and other health personnel in the pursuit of their mission as well as full access to health care to all those in need.

It also called for immediate and unconditional end of violence and the establishment of a moratorium on all executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.

“We are profoundly shocked to hear that an increasing number of health professionals are threatened, arrested, and tortured in Iran, just because they do their work. According to the ethical rules of our profession, physicians have an obligation to treat those wounded or ill, without any other consideration. Likewise, prisoners must receive the necessary medical care by a health professional, without influence from the authorities,” stressed the World Medical Association.

The council announced Tuesday that President Federico Villegas has appointed Sara Hossain of Bangladesh as the chair of the mission. Shaheen Sardar Ali of Pakistan and Viviana Krsticevic of Argentina are the two other members of the mission.

Earlier, the UN Human Rights Council president had said he believes the newly established fact-finding mission on Iran can make a difference.

Federico Villegas of Argentina expressed hope late November that Iran will cooperate.

Villegas had noted that the council is a multilateral and democratic body where differences of opinion are legitimate, raising hope that the Islamic Republic would cooperate to carry out the mission.

The UN Human Rights Council voted November 24 to launch an independent investigation into Iran's deadly repression of protests, that has killed around 500 civilians.

The motion passed with 25 votes in favor, six opposed and 16 countries abstaining amid an intensifying crackdown on protests after the death of Mahsa Amini which began in mid-September.

Iran has announced that it will not allow an independent investigation into the protests, similar to its refusal to cooperate with UN human rights rapporteurs for 30 years.

Many human rights organizations have criticized the Islamic Republic for not allowing the UN special rapporteurs since 1992 to visit the country.