Welcome to ICFTO

At least two Baluch protesters, including a 13-year-old child, were shot and killed today by the IRGC forces in the Qaleh Bid Base during protests in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan Province.
Hassan Mohammadzehi, 13 and Mohammad Saleh Motaghedi were shot and killed during the protests on Wednesday, two days after dozens of ‘fuel carriers’ were were killed and wounded in the southeastern province.
On February 22, several of the Baluch locals who carry fuel across the border gathered outside the IRGC base to protest the blocking of the border, demanding that it be reopened. The IRGC has dug large holes on the border to prevent Baluch fuel carriers from crossing. The IRGC responded with bullets killing at least 40 protesters and woundening more than 100 defenseless protesters, according to social media reports and videos.

Iranian security forces fired tear gas on Tuesday to disperse demonstrators gathered in the south-eastern city of Saravan, and there was a heavy presence of forces in the city.

Videos posted on social media from inside Iran showed the state security forces using tear gas and bullets to disperse angry locals who are protesting the killing of Baluch “fuel carries” by the IRGC.

Witnesses in Saravan said there had been several arrests in the city, which is in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province.
Clashes ensued between locals and security forces. Security forces attacked protesters with tear gas and pellet guns on the streets of Saravan. Although several protesters were injured, there are still no reports on the exact number of people who were injured as the protests are ongoing.

Behnam Mahjoubi, from Iran’s persecuted Gonabadi Dervish religious minority, passed away today in a hospital in Tehran four days after receiving an of unknown medication in prison.
Mahjoubi was transferred to Loghman Hospital on February 12 from the notorious Evin Prison.
Ebrahim Allah Bakhshi, the friend of dissident Behnam Mahjoubi, cited “credible hospital sources” as saying Behman Mahjoubi had passed away.
“Credible sources from among hospital authorities have informed us that Behnman Mahjoubi has passed away but (the doctors said) they have ordered us to keep him connected to the machines for three days to keep up appearances,” he tweeted today.

Allah Bakhshi, a former political prisoner, and Mahjoubi both are members of Iran’s Gonabadi Dervish religious minority. Members of the Sufi religious sect long have complained of harassment by the Iranian regime, who view them as heretics.
Last night, doctors had told the family that he was only breathing with the machines and that the hospital staff have done their best and it would take a miracle to get Behnam back.

Two other prisoners were executed Saturday in eastern Iran following the recent increase in executions of Baloch minority prisoners.
Iranian authorities on Saturday executed two ethnic Balochi citizens on drug related charges.

Jamaluddin Brahui and Mohammad Barahui were executed in a prison in the eastern Iranian city of Birjand.

An informed source said that the 40-year-old man was arrested about two years ago at the Salabad checkpoint in Birjand.
“He was sentenced to 27 years in prison, but was suddenly transferred to prison quarantine on Thursday for execution and executed on Saturday, February 13.”

His family were called to go to the prison for a last visit on Friday, February 12,” the source said.

Five months after the execution of wrestling champion and protester Navid Afkari, concerns have raised about the situation of his imprisoned brothers.
The remaining Afkari brothers, Vahid and Habib are currently in solitary cells in the basement of Shiraz’s Adel Abad Prison in southwestern Iran.
Before Navid’s execution on September 12, all three Afkari brothers were beaten and forcibly transferred from Ebrat ward to separate solitary cells in the basement.
During the past five months, the Afkari brothers were deprived phone calls and only could visit their family every two weeks, which has now been suspiciously cut off.
Sources close to the Afkari family say authorities of Adelabad Prison of Shiraz have not permitted the family to visit their two imprisoned sons.

The clerical regime’s Judiciary issued its inhuman verdict of 20 years of imprisonment for a mother and her children found guilty of supporting the opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK).
According to the verdict issued on January 23, 2021, and made public on February 7, political prisoner Zahra Safaei, her daughter, political prisoner Parastoo Mo’ini, and her son, Mohammad Massoud Mo’ini have been sentenced respectively to 8, 6 and 6 years’ imprisonment.
The mother and her children are charged with “assembly and collusion to act against national security through communicating with the PMOI,” “advancing the PMOI objectives,” and “participating in PMOI meetings.” They are also charged with “propaganda activities against the state by writing slogans (on the walls), reading out statements and posting banners in public thoroughfares.”

A man was sentenced to amputation, in addition to other charges, in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province, in southwestern Iran yesterday.
According to the IRGC-affiliated YJC website, the man was detained for injuring a state environmental agent. He was sentenced to qisas, the Islamic term for “retaliation”, a financial penalty, prison, and confiscation of weapons.
The report did not mention which part of his body would be amputated.
This is not the first time the regime hands out retribution sentences.
In May 2020, a 30-year-old woman who had blinded a man by throwing acid in his face was literally sentenced to an eye for an eye in northeastern Iran, a state-run daily reported.

Political prisoner Mehdi Farahi Shandiz has been moved to the quarantine of the Central Prison of Karaj since more than two months ago. He is under pressure and restrictions there.

Political prisoner Mehdi Farahi Shandiz was relocated from ward 6 to the quarantine of the Central Prison of Karaj in late November, for chanting against the clerical regime’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the religious dictatorship. He was deprived of phone calls and visitations. After more than two months, he has just had an opportunity to call his family. He has been permitted to call his family only once a week and only in the presence of a prison guard.

Political prisoner Mehdi Farahi Shandiz has a heart condition and suffers from high blood pressure and diabetes, an informed source said. Despite taking blood pressure pills, his blood pressure is 150 because of high stress and physical and psychological pressures on him in the quarantine. Also despite suffering from diabetes, he does not have suitable nutrition in prison.

Iranian authorities on Saturday hanged Javid Dehghan, a member of Iran’s Baluchi ethnic minority, despite a plea by the United Nations to halt his execution.

The Iranian judiciary’s official website reported that Javid Dehghan, 31, was hanged in the central prison of Zahedan for killing two members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) five years ago in southeastern Sistan-Baluchistan Province.
It described the Baluchi political prisoner as a leader of a Sunni militant group known as Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice).

Javid Dehghan was arrested in May 2015 and sentenced to death for “enmity against God” (moharebeh) in May 2017 for his alleged membership in the armed group.

Javid was held in solitary confinement for a long time following his arrest, and was severely tortured to make forced confession, including through being lashed with cables and having his fingernails pulled out.