• Iran Judiciary set to filter Instagram
An Iranian judicial official announced that Iran was ready to filter Instagram, Facebook’s photo and video-sharing social networking service.
The head of the Virtual Space Department of Iran’s Attorney General’s Office said that a court order had been issued to filter Instagram and that most members of the Supreme Council of Virtual Space, charged with overseeing Iran’s internet, agreed with the filter.
“According to Supreme Council of Virtual Space, the government had to issue a permit for this social media to be active in the country, and a permit has not been issued,” he said.
• Seven Workers of Ahvaz Steel Company Still in Prison
Mohammad Ali Jedari Forooghi, the attorney of arrested steelworkers of Ahvaz Steel Company said there are still seven workers in prison.
Forooghi said he hopes that all the steelworkers will be released this week.
After the continuous protests of the Steelworkers in Ahvaz, 43 workers were arrested on several occasions.
• Food with “Rodent Feces” Served to Political Prisoners in Iran’s Great Tehran Penitentiary
The food served at the Great Tehran Penitentiary (GTP) is unsanitary and has been found to contain rodent feces, making some prisoners sick, the wife of a political prisoner held there told.
On December 26, 2018, Mohammad Sharifi Moghaddam, a Sufi Muslim dervish of the persecuted Gonabadi order who is being held in the facility’s security wing, received medical attention hours after suffering food poisoning, his wife, Faezeh Abdipour.
she added: “There are lots of mice and bugs around and on many occasions, rodent feces have been seen in the food,”.
Abdipour continued: “These prisoners are not only denied basic needs but also can’t receive medical services without difficulty. Mohammad had to talk to the authorities for a long time before he was given permission to go to the prison clinic.”
• Two Prisoners Announce Hunger Strike for Lack of Medical Care
Two female political prisoners in Iran in a joint letter have announced a three-day hunger strike in protest to being deprived of medical care.
Human rights activist Narges Mohammadi and British-Iranian dual citizen Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliff have complained that, despite international and Iranian laws and their repeated pleas, their right to receive medical care has been denied.
They write in their letter that a doctor accredit by prison authorities has ordered that they receive medical care “on an emergency basis” but prison authorities have simply ignored the request.
• Hardliner Cleric Might Be the Next Head of Iran Judiciary
A conservative cleric who was involved in extra-judicial killings of political prisoners in the late 1980s in Iran did not deny reports that he might be appointed to head the Islamic Republic’s all-powerful Judiciary.
Iran’s judicial branch of government is directly under the control of the Supreme Leader and acts as a bulwark against critics and opponents of the regime, not hesitating to arrest activists and journalists, conduct closed-door trials and hand out long prison terms and executions.
A senior advisor to regime’s so called moderate president Rouhani has voiced support for Rais’s possible appointment, praising him as an experienced judge and manager.
