THE CONTENT OF THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS
A passenger train derailed due to a sandstorm in southeast Iran
Reports from Iran indicate that due to sandstorm in southeast Iran, a passenger train has been derailed.
The train was going from Zahedan in Sistan and Baluchistan province to Kerman province.
“This evening a sandstorm derailed the Zahedan-Kerman passenger train near Shurgaz in the deser,” said Amir Bagheri-Zadeh, the governor of Fahraj County in Kerman province, on Friday.
Due to the regime’s mismanagement and institutionalized corruption the railroad in Southeast Iran along with train wagons have not been renovated. Some of the railroad in Kerman are as old as 40 years.
UPDATE: 5:15 PM CET
Top lawmaker confirms regime’s role in Iran’s air pollution crisis
While Iranians suffer due to the heavy air pollution, caused by the excessive use of fuel oil by power plants, the regime’s top lawmaker acknowledged the mullahs’ intention to continue using mazut and thus their involvement in Iran’s air pollution crisis.
“We have to accept the fact that fuel oil is one of the liquid fuels that must be burned, and it is done all over the world,” said Fereydoun Abbasi, the Chairman of the Parliamentary Energy Commission, on Saturday.
“The air pollution is mostly due to cars and motorcycles, and of course, in the current situation, power plants outside the cities must use diesel fuel,” he bogusly claimed, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency on January 23.
To stop or control the air pollution, the Iranian regime should provide natural gas to factories and power plants, so they use it as their energy source. But, since the regime intends to export more gas and use the money to fund its illicit activities, it has provided fuel oil, a highly air polluting substance, to power plants.
Despite Abbasi’s claims, Iran has enough gas resources to use it as a source of energy. According to state-run media, almost 40,000 Iranians die per year due to air pollution. Air pollution also increases the coronavirus fatality rate.
Villagers from the Ahmad Abad Lat al-Mout Village protest the cutting off of potable water pipes
Jan. 23 – Qazvin, NW #Iran
Video of today's protest by villagers in Ahmad Abad Lat al-Mout Village against their lack of running drinking water. #IranProtests pic.twitter.com/FVmtzeGgYn— Iran News Wire (@IranNW) January 23, 2021
64 Kurd activists summoned and detained in past two weeks
Iranian security forces summoned and arrested dozens of Iranian Kurd activists in the past two weeks, in a new wave of arrests in western Iran.
According to the Human Rights News Agency, 32 men and women were summoned or arrested in the past days by security agents or security institutions in Mahabad, Bukan, Piranshahr, and Naqadeh, in the northwestern province of West Azerbaijan, Sarvabad, Sanandaj, and Saqqez in the western province of Kurdistan, and Kermanshah, and Paveh in western Iran.
The report said some of the Kurd activists were brutally beaten upon arrest and that agents did not have arrest warrants.
Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced a media activist and journalist to one-year imprisonment
Tehran’s Revolutionary Court has sentenced media activist & journalist Moloud Hajizadeh to one-year imprisonment.
She had posted articles in protest to the bloody crackdown on Nov. 2019 protests & downing of the Ukrainian airliner by the IRGC. #Iran #HumanRights pic.twitter.com/ipq64rI8zr— IRAN HRM (@IranHrm) January 22, 2021
UPDATE: 2:45 PM CET
Commemoration ceremony at Navid Afkari’s tomb
On the morning of Friday, January 22, dozens of Navid Afkari’s family members and friends gathered at his grave in Sangar village to hold a ceremony in memory of Iran’s national champion wrestler. In this ceremony, the attendees laid flowers at his tomb and lit candles to honor his memory. The ceremony was welcomed by the people in Sangar village and continued until 3 pm.
The Iranian regime’s intelligence and security agents patrolled the tomb of the martyr to identify those who had come for the ceremony. They tried to prevent the presence of the people, especially the youth, by installing cameras on the entrance street leading to Navid Afkari’s tomb, but the participants ignored them.
UPDATE: 10:30 AM CET
Iran: Coronavirus Death Toll in 478 Cities Exceeds 205,000
The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) announced on January 22, 2021, that the Coronavirus fatalities in 478 cities had exceeded 205,000. The number of victims in Tehran is 49,831, Isfahan 12,945, Khorasan Razavi 13,870, Khuzestan 10,235, Mazandaran 8,197, East Azerbaijan 7,833, Gilan 7,276, Fars 6,212, Alborz 5,283, Yazd 3,757, Kurdistan 3,516, Ardabil 2,542, Hormozgan 2,145, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari 1,635, and Kohgiluyeh and Boyer-Ahmad 1,514.
#Iran Coronavirus Update
More than 205,000 people have died of the novel #coronavirus in 478 cities checkered across all of Iran's 31 provinces, according to the Iranian opposition PMOI/MEK.
Full Reporthttps://t.co/Xmp3zj6XhD pic.twitter.com/unWV754PAO
— People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) (@Mojahedineng) January 23, 2021
Activist woman taken to Bushehr Prison to serve 2.5 years in jail
An activist woman has been taken to the Prison of Bushehr, to serve her 2.5-year jail sentence. Mahboubeh Rezaii was arrested on January 19, 2021.
Ms. Rezaii is from the city of Borazjan, in Bushehr Province, in southern Iran. Her charges include “assembly and collusion against national security”, “membership in one of the opposition groups”, “insulting the (mullahs’) leader” and “propaganda against the state” for which she had been sentenced to a total of 13 years in jail.
Religious minorities suppressed in Iran – Christian woman denied jobs
The Iranian Intelligence services have deprived a Christian woman from getting employed for converting from Islam to Christianity.
A former prisoner of conscience, Mary Mohammadi (Fatemeh) wrote in a post that nearly one year since she was released from Qarchak Prison in Varamin, she has been deprived of finding employment. The companies that she previously worked with, have refrained from hiring her under pressure of intelligence services and against their own will.
A former boss of this Christian woman said about the situation: “For the sake of my one-year-old child, I cannot take any risks.”
The international community needs to urgently address Iran’s human rights violations
On Wednesday, the Iranian regime executed a prisoner in Zahedan, Sistan & Baluchestan province. Yunes Khaneshini, the inmate, was from the Khash village and had spent eight years behind bars.
This was the latest of a series of brutal executions and increasing repressive measures in Iran’s prisons. In the past few weeks, the regime has carried out executions in many provinces, including Kurdistan, Yazd, Qazvin, Ardabil, East Azarbaijan, and Sistan and Baluchestan.
Habib and Vahid Afkari continue to remain in solitary confinement
More than 4.5 months since Navid Afkari was cowardly executed by the clerical regime in Adelabad Prison of Shiraz, his two elder brothers, Habib and Vahid Afkari continue to remain in solitary confinement in that prison.
No reason or explanations have been provided for their continued detention. Their family’s inquiries to find out about their conditions has led nowhere, only adding to their concern over their safety.
Political prisoner Pouya Ghobadi quarantined after protesting shortage of food
Political prisoner Pouya Ghobadi has been transferred to the quarantine of the notorious Great Tehran Penitentiary (GTP) after protesting shortage of food in GTP’s Ward 2.
He has been quarantined in Hall 6 of Ward 2 as punishment for protesting shortage of food along with other prisoners on January 19, 2021.
Mother of Neda Agha-Soltan visited her grave
The mother of Neda Agha-Soltan, shot and killed during Tehran's peaceful #IranProtests in 2009, visited her grave today to mark her 38th birthday.
Neda became the symbol of the 2009 protests for freedom in Iran. https://t.co/5xvkYl5cT4 pic.twitter.com/YJ0AwxlwO7— Iran News Wire (@IranNW) January 22, 2021
Iran’s economic future is disastrous, officials admit
Mohsen Hashemi, the head of Tehran’s City Council, warned on January 16 about the country’s worsening economic situation in 2021. “In 2021, the country’s economy is going toward a Venezuela-like situation,” said Hashemi, who was quoted by the state-run Khabar Fouri news website. The reality is that, under the rule of the mullahs, Iran is facing a total collapse and destruction of the economy.
Iranians Continue Protests; at Least Five Rallies and Strikes on January 21
On January 21, Iranian citizens held at least five rallies in different provinces to voice their protest against officials’ mismanagement. In Kohgiluyeh and Boyer Ahmad, municipal workers protested officials over unnotified changes in their contracts which shaved around $60 from their monthly salaries.
Hoping to resolve their dilemmas by high-ranking officials like Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi and Education Minister Morteza Haji-Mirzaei, workers and preschool educators held rallies in front of the provincial judiciary bureau and governorate, respectively. However, they received no reply. In Khuzestan province, the education minister exited from another gate, avoiding facing protesters and hearing their dilemmas.
Iran news in brief, January 23, 2021
Read more: Iran News in Brief – January 22, 2021