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Iran News in Brief – May 23, 2023

Sedighe Shahrokhi

iran pensioners protest 22052023

THIS PAGE WILL BE UPDATED WITH THE LATEST NEWS

UPDATE: 10:00 PM CET

Iran: Further Information: Grave Risk of Executions in Relation to Protests

At least seven individuals in Iran are under sentence of death in connection with nationwide protests, while dozens of others are at risk of being sentenced to death. The authorities have violated their fair trial rights and subjected many to torture and other ill-treatment, including floggings, electric shocks, death threats and sexual violence. Amid a spike in executions since late April, on 19 May, authorities arbitrarily executed tortured protesters Majid Kazemi, Saeed Yaghoubi and Saleh Mirhashemi in Esfahan, who were unjustly convicted and sentenced to death.

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Iran Protests at a Glance

Based partially on reporting by PMOI (MEK) Network in Iran

Tuesday, May 23, 2023 – 8 PM GMT + 1

Tuesday marked another day of anti-regime rallies in Iran as people in different parts of the country came to the streets to protest the regime’s corruption and human rights abuses.

The investors of the state-run Cryptoland online exchange held a rally in Tehran demanding the IRGC return their stolen money returned. Over 25,000 families have been wronged and robbed by the IRGC, which is running the exchange.

The users of Cryptoland have been holding protests for two years, but authorities are refraining from acting on their demands. Cryptoland had around 289,000 users, who have lost their savings in the online marketplace. The regime’s Judiciary has failed to address the demands of thousands of scammed people for many years.

Locals in the city of Abadan in southwest Iran gathered on Tuesday to mark the one-year anniversary of the Metropol building’s collapse due to the regime’s corruption. Authorities sought to prevent the gathering by blocking the roads.

Tehran University students held a gathering on Tuesday to protest the regime’s strict on-campus rules and regulations, especially female students. “I will attack those who attacked our sisters!” they chanted.

Sharif University students in Tehran held a gathering on Tuesday protesting the regime’s execution of three protesters last Friday.

Brave locals took to the streets in Rasht, a major city in northern Iran, and were chanting anti-regime slogans on Monday afternoon, including:
“Down with the state of executions!”
“We swear on the blood of our compatriots that we will stand to the very end!”
“Down with the dictator!”
“Our silence is treason and collaboration in crimes!”
“The state of executions is breathing its last breaths!”
“Executions, imprisonment, and torture are no longer effective!”
“Poverty-Corruption-High prices! We’re going to overthrow the regime!”

UPDATE: 8:00 PM CET

Iranian Hackers Using New Windows Kernel Driver in Attacks

Iranian threat actors have been using a newly identified Windows kernel driver in attacks against Middle East targets since 2020, cybersecurity firm Fortinet reports. Dubbed ‘Wintapix’, the driver uses the Donut, a position-independent code that enables in-memory loading of payloads through shellcode, using process hollowing or thread hijacking.

Wintapix appears to have been active since at least mid-2020, likely developed by an Iranian threat actor and primarily used in attacks against entities in Saudi Arabia, but also against targets in Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. According to Fortinet, the driver was likely used in some major campaigns in August and September 2022 and in February and March 2023, albeit it remained under the radar to date. Observed samples have compilation dates of May 2020 and June 2021, but were seen in the wild much later.

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UPDATE: 3:00 PM CET

107 Former Presidents and Prime Ministers Condemn Iran and Want Iranian Guard To Be “Blacklisted”

More than 100 former presidents and prime ministers are asking the US, Europe, and the UK to consider and sanction the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. For our country, former prime ministers Verhofstadt and Leterme have signed the list. The signatories also condemned Iran’s supply of drones to Russia to wage war against Ukraine.

The letter was drafted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and is addressed to U.S. President Joe Biden, Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The former presidents and former prime ministers are calling for a tougher approach from the Iranian regime. According to them, the Iranian regime that oppresses its own people has been treated too laxly for years.

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UPDATE: 11:00 AM CET

State Officials and Experts Warn Against Unprecedented Poverty Rates in Iran

While the Iranian regime’s President Ebrahim Raisi continues to claim the country’s state of the economy is improving by presenting a so-called long-term plan entitled “the Seventh Development Plan”, statements from other officials sound otherwise. Fearing social unrest and the judgment of public opinion, many are trying to distance themselves from the status quo by becoming vocal critics.

Behrouz Mohebi Najmabadi, a member of the Budget Consolidation Commission of the regime’s parliament, stated that “nearly 20 million people in the country are not in favorable conditions, of which there are about 3 million households living in absolute poverty which means that a quarter of Iranians live in absolute poverty.

Hassan Sadeghi, the head of the state-affiliated Union of Veterans of the Labor Society, admitted: “The blame for this unbearable situation is 100% on the government. The government makes the dollar more expensive to compensate for its budget deficit, and obviously, everything becomes more expensive.”

“A person, who owns a bank, borrowed 450 million dollars from his own bank. With that money, he bought a property and now because of these high prices, his initial 450 million dollars has become 4 billion dollars. These things happen in a government that considers itself the godfather of the Islamic world,” Sadeghi said.

Meanwhile, Siyamak Ghasemi, a state-affiliated economist tweeted: “The reported and official inflation has reached 70%! This is the highest inflation figure since 1942 and since our country was invaded by the Allies in World War II. It seems that things have gotten out of control and they neither can nor want to control this rapid round of poverty expansion and are throwing people to the lower classes.

UPDATE: 7:00 AM CET

Iran Protests Continue as Truckers Begin Nationwide Strike

Anti-regime protests in Iran continued by people from all walks of life, including a new round of rallies by retirees, coupled with the country’s truckers launching their nationwide strike. Pensioners of the regime’s Social Security Organization were in the streets of different cities on Sunday demanding their rights and protesting their low paychecks as inflation continues to rise with prices of basic goods skyrocketing. People throughout Iran continue to specifically hold the mullahs’ Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei responsible for their miseries, while also condemning the oppressive Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and paramilitary Basij units, alongside other security units that are on the ground suppressing the peaceful demonstrators.

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Finding Solutions in the Face of the Inhumane Rule of Iran’s Mullahs

Iran has endured a brutal dictatorship devoid of compassion for human rights and dignity for the past 42 years, plunging much of the population into absolute poverty. To quell any potential uprisings and opposition, the regime employs aggressive tactics to suppress protests. A recent report from the United Nations Human Rights Council has raised concerns about the alarming increase in executions witnessed in Iran over the past months. Shockingly, the regime has carried out more than 10 executions daily, predominantly on questionable charges such as drug trafficking and blasphemy. While these executions serve as a means for the regime to address security concerns, particularly following the nationwide protests in 2022.

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Empowering Iranian Women: Battling Mounting Pressure From Lawmakers in 2023

The 1979 anti-monarchy revolution in Iran created a sense of participation among Iranian women from all classes. In the marches that led to the revolution, there were professional women with no hijab or scarves and women from traditional backgrounds wearing the traditional black veil; there were women from lower and middle-class families, accompanied by their spouses and children. All these women walked shoulder to shoulder together, hoping that the revolution would bring them an improvement in their economic and social status and above of all freedom and an improvement in their legal status.

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Housing Poverty for the People of Iran in 2023

The chaotic housing situation, shocking purchase, mortgage, and rental prices have given rise to a new issue called housing poverty, in addition to poverty in other aspects of Iranian citizens’ lives. Undoubtedly, the statistics are manipulated and under the engineering of figures and numbers by the government’s censorship organs; however, they are still shocking. The source for this information is an official report on the housing situation in Iran, presented by the government’s parliamentary research center. According to this report, in 2011 (1390 Persian calendar), 33% of households had inadequate and unaffordable housing. However, the official report shows that by the end of this decade, in 2022 (1400 Persian calendar), with a 22% increase, this number has reached 55%.

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Toronto and Vancouver: MEK Supporters Held Rallies to Condemn the Execution of Three Protesters in Iran

Canada, Toronto, and Vancouver—May 20, 2023: Freedom-loving Iranians and supporters of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) held rallies against the mullahs’ regime. Iranian communities in Toronto and Vancouver condemned the Execution of three protesters (Saleh Mirhashemi, Saeed Yaghoubi, and Majid Kazemi). They also express their solidarity with the ongoing Iranian Revolution.

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Also, read Iran News in Brief – May 22, 2023

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