Amnesty Urges Action To Halt Imminent Iran Execution

Information provided by the Hengaw Human Rights Organization, a Kurdish rights group, and the Human Rights Campaign of Iran discloses that Hamzeh-Zadeh, who endured "severe internal organ injuries due to beatings and mistreatment by authorities," died on Tuesday during surgery at Imam Khomeini Hospital in Urmia after enduring 13 months of suffering.

Hamzeh-Zadeh, only 15 years old at the time, was detained during the 2022 Woman Life Freedom protests. He was subjected to torture for a week, resulting in severe internal organ injuries caused by beatings and mistreatment by the security agents.

According to an informed source close to his family, he lost both kidneys due to the intensity of the security forces' beatings, leading to physiological dysfunction. Over the past year, Hamzeh-Zadeh experienced unconsciousness multiple times, necessitating repeated medical attention.

A relative revealed that prior to his detention, he was in excellent physical and mental health, showing no signs of illness. However, following his release, he lost consciousness multiple times, directly attributed to the torture inflicted during detention.

Security authorities have reportedly pressured Hamzeh-Zadeh's family to withhold the news from the public. The incident follows the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in September 2022, sparking widespread protests across Iran. According to human rights sources, over 500 protesters, including numerous children, lost their lives during the subsequent crackdown.

Amid the ongoing human rights crisis, the Iranian authorities have not only failed to prosecute those responsible for the atrocities but have also intensified their oppression, detaining, summoning, or imprisoning family members of the victims. 

The bipartisan Mahsa Amini Human rights and Security Accountability Act (MAHSA Act) sanctions the Supreme Leader and the President of the Islamic Republic, among others, for their role in human rights abuses.

It passed the House of Representatives with overwhelming majority in September 2023, but has not yet been marked up for a vote in the Senate.

Iranian-American activists –who have been chasing Cardin for months to no avail– say they will stage a peaceful protest at the senator’s office next week, hoping to highlight “the importance of holding the leaders of the Islamic Republic in Iran accountable.”

The MAHSA Act is named after a 22-year-old Iranian woman who was detained in September 2022 for not covering her hair as much as the authorities deem enough. She received fatal head injuries while in custody and died in hospital shortly after.

Her death sparked the most widespread anti-regime protests in decades. Across Iran, the security forces and plain clothed thugs attacked people, killing more than 550 and injuring thousands.

The MAHSA Act was first introduced to the US House of Representative in January 2023 and passed with broad bipartisan support.

It’s unclear why Senator Cardin is blocking the bill to go up for a full vote in the Senate. His stance seems in line, however, with the Biden administration’s Iran policy –which some critics have called “appeasement” in pursuit of some kind of nuclear agreement.

Iranian education authorities have hiked the costs of releasing academic degrees more than 30 times under the pretext of preventing brain drain. Iran is demanding exorbitant fees from the graduates of the so-called governmental universities who already went through the corruption-struck national admission exam to get the state-promised free education. 

According to Hamoun Sabti, the secretary of the Transparency Watchdog Commission – an NGO affiliated with Iran’s Conservatives, “the average fee for every semester of study for some bachelor's degrees has surged from about $20 to $600.” It means that for a four to five-year program, an Iranian must pay a minimum of $5,000 for official documentation of a degree that offers no employment or income guarantees. The average monthly income for Iranians ranges from $100 to $300. 

The rates had not changed significantly for over a decade until last year, when the Ministry of Science officially raised the fees six to 10 times. However, the graduates are asked to pay even more when they apply to receive their degrees. Ranges differ according to subject and level with master’s and PhD graduates paying the most and healthcare majors facing costs in excess of $2,000 per semester. For a PhD in a healthcare major, a five-year program in Iran, the cost for the degree from a state university can go over $20,000. 

The decision was made about a year after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei criticized the growing trend of brain drain and emigration of elites, tacitly giving the green light for stringent financial policies aimed at reversing the trend and holding the country's brightest minds hostage. 

According to official statistics, more than 3,000 nurses and 10,000 physicians migrate annually, with an average of 16,000 students leaving Iran each year to pursue further education. The Tehran-based Nilgam Center, an agency providing services to Iranians seeking to emigrate, claims that between 2010 and 2020 roughly 500,000 migrants left the country permanently. In April 2020, the Stanford Iran 2040 Project, reported in April 2020 that the population of Iran-born emigrants increased from about half a million before the 1979 revolution to 3.1 million in 2019. The top destinations were the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom.

Last year, more than 34,000 students and graduates signed a petition, calling on the Transparency Watchdog Commission to intervene. The head of the NGO, former lawmaker Ahmad Tavakkoli, wrote to President Ebrahim Raisi, asking him to annul the decision, but to no avail. 

Sabti emphasized that such a decision should have been announced before implementation to prevent dissatisfaction in society. "If it is necessary to increase the fees by 30 to 50 times, the previous executives should be accountable for why it has not happened until now.If the increase is unreasonable, why causing dissatisfaction in society?” he noted. 

Critics argue that the new rates should not apply to those who graduated before the fee increase, but authorities insist that the law applies to everyone. Last month, Iran’s Administrative Court of Justice voted in favor of the Science Ministry – the main authority that issues degrees – upholding that “the time of payment, not the time of study" is the base to calculate the fees. The ruling was issued following separate complaints filed by 26 students and graduates against the Ministry. Several university newsletters called the decision “taking university degrees hostage.”

Technically, the Islamic Republic justifies the fee – officially called the Cost of Canceling Free Education Service Commitment -- as compensation for the years a graduate must work in service to the country, twice the education timespan. However, in the absence of official employment opportunities, degree-holders must pay even higher than private university tuition to obtain their degrees. According to a report published earlier in the month by Nature, Iran’s universities are among the least trusted in the world. 

Sabti said, “Some argue that the new rates will reduce brain drain and prevent the emigration of elites from the country. This notion is akin to believing that increasing gasoline prices would solve major cities' traffic problems. Unfortunately, we have seen that with the rising cost of gasoline, the traffic problem has not been resolved.” 

While the Islamic Republic authorities justify the policy as a measure against brain drain, it is also perceived as part of the cash-strapped government's efforts to pocket more from people's wallets. According to reformist commentator Abbas Abdi, the government compensates for its inefficiency in boosting revenues from oil sales by raising taxes and tariffs imposed on the general population. 

Mazut, known for its environmental hazards, is typically banned in most countries unless blended with less polluting fuels; however, in Iran, it is regularly employed due to limited export market options.

According to reports from the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), government officials stepped in to ban the gathering.

Arak is one of eight major Iranian cities grappling with severe air pollution. Despite this, the authorities in the central province recently approved the re-use of mazut in the Shazand power plant, sparking concerns among the populace.

In response to the decision, several professors from Arak University issued a call to cease the use of the highly polluting fuel. In a statement, they emphasized that the burning of mazut in the Shazand power plant "poses a serious threat to the health of over a million residents of Arak and Shazand."

It was the second protest against air quality in events days. Last Tuesday, hundreds of residents in Ardakan, Yazd province, took to the streets to express their discontent with the air quality in their city.

The longstanding practice of using mazut in industries and power plants during the second half of each year, attributed to a gas shortage, has raised environmental and health concerns among the Iranian populace.

The action was part of a broader trend where Iranian regime opponents observed the anniversary of former IRGC commander Qassem Soleimani's killing as "Cutlet Day" on various social media platforms, referring to his mutilation in a US drone strike in 2020.

Iranian regime opponents and activists took to social media this month sending "Cutlet Day" viral, drawing a parallel to a popular Iranian dish consisting of ground beef and potatoes. 

The prosecutor of Bojnourd confirmed the arrest, stating that "insulting the martyrs is considered an insult to sanctities," the two top military men deified by the regime since their deaths. Like Soleimani, Mousavi, reportedly killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria, played a pivotal role in fortifying Iran's proxy forces in the region.

The arrest aligns with a pattern of Iranian authorities cracking down on dissent. Earlier in January, a prominent chef and Instagram influencer, Navab Ebrahimi, faced detention for sharing a Persian cutlet recipe on the anniversary of Soleimani's death. Ebrahimi was released on bail after a few days, though the specific charges against him remained unclear.

The Iranian government's intensified response to dissent is evident, particularly in the aftermath of the September 2022 death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. Amini was arrested for allegedly improperly wearing a headscarf, fueling nationwide anger and prompting increased measures to suppress signs of dissent across the country amid mass protests.