Putin gifts a traditional samovar to Iran's president

Vafadar was arrested on May 9, 2024, after the release of a music video titled “Standby” on his Instagram pages, whose lyrics said the Iranian people would retake Iran from the Islamic Republic.

Danial Moghaddam, the other singer of the song, was also arrested in May but released in July.

​​The repression of rappers in Iran has continued unabated over the past few years. Toomaj Salehi was the most prominent rapper who was sentenced to death for his songs but the verdict was later overturned, and he was released on December 1, 2024.

Another dissident rapper, Saman Yassin, was also sentenced to death on charges including "enmity against God, assembly and collusion to act against national security."

But the verdict was later overturned, and he was sentenced to serve five years in prison in exile in Kerman province in southeastern Iran.

Yassin arrived in Berlin on Friday after being temporarily released on medical furlough.

"Woman, Life, Freedom forever," Yasin wrote in a post on X, sharing a video of his arrival in Berlin airport, without providing further details of how he had left Iran.

Mehdi Yarrahi, a prominent pop music composer and singer, was also handed a verdict of two years and eight months of imprisonment along with 74 lashes over his support for the 2022 protest movement as well as his songs against the clerical rule.

Tehran-based Shargh newspaper reported that the building’s confiscation followed a Dutch court’s rejection of NIOC's request to annul the auction of its Rotterdam property, ruling in favor of the buyer, Dutch real estate company Heuvel Vastgoed B.V. The building, seized due to an arbitration ruling, had been sold on April 20, 2023.

Shargh's report said that NIOC had argued that the building, as a government-owned asset, should be immune from seizure. Heuvel, however, countered that the property was acquired legally through a public auction.

Ultimately, the court dismissed all of NIOC's appeals, including the request to reclaim the building, the report said.

NIOC's $2.6 billion debt to CGC stems from disputes over a 25-year gas supply agreement signed in 2001.

In April 2001, NIOC entered into a contract with UAE based Crescent Petroleum Company International Limited (CPCIL). However, in 2003, CPCIL assigned its rights and obligations under to its wholly-owned subsidiary, CGC.

The agreement required NIOC to deliver 600 million cubic feet of gas per day via pipeline.

The contract, finalized during the second term of Iran's president Mohammad Khatami, faced challenges after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration, elected in 2005, questioned the agreed price of $18 per 1,000 cubic meters, amounting to $98.5 million annually. As a result, the gas supply never commenced as planned.

This led to CGC to file a case against NIOC in 2009 with the international court of arbitration, and in 2010 the NIOC cancelled the contract. Iran then ignored a 2013 arbitration court ruling in The Hague that found the Iranian side liable. An international tribunal ruled in 2014 that the NIOC was in breach of its obligation to deliver gas since December 2005.

In September 2021, a tribunal ruled that NIOC must pay CGC approximately $2.43 billion in damages, plus interest. This award comprised $1.3 billion for CGC's lost profits and $1.1 billion for CGC's liability to its subsidiary, Crescent National Gas Corporation Limited (CNGC), for its lost profits.

The seizure of the Rotterdam building is not the first time Iranian assets have been confiscated over CGC-related debts. In April 2024, a British court ordered the confiscation of a £100 million ($125 million) property in central London owned by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC). Known as NIOC House, the building was located near the British Parliament and Westminster Abbey and had been in Iranian ownership for nearly 50 years.

"They were rewarded by God through their martyrdom at the hands of the enemies of God," Khamenei told the families of the two judges after leading their funeral prayers.

Judges Mohammad Moghiseh and Ali Razini had decades-long histories of handing down death sentences and lengthy prison terms to dissidents in numerous cases.

The cases handled by the two judges, both of the clerics, involved political dissidents, activists, followers of the Baha’i faith, dissident clerics, and those accused of security-related "crimes."

However, Khamenei said after his prayers that "Razini and Moghiseh accomplished great deeds throughout their lives, which made them deserving of this reward from God.”

On Saturday, a 31-year-old janitor entered the first floor of the Branch 39 of Iran's Supreme Court, pulled a firearm from under his clothing, and opened fire on Ali Razini, Mohammad Moghiseh, and a security officer, the Iranian government's newspaper Iran reported.

"After targeting the three individuals, he left the courtroom with the same weapon, fled to the third floor, and then committed suicide by shooting himself in the heart," the report added.

Iran's former justice minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi told the state TV the assailant was looking for a third judge on the third floor, but the judge was not in the building at the time.

Based on investigations, the janitor's presence in the courtroom until his departure from the room took only 13 seconds, the newspaper's report said.

It did not specify the type of weapon used in the rare deadly shooting but mentioned that six shots were fired in rapid succession. Other reports in local media mentioned that a semi-automatic handgun was used.

The Iran newspaper also noted that investigations revealed the young janitor had no prior disputes with the judges, but his motive remains unclear.

In his interview with the state TV, Pourmohammadi said the janitor mentioned the MEK exiled opposition group, indicating that it was a targeted, preplanned attempt to seek revenge against the judges who were allegedly involved in the mass executions of prisoners, mainly MEK supporters, in the 1980s.

The Islamic government has identified the attacker as a janitor, but this has raised questions about how a janitor could have obtained a firearm, smuggled it into a heavily guarded court building, and demonstrated the skill and speed required to carry out such a precise attack.

The report about Tataloo's death sentence was first published by Jame Jam newspaper, which is affiliated with Iran's state broadcaster.

However, the Judiciary's media office dismissed the report, saying the final verdict for Tataloo has not yet been issued.

"He has recently become eligible for leniency under legal provisions. Leniency provisions, or legal reprieves, are measures outlined in criminal law to assist convicts in line with the restorative justice approach," the Judiciary said.

The blasphemy charge had been overturned and referred to a parallel court after the prosecutor objected to the verdict issued by the Ninth Branch of the Criminal Court.

The 37-year-old underground musician, once a vocal supporter of the Islamic Republic who had been living in Istanbul since 2018, was extradited back to Iran by Turkish authorities in December 2023 and has since been held in detention.

Last year, he was handed multiple prison sentences after trials starting in March 2024 accused him of several offenses including promoting "prostitution," disseminating "propaganda" against the Islamic Republic, and other broadly defined charges of "obscene content."

Known for his distinctive tattoos and his fusion of rap, pop and R&B, Tataloo had previously found favor with conservative politicians looking to engage Iran’s young, progressive audience.

In 2017, he even participated in a televised meeting with the ultra-conservative Ebrahim Raisi, who later become Iran's president before being killed in a helicopter crash in 2024.

In a notable moment in 2015, as the landmark nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers was unraveling, Tataloo released a song in support of Iran's nuclear program.

The situation is particularly critical in Tehran, where dam levels have fallen to just 17% of capacity, Firouz Ghasemzadeh, Iran's water sector spokesman, said on Sunday.

He added that cumulative rainfall since the beginning of the current water year (roughly starting in late September/early October) until late January is down 45% compared to the same period last year.

A 57-year rainfall record analysis places this year as the 53rd driest, meaning only four years in the past 57 have been drier.

Iran is currently grappling with one of its most severe droughts in over half a century. The situation has prompted criticism of the Iranian government's environmental management.

The volume of water entering Iranian dams since the start of the current water year until January 18th dropped by 5% compared to the same period last and 29% compared to the five-year average, Ghasemzadeh added.

Many regions of the country have been grappling with water shortages for more than a decade. Farmers have been periodically staging protests, demanding changes in government policies.

Outflow from dams has also decreased by 9% compared to the five-year average, since the beginning of the water year. As a result, current reservoir levels at 44% of total capacity, represent a slight improvement compared with last year.

Ghasemzadeh expressed particular concern about the state of dams in several provinces, including Tehran, where the five main dams are only 17% full—a 21% decrease compared to the five-year average. This shortage could have far-reaching effects on agriculture and food prices, especially with inflation averaging around 40% over the past five years.

The Zayandeh Rud dam in central Iran is at a critically low 13% capacity, a 28% drop compared to the five-year average. Significant reductions in reservoir volume and inflow are also reported in the provinces of Khorasan Razavi, Hormozgan, Zanjan, Markazi, and Golestan, underscoring the urgent need for water conservation.

Iran's water woes are compounded by several factors including regional politics, such as Afghanistan’s construction of the Pashdan Dam on the Harirud River.

The dam, which significantly restricts water flow to Iran's eastern provinces, threatens over two million residents in Razavi Khorasan Province who rely on the river for drinking water.

The current drought marks the fourth consecutive year of significant water scarcity in Iran, one of the most severe such periods in over half a century.

This has led to public criticism of the Iranian government's environmental policies. Even amidst government denials, the governor of Tehran recently admitted the country is "confronting a significant challenge in the water sector," acknowledging the dwindling rainfall and depleted dam reserves.

Additionally, the United Nations Water (UN-Water) has classified Iran as experiencing “extremely high-water stress” in its annual world water development report. The report highlights that Iran, along with other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, faces critical water scarcity issues.