Iranian Activist's Court Cancelled As She Refuses Hijab

Her brother, Ashkan Monfared, took to Twitter to express his frustration, stating that over three weeks have passed since they paid a bail of fifty billion rials (approximately 100,000 USD) for her medical treatment, yet they have received no updates and have faced deception and harassment from authorities.

According to Ashkan Monfared's statement, the Iranian regime has adopted a new tactic involving high bail amounts, where families are required to pay about ten percent of the bail for property valuation. He accused the authorities of using this money for their own benefit.

Shakila Monfared's troubles began on August 31, 2020, when security forces arrested her without a warrant while leaving her home. She was subsequently taken to a detention center controlled by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Tehran. In January 2022, Monfared received a six-year prison sentence and four months of probation work based on charges of "propaganda activities against the regime" and "insulting the sanctities of Islam."

This incident takes place in the context of news about the release of Hossein Fereydoun, the brother of former president Hassan Rouhani, on grounds of "medical concerns." He was convicted of corruption charges.

Judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi defended the decision on Tuesday, asserting that individuals with medical problems cannot be detained. However, this comes in the wake of numerous reports indicating that Iranian authorities have deliberately denied medical care to political prisoners, leading to fatalities and suffering.

Ahmad Alirezabeigi, representing Tabriz in the parliament, told Shargh daily Tuesday that his second court session was held Monday on charges of "spreading lies,” a legal term in the Islamic Republic similar to libel. 

He added that he has evidence on the bribery case and had argued that his trial should be held publicly with the presence of a jury because the current court – which handles cases related to state officials -- does not have the jurisdiction to handle this case. 

However, he stated that apparently his explanation was not accepted, and the court issued the verdict. If the one-year prison sentence is upheld by the court of appeals, he must immediately go to prison. 

Alirezabeigi revealed in late April that over 70 SUVs were offered to lawmakers at a lower price by the industry ministry ahead of their debate on a motion last December to impeach former industry minister Reza Fatemi-Amin. Forty lawmakers had demanded his impeachment for “inadequate performance” including failure to control rising prices for domestically produced vehicles, their low quality, preventing competitive imports, and corruption in the industry. 

In mid-June, he revealed more information about the bribery case, saying contracts had been finalized for the transfer of "300 vehicles," of which 147 were accounted for but the whereabouts of 153 vehicles were still unknown, calling on the public prosecutor to investigate and determine what has happened. 

“Most of the 147 delivered vehicles have been handed over to unknown individuals who are apparently connected to members of the parliament," he added.

More than 200 members of parliament sent text messages to the public or told the media that they were never involved in the scheme and did not benefit from it. The media published a list of others who have not denied receiving the SUVs. These include both supporters of Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and hardliner Paydari Front lawmakers. 

The whistleblower MP, who was also banned from speaking during parliamentary sessions in June, was indicted for “making a claim without evidence” in May, a ruling that he rejected saying the parliament and its presiding board have violated the law. 

The regime’s conduct is growing more and more opaque since hardliners won a big majority in managed elections in 2020 and President Ebrahim Raisi was elected in 2021 in a similarly engineered vote.

Prosecutions such as that of Alirezabeigi are taking place while former officials connected to powerful insiders who have been jailed for their involvement in colossal embezzlement or even criminal cases are being freed without serving their time. 

On Tuesday, judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi announced that Hossein Fereydoun -- the brother of former president Hassan Rouhani – and Hadi Razavi – the son-in-law of former labor minister Mohammad Shariatmadari – were released from prison. 

Razavi, sentenced to 20 years for paying bribes to managers of Iran’s Sarmayeh Bank, had started his sentence in 2019. Fereydoun was sentenced to five years in 2019 but rarely served his sentence as he was on long furloughs due to “medical concerns.” 

Referring to Fereydoun, Setayeshi said, "We cannot keep someone if he has a medical problem." He made the comment despite the fact that a lot of Iranians have died or are suffering in prison due to the authorities’ deliberate denial of medical care. 

Late in June, the judiciary announced its former deputy Akbar Tabari was released from prison after serving just 45 months of a 31-year prison term after posting a bail of 3 trillion rials ($6 million). Before being arrested in July 2019, Akbar Tabari held senior financial and executive positions within the Iranian judiciary for nearly 20 years. 

Earlier in June, state media also announced the release of Mehdi Hashemi, the son of former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Mohammad-Ali Najafi, a former Tehran mayor and minister of education who had confessed to the murder of his wife Mitra Ostad in 2019. 

In a letter written from Evin Prison on Tuesday, she revealed that despite her previous declaration of refusing to partake in what she labeled a sham trial, she will take the stand and represent herself in the public trial on Wednesday.

“Fueled by fearlessness in publicly speaking the truth, I am resolved to attend the hearing within the unjust court and present my defense,” read the letter from the young activist who is now studying law inside the brutal Evin Prison.

Earlier this year, Qolian released a message from inside the notorious prison, stating her unwillingness to participate in any court proceedings as long as the "Islamic execution regime" persists, and as long as those who “courageously stand against oppression and tyranny remain hostages of the Islamic regime.”

Qolian, along with Esmail Bakhshi, a labor activist, was subjected to torture to extract so-called confessions after being arrested in 2018 during labor protests in southwestern Khuzestan province.

On Wednesday (July 19), the court will publicly hear charges against Qolian of threatening national security, charges freely handed out by the regime to non-regimists.

In 2019, while Qolian was detained at Qarchak Prison, she witnessed the broadcast of her own confessions on television and recognized the presenter, regime mouthpiece Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour, as the same female interrogator referred to as Ms. Askari by her other interrogators. 

Subsequently, in a series of tweets, Qolian recounted her ordeal and revealed that the texts she and others were forced to read in front of the camera had been prepared by Zabihpour.

This 68-page report examines the issues of speed, limitations, and disruptions and reveals that Iran's internet is among the most disrupted and limited in the world, with internet speeds ranking among the five slowest globally. The report places Iran's internet quality as the second most disrupted after Myanmar and the second most limited after China.

The report also highlights data from Cloudflare, ranking Iran 97 out of 100 countries in terms of average internet speed, with only Sudan, Cameroon, and Cuba having slower speeds.

Despite the documented evidence highlighting the unfavorable situation of internet access in Iran, the authorities, including the Minister of Communications, have consistently described the network's quality as adequate and high-speed, downplaying the dismal situation.

It is widely known that regime authorities and the country's elite do not suffer the same poor quality as the masses, not least, those in rural areas. This has been compounded by mass crackdowns on sites and social media platforms as the regime aims to quash dissent.

The report explains that Iran's internet filtering involves three lists: white, gray, and black. Authorized websites are placed on the white list, unauthorized websites on the blacklist, and a significant portion of the domains and IPs, referred to as the gray list, face "intentional" disruptions.

The study reveals that the equipment used by filtering institutions in Iran intentionally disrupts around 50% of the data sent to addresses on the gray list. In other words, any internet traffic not recognized by authorized institutions and not on the whitelist automatically faces disruption.

The association holds various entities, including the Ministry of Communications, the Prosecutor's Office, judicial institutions, the Commission for Determining Criminal Instances, the Supreme National Security Council, and "some security institutions," responsible for the dire state of the internet in Iran.

The group of teachers launched a campaign on Friday to collect 100,000 signatures calling for the release of detained educators and an end to their harassment.

Esmail Abdi, a teachers’ union leader who has been in prison since 2015 backed the initiative by sending a message from jail. He said that the extent of repression against teachers has expanded in recent years.

Teachers' Unions of Tehran, Markazi, North Khorasan, Kordestan, and Eslamshahr have also supported the campaign.

In a statement they said the Islamic Republic's security and judicial institutions have issued long-term prison sentences for protesting teachers in various provinces, while hundreds of others have been dismissed or forced into early retirement.

Last week, 1,200 teachers sent a letter to the heads of the three branches of government asking them to release detained union activists and end harassment by security forces, claiming the Judiciary continues to fabricate legal cases against union members. However, the president and the head of the judiciary refused to accept the letter.

Teachers maintain that they have pursued their demands through peaceful and legal means for two decades, but the Islamic Republic has always dealt with them through force and intimidation.

Teachers have been demanding higher wages and pensions for years, one of the lowest paid government employees. In the 2010s, government appointed officials embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars from their pension fund, without any serious consequences.