Iran ( Prison official denies attack on Evin prisoners )

Saturday, Apr 19 2014        

 

The head of Iran's Prison Organization denies that Evin Prison was the site of any recent violence or attacks.

ILNA reports that Gholamhossein Esmaili said such rumours are merely being spread by "anti-Revolutionaries" and have no substance.

On Thursday, the Kaleme website reported that forces from the intelligence ministry, Revolutionary Guards and over 100 soldier guards swarmed Ward 350 of Evin Prison and beat more than 30 political prisoners.

The prisoners were reportedly protesting to "an aggressive inspection procedure" that had taken over five hours.

The Human Rights Activists News Agency, HRANA, also reports that many prisoners were severely injured in this incident.

The head of Tehran prisoners, Sohrab Sokeymani, also denied that the event took place.

In a new report, the Kaleme opposition website has denounced the denials of the prison authorities. The report says prisoners who had been sent to Taleghani Hospital yesterday have been collected by prison authorities and returned to Evin to avoid any further scandal.

Radio Zamaneh

TEHRAN ( Iranian woman on death row to be executed " If she tells the truth " victim will spare her life )

 TEHRAN: An Iranian woman on death row for the murder of an ex-intelligence official could be forgiven if “she tells the truth,” the son of her alleged victim said Saturday.
Interior designer Reyhaneh Jabbari has been sentenced to death for the 2007 slaying of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, which a UN human rights monitor claims was done in self-defense against a potential rapist.



 Judiciary officials say there is no date yet for her execution but her lawyer Abdolsamad Khoramshahi warned last week it could be “carried out within a month.”
Jalal, Sarbandi’s eldest son, told Iranian reformist dailies Shargh and Etemad that his family “will not even contemplate mercy until truth is unearthed.”
“Only when her true intentions are exposed and she tells the truth about her accomplice and what really went down will we be prepared to grant mercy,” he said.
According to Jalal, Jabbari, 26, testified that a man was present in the apartment where his father was stabbed to death “but she refuses to reveal his identity.”
His comments come just days after a young Iranian man convicted of murder escaped a hangman’s noose in Iran when his victim’s mother intervened, slapping him in the face and declaring forgiveness.
The UN says that more than 170 people have been executed in Iran since the beginning of 2014.
Jabbari’s case has triggered domestic and international condemnation.
Iranian actors and other prominent figures have launched an appeal against her execution, echoing similar calls being made in the West.
The United Nations and several international rights groups say Jabbari’s confession was obtained under intense pressure and threats from Iranian prosecutors.
Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s human rights rapporteur on Iran, said on Monday that her trial had been deeply flawed and apparently acted in self-defense.
“The Iranian authorities should review her case and refer it back to court for a re-trial, ensuring the defendant’s right to due process which is guaranteed under both Iranian law and international law,” said Shaheed.
He quoted “reliable sources” as saying that the victim, Sarbandi, had offered to hire Jabbari to redesign his office and took her to an apartment where he sexually abused her.
But Jalal Sarbandi insists that his father’s murder was premeditated, adding that Jabbari confessed to having bought a knife two days earlier.
“She (also) sent a text message to her boyfriend saying she would kill him,” he said.
But Shaheed said that Jabbari only stabbed Sarbandi in the shoulder and had called for an ambulance before fleeing the scene.

Barcelona ( Over 30 Indigenous Groups in Colombia Threatened with Extinction )

BARCELONA, Spain – At least 34 of the more than 100 native ethnicities and indigenous communities living in Colombia are going through a “humanitarian crisis” and are threatened with extinction, according to the Autonomy and Rights Observatory for Colombia’s Indigenous Peoples (ADPI).

A Colombian activist at the Observatory, Juan Manuel Avila, living in Barcelona, Spain, told Efe that Colombia’s indigenous population totals almost 1.5 million and their lifestyle is based on the principles of “balance among living creatures, harmony, give-and-take, and defense of the common good.”

But 34 of these peoples see their way of life endangered and live under the threat of their kind disappearing, as the Colombian Constitutional Court recognized in 2009. Since then, things have only gotten worse, Avila said.

ADPI is an association of organizations and individuals who work in Barcelona to defend the human rights and collectives of Colombian Indians.

Avila said these native peoples are living through a “humanitarian crisis, due chiefly to the armed conflict” between the Colombian armed forces and the FARC guerrillas, “which is being fought in some indigenous territories” and has made the Indians “victims of both sides.”

So what the indigenous movement demands, he says, is that they be “left out of the conflict and their lands demilitarized.”

Indian ethnicities have not been invited to take part in the negotiations between the government and the guerrillas, according to Avila, who says indigenous peoples like the Awa, the Nasa and the Senu particularly fear the launching of “macroprojects based on an extractive economy, because they will only generate violence for control of the territory.”

Another problem Indians have suffered is “international invisibilization” – few remember they even exist.

Mexico ( Gang members " kill 3 migrants on train" )

SAN CRISTOBAL DE LAS CASAS, Mexico – Four migrants were killed and three others wounded when gunmen attacked a train in southeastern Mexico, the National Migration Institute (INM) said on Thursday.

“A group of suspected criminals attacked the migrants, who were traveling on the train that covers the Arriaga, Chiapas-Ixtepec, Oaxaca route, causing the deaths of four people and wounding three others,” the INM said in a statement.

The attack occurred in a remote region of Oaxaca state and “the group of criminals tried to take advantage of this to steal belongings and money from the migrants,” the INM said.

“Some migrants refused to hand over their belongings to the suspected criminals, who shot them,” the INM said.

One of the migrants died when he jumped from the moving train “to try to avoid being robbed, dying instantly,” the INM said.

Officials have not released the identities or nationalities of the victims.

An estimated 300,000 Central Americans undertake the hazardous journey across Mexico each year on their way to the United States.

The trek is a dangerous one, with criminals and corrupt Mexican officials preying on the migrants.

Gangs kidnap, rob and murder migrants, who are often targeted in extortion schemes, Mexican officials say.

At least 100 migrants were robbed by armed men aboard “La Bestia,” or “The Beast,” the freight train Central American migrants headed for the United States often ride on their journey across Mexico, on Dec. 2.

The incident occurred in Chahuite, a town in Oaxaca state near the border with Chiapas state.

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