Iran " braveheart punishment " through the neighborhood

Iranian State Security Forces paraded at least four men through the streets of two cities this week after they were accused of the offence of 'mischief'.

One man was paraded through the city of Ilam, western Iran, just moments after he was arrested and without having being either charged or sentenced.

Ilam province police chief Ali Dolati said: "The hiding place of the man who had on the run for a long time was discovered in a surprise operation."

Dolati, who was quoted by state media, did not reveal the arrested man's identity but confirmed he was paraded in the city after his arrest as a 'lesson to others'.

Three men were also paraded through a district of the southern city of Shiraz on Tuesday.

Degrading punishments such as being paraded through he streets and public floggings are systematically used by the police in Iran to create a climate of fear among the public.

The punishments are carried out without any legal process, often on youths who are paraded through their own neighborhoods with their hands tied.

The victims are also often humiliated by being forced to wear watering cans used for lavatory ablutions around their necks.

A video obtained in November shows the regime’s masked State Security Forces publicly beating and abusing a group of young men while parading them through the streets, handcuffed in the back of an open truck.

Iran has seen a surge in executions, humiliating punishments and human rights violations aimed at spreading fear and intimidation among the public, particularly to the youth and women, since the election of President Hassan Rouhani in July 2013.

Paris Shooting Video (suspects wanted)

Maryam Rajavi condemns criminal attack in Paris, offers her condolences to French people and government

NCRI - Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, strongly condemned the ruthless terrorist attack on the office of a French magazine in Paris and the killing and injuring of a number of its staff and reporters. She offered her condolences to the bereaved families of the victims of this tragedy and to the people and the Government of France.

In this difficult moment, Mrs. Rajavi emphasized, the Iranian people and their Resistance stand with the people of France and the aggrieved families of the victims of this heinous crime.

Mrs. Rajavi added that attacks on innocent civilians, especially journalists, under whatever pretext or excuse, are terrorist crimes and blatantly contradict the teachings of Islam, which in no way condone such atrocities.

Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran
January 7, 2015

Tribal source: Egyptian Christians held in Libya freed

BENGHAZI, Libya (AFP) -- Thirteen Egyptian Christians held in Libya have been freed, a tribal leader said on Monday after government sources reported they had been abducted by Islamist militants.

However, Muftah Marzuq, head of the council of elders in the coastal city of Sirte, insisted that the 13 had not been kidnapped, but had been detained by people smugglers.

"The Egyptians were held by a group that deals in illegal people smuggling, because of a dispute involving money and transportation to the Harawa region east of Sirte," Marzuq said.

News of their disappearance emerged on Saturday when a source close to the government accused the Ansar al-Sharia Islamist militant group of having kidnapped the 13 Coptic Christians in Sirte.

The source said seven other Egyptian Christians had also been seized over the past few days in Libya.

Marzuq said Sirte city elders negotiated the release of the 13, without giving further details. He also did not mention the other seven.

Thousands of Egyptians work in Libya, mainly in the construction and craft sectors.

They have been targeted as the country has descended into chaos since dictator Moammar Gadhafi was overthrown and killed in the 2011 NATO-backed uprising.

Sirte, Gadhafi's home town, is in the hands of Islamist militias including Ansar al-Sharia, which the UN last month added to its terror list over links to al-Qaeda and for running Islamic State group training camps.

More than three years since Gadhafi's overthrow, Libya is awash with weapons and powerful militias, and it has rival governments and parliaments.

The internationally recognized government has been based in the country's remote east since an alliance of Islamist-backed militias, Fajr Libya (Libya Dawn), seized control of Tripoli in August.

In February, the bodies of seven Egyptian Christians who had been shot were found near Libya's second city Benghazi, much of which has been overrun by Islamist militias.

Iranian musician banned from travel because his group includes women

An Iranian musician has been banned from travelling abroad because his musical group includes women.

Regime border police confiscated Majid Derakhshani's passport at Tehran airport, and he now faces prosecution for the 'offence'.

Mr Derakhshani said in an interview: "The border police officers at Tehran airport confiscated my passport and told me that if I wanted to know the reasons for the travel ban, I should ask the passport authority."

Mr Derakhshani said Iranian security officials had regularly summoned members of his group for questioning because it includes women musicians.

His group's first concert in Europe took place in October 2013 with the participation of two women singers.

Regime agents had now told him his prosecution would now be reviewed by a court, he said.

Iran -Three men hanged in public neighborhood -photos

NCRI – Three prisoners were hanged in public in a northeastern town in Iran on Sunday.

The victims identified by their first name and last name initials as Mehdi V, Ehsan K. and Mahmoud V., were hanged in the town of Torghabeh near the city of Mashhad.

The state-media reports said two of the men had been sentenced to death and the third one sentenced to hanging plus 100 lashes in public.

Sunday’s public hanging follows the execution of at least 14 prisoners on the New Year’s Day in several prisons in four cities in Iran.

Four women were among those executed on the New Year’s Day. They were hanged in Shahab prison in the city of Kerman (southern Iran). Another group of seven prisoners were hanged in Shahab prison on the same day.

In Qazvin, a 38-year-old prisoner sent to gallows in Boeen Zahra prison. Two others were hanged in city of Bandar Abbas.

Since Hassan Rouhani became president of the clerical regime, over 1,200 have been executed including many in public.

The Iranian regime carries out public executions in a bid to intimidate the Iranian people.

Kidnappers Murder Journalist and Her Husband in Mexico

MEXICO CITY – A journalist and her husband were murdered by kidnappers in the western Mexican state of Nayarit, a state Attorney General’s Office spokesman told Efe on Monday.

Jazmin Martinez was a former cultural and entertainment reporter for the Televisa network.

The 26-year-old Martinez and her 30-year-old husband, Alejandro Ramirez Topete had been kidnapped last week.

Two of the five suspected members of the kidnapping gang involved in the killings have been arrested.

“They were in the same vehicle when they were deprived of their freedom on Dec. 31 at night” on “the Tepic-Guadalajara highway, near the crossing called Jala, some 70 kilometers (43 miles)” from Tepic, the capital of Nayarit, the AG’s office spokesman said.

The victims were “taken to a rural spot that is near the Nayar bridge, some 10 or 15 kilometers (6.2 miles or 9.3 miles) away” and kept hidden while “they communicated with their relatives to demand a ransom of 2 million pesos,” the AG’s office spokesman said.

Martinez and Ramirez Topete, who were beaten to death with a stone, were apparently murdered due to “a lack of coordination” among the kidnappers, the official said.

“The ones who were holding them captive decided to kill them without knowing whether the negotiations were progressing,” the AG’s office spokesman said.

The murders “were something that happened, it’s something unrelated to journalistic activity,” the official said in response to a question from Efe about any possible links between the crime and Martinez’s work.

Martinez was “currently providing her knowledge to a Boy Scout troop,” the AG’s office spokesman said.

Ramon Cruz Aguilar, an 18-year-old identified as Martinez’s killer, and Luis Alberto Espinosa, another 18-year-old who served as the gang’s lookout, are under arrest.

“The other three have been fully identified, but they are fugitives,” the AG’s office spokesman said.

Over the weekend, officials in the Gulf state of Veracruz said they were trying to find a journalist who worked as a stringer for several newspapers and had been reported missing.

Moises Sanchez Cerezo’s whereabouts is not known since Friday, Veracruz Attorney General Luis Angel Bravo Contreras said.

The journalist covers the news and posts stories about local corruption and community issues on social networks, media reports said.

Sanchez Cerezo works as a reporter in the city of Medellin de Bravo, writing stories and taking photos for his small weekly, La Union, the Cronica de Xalapa newspaper reported.

He is also a community activist in several neighborhoods, where residents have banded together to fight crime, the newspaper said.

The Martinez and Sanchez Cerezo cases are the first two involving attacks on the press this year in Mexico, which is considered one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America for journalists