Latest news with #IslamicRevolutionaryCourt
BBC News
15-05-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Iran using criminal gangs for hit jobs abroad, court papers show
There has been a sharp rise in plots by the Iranian regime to kidnap or assassinate dissidents, journalists and political foes living abroad, according to reports by Western intelligence attempts have escalated dramatically since 2022, with even US President Donald Trump among the alleged targets. In the UK, police are questioning a number of Iranians arrested earlier this month on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack. The BBC understands the alleged target was the Israeli embassy in court documents from Turkey and the US - seen by BBC Eye Investigations and BBC Persian - contain evidence that Iran has been hiring criminal gangs to carry out killings on foreign soil, allegations the Iranian regime has previously denied. Iranian officials did not respond to a fresh request for a name repeatedly surfaced in these documents: Naji Sharifi Zindashti, an Iranian criminal boss, known for international drug name appeared in a Turkish indictment in connection with the 2017 killing in Istanbul of Saeed Karimian, the head of a Persian TV network that broadcast Western films and programmes to Iran. Iranian authorities considered Karimian a threat to Islamic values, and three months before his assassination an Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran sentenced him in absentia to six years in and Turkish officials believed his death was related to a mafia when in 2019, Massoud Molavi, a defector from Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), was gunned down in Istanbul, it shed light on Zindashti's alleged role in Karimian's had been exposing corruption at the highest levels of Iran's leadership. The Turkish police discovered Zindashti's gardener had been present at the scene of Molavi's assassination, and that his driver had been at Karimian's police suspected the gardener and the driver had been sent by was arrested in connection with Karimian's death but was controversially released after just six months, causing a legal scandal in Turkey. A Higher Court judge ordered his rearrest but by then he had left the then fled to Iran, raising suspicions that he might have been working for Iranian intelligence all along. Cengiz Erdinc, a Turkish investigative journalist, claims that when those out of favour with the Iranian regime are killed, Zindashti's men are at the scene. "It is not the first time, but there has always been a connection between organised crime and the intelligence agencies," he says. Over three decades ago, he was convicted of drug smuggling in Iran and sentenced to death. But rumours suggested his escape from prison, which led him to Turkey, may have been orchestrated by Iranian intelligence. "If someone sentenced to death in Iran escapes after killing a guard, they're unlikely to make it out alive - unless there's more to the story," says someone who knew Zindashti closely. The BBC is withholding their identity for their own safety. "The only plausible way for him to return and live freely would be if he had been working for Iran's intelligence services, making his escape appear to be part of a planned cover story for intelligence work with Iran's security agencies and IRGC," they told BBC World Service. People outside the UK can watch the documentary on YouTube In 2020, Zindashti's name appeared again in a Turkish indictment in connection with the kidnapping of Habib Chaab, an Iranian dissident who was lured to Istanbul, abducted, and later paraded on Iranian state TV. Chaab was sentenced to death and executed. Zindashti's nephew was arrested in Turkey in connection with Chaab's disappearance. Zindashti has denied having any in 2021, Zindashti was implicated in a plot in the United States. According to Minnesota court documents, communications between Zindashti and a member of the Hells Angels, a Canadian biker gang, were logged in the indictment. Zindashti allegedly offered $370,000 to have two Iranian defectors assassinated in Maryland. The FBI intervened and arrested two men before the attack could be carried investigation into court documents also uncovered that the IRGC and its overseas operations arm, the Quds Force, have been working with criminal organisations like the Thieves-in-Law, a notorious international criminal gang from the former Soviet Union, to carry out kidnappings and and Israeli intelligence sources say Unit 840 of the IRGC's Quds Force's main responsibility is to plan and establish terror infrastructure March, a New York jury convicted two men associated with the Thieves-in-Law for plotting to assassinate Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American activist. Iranian agents allegedly offered $500,000 for her killing. Just two years earlier, a man with a loaded gun had been arrested near her home in the 2020 assassination by the US of top IRGC commander General Qasem Soleimani, Iran vowed revenge. Since then, the US says Iran has been plotting to kill former members of the Trump administration involved in Soleimani's death, including former national security adviser John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo, former head of the CIA and secretary of last year's US presidential election, prosecutors accused Iran of plotting to assassinate Donald Trump, which Iran strongly response to these growing threats, the US and UK have imposed sanctions on individuals linked to Iran's intelligence operations, including Zindashti, Iranian diplomats, and members of the IRGC. Zindashti denies ever working for the Iranian intelligence 2024, Ken McCallum, the director of MI5 reported 20 credible threats against individuals in the UK linked to one case in West London, a Chechen man was arrested near Iran International, a Persian-language TV station in London. He was convicted of gathering information for Iranian year, Pouria Zerati, a London-based presenter for Iran International, was attacked with a knife. Soon after, two men were arrested in Romania at the request of UK counter-terrorism in the UK security services told the BBC these men were part of the Thieves-in-Law, allegedly hired by Iranian Sabet, a presenter for Iran International, was one of the targets, but an attempt to blow up her car failed."When they realised they couldn't attach a bomb to my car, the agents told the man to finish the job quietly," says Sima, who has seen the police file, says. "He asked how quietly, and they replied, 'As quiet as a kitchen knife.'" After the assassination of four Iranian Kurdish leaders by masked gunmen in a restaurant in Berlin in 1992, German prosecutors blamed the entire Iranian leadership for the killings. The attack was carried out by Iranian agents and members of the Iran-backed Lebanese Shia Hezbollah movement. An international arrest warrant was issued for Iran's intelligence minister, and a court declared that the assassination had been ordered with the knowledge of Iran's Supreme Leader and then, it seems the Iranian regime has been hiring criminal organisations to carry out kidnappings and killings in an attempt to avoid linking the attacks back to the Matt Jukes, the UK's Head of Counter Terrorism Policing, says it is relatively easy for police to infiltrate criminal groups because they are not ideologically aligned with the Iranian is what he calls a "creeping penetration" by Iran, which the police are trying to disrupt.
Yahoo
11-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Iranian ‘My Favourite Cake' Filmmakers Receive Suspended Jail Sentence & Fines For Showing Actress Without Hijab
Iranian directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghadam have received a 14-month jail sentence as well as $14,000 worth of fines related to their feature My Favourite Cake which world premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in 2024. The filmmaking duo and their producer and Gholamreza Mousavi have been in the crosshairs of Iran's authoritarian Islamic Republic regime since early 2023 over the heartwarming drama about an elderly widow who reconnects with life's small pleasures in the face of solitude. More from Deadline Juliette Binoche, Pedro Almodóvar & Mohammad Rasoulof Join 3,000 Signatories Of Petition In Support Of Iranian Filmmakers Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha Iranian 'My Favourite Cake' Filmmakers Sound Alarm Over Court Summons & Anonymous Death Threats Rotterdam Fest Director Expresses Solidarity For 'The Seed Of The Sacred Fig' Actress Soheila Golestani Following Iran Travel Ban Sanaeeha and Moghadam, who is also a Swedish national, were grounded by a travel ban prior to the film's world premiere in Berlin and the couple have since been subjected to an Islamic Revolutionary Court investigation. In the lead-up to the court hearing in February, they also started receiving death threats. Elements of My Favourite Cake which upset the Iranian authorities include showing the female protagonist, played by Lily Farhadpour, without a headscarf as well as the storyline around her romance with an equally lonely widower and scenes in which she dances and drinks wine with him. Court papers released by Branch 26 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran this week state that Sanaeeham, Moghadam and Mousavi were convicted 'of propaganda against the Islamic Republic through dissemination of false information intended to disturb public opinion' as well as producing 'obscene content'. They were sentenced to 14 months of discretionary imprisonment, suspended for five years, and ordered to pay a fine of 400M Iranian Rials ($9.4K) to the state treasury. Additionally, the trio were also fined 200 million Iranian Rials ($4.7K) and had their equipment confiscated for screening and distributing the film without an official exhibition license. My Favourite Cake was made in the wake of Iran's 2022 Woman Life Freedom protests, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody after she was arrested for not covering her hair in accordance with the Islamic Republic's sexist rules around how women should dress. Prior to the 1979 Islamic revolution women were free to wear what they wanted. My Favourite Cake is among a number of Iranian features made in the wake of the protests showing women without their head covered. Mohamed Rasoulof's Oscar-nominated The Seed of the Secret Fig, shot undercover in Iran prior to going into exile in Germany in 2024, went further, challenging the patriarchal system on which the country is run. Oscar-winning director Asghar Farhadi, who is also living outside of the country, has said he will not shoot in Iran until the obligation to wear a hijab is lifted. The political persecution of Sanaeeham and Moghadam, who are stuck in Iran, has sparked concern in the international film industry. More than 3,000 cinema professionals – including Juliette Binoche, Pedro Almodóvar, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Hiam Abbass, Alberto Barbera, Tricia Tuttle and Rebecca Zlotowski – signed a petition calling for the directors to be released and the charges to be dropped ahead of the trial in February. The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk (ICFR), a joint venture between the European Film Academy, the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR), which instigated the petition has called on the international film community to keep highlight the plight of Sanaeeham, Moghadam and Mousavi. Best of Deadline A Full Timeline Of Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's 'It Ends With Us' Feud In Court, Online & In The Media 'Hacks' Season 4 Release Schedule: When Do New Episodes Come Out? Everything We Know About 'Hacks' Season 4 So Far
Rudaw Net
08-04-2025
- Politics
- Rudaw Net
Eight Kurdish activists face anti-state charges in Iran: Watchdog
Also in Iran Seven killed in tragic gas poisoning incident at 'unregistered' mine in Iran Iran denies Trump's claims of 'direct' Tehran-Washington negotiations Zarif rejects claims of role in anticipated US-Iran nuclear talks Iran condemns US 'Free Iraq from Iran Act' as 'very offensive' A+ A- ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Eight Kurdish activists appeared before a court on Tuesday on charges of 'propaganda against the state' in Iran's western Kurdish areas (Rojhelat), a human rights watchdog reported. 'Eight labour and civil rights activists appeared today before Branch One of the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Sanandaj, Kurdistan province, facing charges of 'propaganda against the state' and 'disturbing public order and peace,'' the Paris-based Kurdistan Human Rights Network (KHRN) said. The defendants are Susan Razani, Seyyed Khaled Hosseini, Jamal Asadi, Farshid Abdollahi, Eghbal Shabani, Fardin Miraki, Sheys Amani, and Arman Salimi, who were previously summoned to court on January 5 and were released on bail pending trial, according to the statement. 'The case centres on their participation in the funeral of a dadkhah mother [justice-seeking mother] in Sanandaj, which the authorities have cited as evidence for the charges brought against them,' KHRN said. One of the accused is Farshid Abdollahi, the father of Houman Abdollahi, who was killed during the nationwide antigovernment Jin Jiyan Azadi (Women Life Freedom) protests, which erupted in 2022 following the death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Zhina (Mahsa) Amini in police custody after she was detained for allegedly violating Iran's strict hijab rules. Tens of thousands of people are held as political prisoners in Iranian jails for charges including advocating for democracy and promoting women's or workers' rights. The country ranks second globally for known executions, and the number of death penalties it implements has risen dramatically in recent years. Tehran has been accused by human rights groups of using the death penalty to suppress minority groups, like Baluchis and Kurds, who were active in the 2022 protests. Tehran executed an estimated 909 prisoners in 2024, with Kurds making up 20 percent of the total, the Oslo-based Hengaw Human Rights Organization reported in February.
Express Tribune
06-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Iranian artists under threat
UNDER SCRUTINY : My Favourite Cake has prompted a closer look at freedom of expression. Photo: File As makers of award-winning film My Favourite Cake face trial in Tehran, months after rapper Toomaj Salehi narrowly avoided execution, Iran continues its war on free expression, reported DW. The Iranian film My Favourite Cake is a seemingly harmless tale of two elderly people finding intimacy and affection after the loss of their respective partners. But this week the directors Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam, along with lead actor Lily Farhadpour, are on trial in Tehran for the crimes of "offending public decency and morality," "propagating debauchery" and "propaganda against the Islamic Republic." The film won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury Competition and the FIPRESCI Prizes at the Berlinale in February 2024. However, the filmmakers were banned from travelling to the event and had their passports confiscated. Apart from suggestions of sex in the film, it is assumed that Farhadpour's failure to wear a hijab during some scenes has landed the filmmakers in the Revolutionary Court. Crackdown after protests Much has been written about the arbitrary crackdown on freedom of speech and artistic expression in the wake of the 2022 "Woman, Life, Freedom" protests sparked by the police killing of 22-year-old Jina Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for "improperly" wearing a hijab or headscarf. When internationally renowned rapper Toomaj Salehi released songs in support of the Amini solidarity protests, he was found guilty of "spreading propaganda against the regime," among other crimes. In April 2023, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court sentenced the musician to death. It was later overturned, though the rapper remains in prison and is facing new charges. In a video posted online, Salehi described how he was tortured during arrest, with repeated beatings resulting in fractures in his hands and leg. He added that he spent eight to nine months in solitary confinement. Artists being tortured Even before the post-2022 crackdown on artists who dare to express support for democracy and human rights, freedom of expression had long been brutally suppressed. "My friends and I have experienced years of imprisonment for our art," Iranian composer Mehdi Rajabian told DW. This included about three years in jail and three months of solitary confinement. One of his crimes was to produce albums that supported banned artists, including female vocalists who are forbidden from singing solo in Iran. He has since been prohibited from producing music within Iran - though he continues to collaborate online with artists globally. Rajabian was first jailed for three months in 2013 on charges of blasphemy, propaganda against the regime and unauthorised artistic activities. In 2015, the composer was sentenced to six years in jail. He was released on parole after spending two years at Tehran's notorious Evin prison, having also carried out a 40-day hunger strike during which he suffered severe malnourishment. Rajabian was arrested again in 2020 for working with female dancers and singers and publishing his latest album, Middle Eastern, which brought together 100 artists from across the Middle East to promote peace in the region. He is currently serving a suspended sentence and is banned from leaving Iran. "Everything is on a knife's edge," he told DW in an email written from the Mazandaran province in northern Iran. His music appeared in an advertisement for Mercedes Benz in January this year. He could be returned to prison for any activity that is disapproved of by the regime. The musician's brother, filmmaker Hossein Rajabian, concurrently served a two-and-a-half-year sentence in Evin prison for "propaganda against the state" and "insulting Islamic sanctities." The director joined his brother on a hunger strike in the jail before he was released and left Iran for Paris - where he now lives. Both had been forced to make confessions, and also endured torture, including beatings and electric shocks, as documented by Amnesty International. In 2024, at the Cannes Film Festival, Hossein Rajabian featured as part the Woman Life Freedom Project on posters featuring censored and persecuted Iranian artists, including Abdolreza Kahani, Keywan Karimi and Sepideh Farsi. Giving voice to creativity The ongoing persecution has not stopped Iranian artists from working underground to produce music and promote human and civil rights. In December 2024, Parastoo Ahmadi, an Iranian woman singer, released a video where she performed a concert in a traditional but empty venue without wearing a headscarf. She stated in a caption for the video that has 2.5 million views on YouTube, that she "wants to sing for the people I love. This is a right I could not ignore; singing for the land I love passionately." Days later, an Iranian court opened a case against the singer, arguing the performance infringes on the country's Sharia law. She was arraigned and released on bail pending a trial. As Iran's regime recently announced a boost to funds for state propaganda, dissident artists continue to find ways to express themselves. Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof's latest film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, a thriller exploring state violence, paranoia and censorship, was inspired by the mass protests in Iran in 2022. After shooting the feature in secret - the Iranian regime had banned the director from filmmaking in 2017 - Rasoulof had to leave the production and flee the country by foot across the border. He had just been sentenced to eight years in prison and a whipping for criticising the regime. Having been produced and funded in Hamburg, The Seed of the Sacred Fig represented Germany at the Oscars, where it was shortlisted for best international feature film. As the cast and creators behind My Favourite Cake face a host of charges in Iran, their struggle has gone global as the likes of Juliette Binoche and Pedro Almodovar join 3,000-odd others to sign a petition demanding their human rights be upheld. "We stand uniformly by Maryam and Behtash and their freedom and right to create and to express themselves, just like any filmmaker and artist should be able to," stated the petition by the International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk.
New York Times
01-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
A New Age of Iranian Cinema Is on Display at the Oscars
A wife, wearing a nightgown and her hair uncovered, lies down next to her husband in bed. An older man and woman, drunk on red wine, dance wildly and discuss the complexities of sex and nudity at their age. A distressed young woman navigates the sexual advances of a male employer in a job interview. These scenes may seem to be simply ordinary life snippets on the big screen. But their existence — in three Iranian films released over the last few years — is nothing short of extraordinary, representing a new era of filmmaking in Iran's storied cinema. These movies, and the trend they represent, have gained recognition and accolades internationally. One of them, 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig,' written and directed by Mohammad Rasoulof, will compete for best international feature film at the Academy Awards on Sunday. Mr. Rasoulof, 52, is among a number of prominent Iranian directors and artists who are flouting government censorship rules enforced for nearly five decades since the 1979 Islamic revolution. These rules ban depictions of women without a hijab, the consumption of alcohol, and men and women touching and dancing; they also prevent films from tackling taboo subjects like sex. In a collective act of civil disobedience and inspired by the 2022 women-led uprising in Iran and many women's continued defiance of restrictive social laws, Iranian filmmakers say they have decided to finally make art that imitates real life in their country. 'The Women-Life-Freedom movement was a pivotal point in Iranian cinema,' Mr. Rasoulof said, referring to the protests that swept across the country in 2022 after a young woman died in police custody while she was detained for violating mandatory hijab rules. 'Many people, including filmmakers and artists in the cinema industry, wanted to break the chains of censorship and practice artistic freedom,' Mr. Rasoulof said in a telephone interview from Berlin, where he now lives in exile. Mr. Rasoulof's thriller drama follows a fictional judge for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court confronting the rebellion of his teenage daughters who turn against him as those protests erupt. The judge's family drama serves as a metaphor for the larger struggle that is still continuing in Iran, years after the government brutally quashed the protests. Many women still defy the hijab rule, appearing in public without covering their hair and bodies, and young people make clear — by dancing in public spaces, or through their choice of music and clothes — that their lifestyles vastly differ from those of their religiously conservative rulers. Mr. Rasoulof made the movie without the required governmental approval and licensing, and filmed it in secret. Like all of the daring Iranian films made underground in the last few years, 'The Seed of the Sacred Fig' could not be released in Iran and instead was distributed internationally. It is competing in the Oscars as the nominee from Germany, which co-produced it. Mr. Rasoulof fled Iran in May, just days before the film's premier at the Cannes Film Festival, and after he was sentenced to eight years in prison and flogging for charges related to his political activism and art. He was previously jailed for eight months in 2022. Iran's Revolutionary Court has opened a new criminal case against Mr. Rasoulof, his cast and some members of his crew, charging that the film threatens Iran's national security and spreads indecency. But he said everyone involved agreed that the risk was worthwhile. Most of the film's main cast members have now left Iran, except the leading actress, Soheila Golestani, who is the only one still in the country facing trial in person. 'For me it was more than acting in a movie,' Ms. Golestani, 44, said in an interview from Tehran. 'Something like a social responsibility. And of course, presenting a true picture of a woman's character which never had the opportunity to appear onscreen.' For actresses, the risks are magnified. Simply letting their hair show in public or in front of the camera amounts to breaking the law. But a number of famous actresses have announced that they will no longer wear hijabs in films, a stand that risks limiting their casting options and incurring the wrath of the government. It has forced some into exile. Vishka Asayesh, a 52-year-old beloved movie star, left Iran in the summer of 2023 after a run-in with intelligence agents over her support of the protests. 'Enough was enough, abiding by the rules felt like a betrayal of my fans and all the young people courageously protesting,' said Ms. Asayesh, who now resides in New York City. 'This was my way of participating in the movement for change.' The struggle between artistic expression and government control is continuing. A new hit Iranian television series, 'Tasian,' set in early 1970s during the rule of the Shah, was abruptly canceled this past week and banned from streaming platforms because its female characters showed their hair (the actresses wore wigs) and danced and drank at nightclubs. The show's director, Tina Pakravan, defied the authorities by making the entire series available on YouTube for free on Friday. She lives in Iran. 'Why should an artist who should be a mirror of his society be forced to emigrate only because he reflects the desired images of his people?' Ms. Pakravan said in a phone interview from Tehran. The International Coalition for Filmmakers at Risk, which defends artistic freedom and safety, organized a petition recently signed by more than 100 prominent figures in the global film industry for two Iranian filmmakers, a married couple, Maryam Moghadam and Behtash Sanaeeha, who are facing prosecution related to their critically acclaimed movie, 'My Favorite Cake.' 'My Favorite Cake' explores a theme in a daring way not seen in Iranian cinema since the revolution. A man and woman, in their 70s and burdened with loneliness, spend one impromptu romantic night together. They drink wine, dance and discuss sex and their insecurities about stripping bare. In one scene the lead actress, Lili Farhadpour, sprays perfume under her skirt, anticipating sexual intimacy. 'It was time to show the real life of a large portion of Iranian society — the way they go about their days, they way they love and act,' said Ms. Moghadam, 52, in a telephone interview from Tehran. She and her husband wrote the screenplay two years before the women-led protests that catalyzed so many other directors. Their film has since been screened around the world and has won 17 international prizes, including the jury prize at Berlin International Film Festival and the new director competition at the Chicago International Film Festival. Like Mr. Rasoulof, they, too, face charges related to national security and spreading indecency in Revolutionary Court that could result to years in prison, and have been barred from leaving the country, working or teaching, they said. Their first trial date is on Saturday. Mr. Sanaeeha said he hoped that the attention at the Academy Awards on Mr. Rasoulof's film would result in more support for independent Iranian filmmakers, and that the Academy would change its rules that require international films to be nominated by the government of the country in which they were produced. The rule, he said, effectively shuts out the new wave of groundbreaking Iranian movies. 'Every filmmaker dreams of making movies in their own country,' Mr. Sanaeeha said. 'We have never seen our movie on a big screen in the theater or with an audience.'
