political repression

At least ten lawyers in Iran’s Gilan Province have recently been summoned or arrested, reflecting a troubling new wave of pressure on the legal profession. Mohammad Saleh Noghrekār, a local …

TEHRAN — Fatemeh Ziaei Azad, a 66-year-old former political prisoner and human rights activist in Tehran, was arrested on Thursday, August 7, 2025, by agents of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence. …

Behbahan, Iran – Forough Khosravi, an elementary school teacher and education Ph.D. holder, was arrested on July 29, 2025, by agents from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Intelligence unit. …

ISFAHAN, IRAN — Iranian authorities have arrested Fariba Diba, a 36-year-old mother and housewife, at her home in central Isfahan on charges of engaging in “propaganda activities” against the Islamic …

The Moscow Military Court sentenced prominent Russian dissident Leonid Volkov to 18 years in prison and fined him 2 million rubles (about $25,000) in absentia on Wednesday. Volkov, a close …

HANOI, VIETNAM — A Vietnamese court sentenced independent journalist Truong Huy San (also known as Huy Duc) to 30 months in prison on Thursday for Facebook posts criticizing the government. …

Mohammad Aminifar (Jokhur), a 40-year-old Kurdish man from Aliabad, Naqadeh, has been transferred to Naqadeh Central Prison to serve a 29-month sentence, following a summons from the city’s Public and …

Kuwaiti politician Mesaed Al-Quraifa has been sentenced to four years in prison with hard labour for “insulting the authority of the emirate.” This comes just weeks after the country’s emir, …

Peyman Esmaeilpour, a 33-year-old resident of Bukan, and Afshin Alizadeh, a 31-year-old from Salmas, have been forcibly detained by Iranian security forces, with their whereabouts currently unknown. According to a …

Peyman Kazemi, a 30-year-old political activist from Amlash, Iran, was arrested by intelligence forces on Friday, March 8, 2024, at his home and taken to an undisclosed location. His family, …