Iran news in brief, January 30, 2018

Iran news in brief, January 30, 2018

1- Mother of U.S. Navy veteran held in Iran worried about her son's health

The mother of a U.S. Navy veteran detained in Iran is calling for his immediate release. Michael White, 46, has been in an Iranian prison for more than six months.

Joanne White said she prays every day that her son Michael will be freed from prison in Iran before it's too late. She worries his recurring cancer could come back and he could die.

White said the Navy veteran was on his third trip to Iran last July. Though he was married, he was visiting his girlfriend he had met online, when he disappeared.

Nearly five months later, she learned he was in prison in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad. But she hasn't gotten any phone calls from her son.

2- Sufi Woman Locked Up With Drug Offenders in Critical Health Condition

Shokoufeh Yadollahi, a detained member of Iran’s Gonabadi Dervish minority is believed to be in a critical health condition and have lost her ability to talk.

She has been suffering from chronic headaches due to inhaling smoke of drugs and cigarettes as she has recently been locked up with some of the dangerous criminals – murderers and drug addicts.

Two other Sufi women Elham Ahmadi and Sepideh Moradi held a protest at the entrance gate of the prison’s hall on Monday, January 28, demanding the authorities to observe the regulations of the Prison Executive Code and Yadollahi’s treatment.

3- AI Appeals to Rouhani for 'Immediate' Release of Detained Activists

Amnesty International has sent a letter to Iranian president Hassan Rouhani to express concern about the well-being of two Iranian activists arrested nine days ago in Iran.

Esmail Bakhshi who is a labor leader from the Haft Tapeh sugar mill and Sepideh Qolian a civil activist were arrested on January 20 after they complained of being tortured during an earlier arrest in late 2018.

In an announcement Amnesty said, “The authorities must release them

immediately and unconditionally as they are prisoners of conscious jailed solely on the basis of their peaceful activism in defense of workers’ rights”.

4- Iran Regime IT Minister Says Blocking Instagram Would Create New Problems

Iran Regime's information technology minister said Tuesday that blocking the photo- and video-sharing application Instagram would only create new problems for the Islamic republic.

Mohammad-Javad Azari-Jahromi told ISNA news agency: "We believe the strategy of filtering Instagram is not an efficient one to neutralise its threats and might even intensify them,".

he said: "Acting unilaterally and filtering will not solve any problems on its own, but will only cause challenges in other fields,”.

In January, Iranian media said the judiciary was mulling a ban on Instagram.

5- Double-bombing wounds three police officers in southeast Iran’s Zahedan city

Iranian police say a double-bombing has lightly wounded three police officers in the southeastern city of Zahedan.

Gen. Mohammad Ghanbari, the provincial police chief, told the official IRNA news agency that the second bomb went off as police raced to the scene of the first explosion. He says the bombs were handmade and that police are investigating.

Some Iranian officials said the explosions were caused by percussion grenades.