By: Staff Torstar News Service Published on Fri Jan 17 2014 It was just before Christmas 2010 and Maryam Nayeb Yazdi was doing what she does most days and nights: sitting in her room in her shared Toronto apartment, eyes fixed on the screen, fingers flashing over the keyboard. It was then that she saw Habib Latifi was about to die. The young Kurdish law student and political prisoner was in a regional Iranian jail, condemned to death. The clerical authorities picked that time to announce his impending execution. “I knew I had to do something right away,” says Nayeb Yazdi. “Everyone in the West was on a holiday break. […]

A Letter for Navid Khanjani from *Shayan Vahdati Not my hand, but my heart shivers as I write your name. It was moments after damn twelve o’clock when they said they have taken Navid.  Take you?  You were not the type to be taken. What is one to do with fear?  They probably came to visit you armed, although they most likely hid the weapon from you. They also didn’t have the courage to bring handcuffs. For days they were waiting for this moment. They were so happy when they saw you visit your parents after being a away for so long. So happy that…Let’s move on… I feel the […]

For the first time in the contemporary history of Iran, an international campaign has been launched to investigate the mass executions of Iran’s political prisoners, and to hold the Islamic Republic of Iran accountable for its crimes against humanity during the 1980s and, in particular, the summer of 1988.This grassroots campaign was initiated in October 2007 by the families of the victims, survivors of the atrocities and many conscientious and freedom-seeking political and human rights activists. Since that date, all the necessary preparatory work to set up an international tribunal has been carried out. The project was publicly launched at a press conference on the 10th December 2009, on International […]