Leading figures in the Catholic Church  and Italian diplomacy have come out to condemn the 1988 Iranian Massacre and call for the prosecution of those responsible.

The papal legate and the Secretary of the conferences in the Marche region of Italy issued a statement, which read: “Many of those executed have been sentenced to imprisonment previously and they have been serving their time or have already served. Lots of those executed were the prisoners who were to be released or they were the family members of the people of Mujahedin that Khomeini ordered to arrest them. In Tehran and provincial capitals and many cities (a total of more than 70 cities) the death delegations were formed.”

Amir Basiri, a human rights activist writes in an article for Forbes, about the Obama administration’s further easing of financial sanctions on Iran, that were lifted as part of the nuclear deal that came into effect early this year. This facilitates for non-U.S. persons to deal with Iranian entities that are minority owned or controlled by sanctioned individuals or bodies.

The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) has reported that a group of prisoners in Gohardasht Prison in Karaj wrote to António Guterres (just elected as the next United Nations Secretary General) and to Asma Jahangir (the new UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran). In their letter they complain about the appalling human rights abuses and political violence that is taking place in the country.

In a letter to the Iranian regime’s Attorney General, political prisoner Narges Mohammadi said: “I will not be silent until my rights are respected and justice is served.”

The Attorney General had referred to Narges Mohammadi as “a sinister existence” and added: “If the Judiciary does not reveal the documents of infringement and violations by her and others like her, it does not mean that they are good people.”

Writer and human rights activist Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee has been arrested for writing a story on stoning in Iran. Her husband Arash Sadeghi is already serving fifteen years in custody for his human rights activities.

Ebrahimi Iraee has allegedly been transported to the women’s ward at the Evin Prison in Tehran, after a violent house raid with no official summons. The authorities also broke down Ebrahimi Iraee’s front door with violence and took her to Evin Prison where her husband was already being detained.