Crackdown Seeks to Stifle Iran’s Critical Voices

Those behind bars include German national Jamshid Sharmahd who faces the death penalty in a trial expected to reach its conclusion in the next weeks. (AFP)

Executions on a scale not seen for years. Mass arrests of regime critics including top film-makers. Trials of foreign nationals denounced as a sham by their families.

Activists argue Iran is in the throes of an intensified crackdown affecting all sectors of society from trade union activists, to campaigners against the enforced wearing of the headscarf for women, to religious minorities.