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TEHRAN- Iran has apprehended members of a network with ties to Marxist counter-revolutionary organizations, the terrorist cult the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO), and French spies.

Fars news agency stated on Monday, citing informed sources, that all of the inmates had previously been imprisoned and freed under pardons given by Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

According to the investigation, the inmates had come together to plan and coordinate raising tensions in teacher and worker meetings, inspiring them to strike nationally, and bringing up the false poisoning projects at schools once more.

Two of those detained were Maryam Assadollahi (also known as Anisha) and Reyhaneh Ansari.

Because of their association and collaboration with two French agents, they were detained last year.

Last year, ahead to Workers and Teachers Day, French spies entered the country to plan disturbances and offer money to their operatives.

After being recognized, they were apprehended by Iranian intelligence officers and watched for a period to identify their domestic associates.

The inmates had congregated at the residence of a former ringleader of an unlawful self-proclaimed labor union.

The gathering was organized by foreign elements and took place under the pretense of visiting inmates relatives.

IRGC foils sabotage team linked to MKO in northern Iran

An anti-government sabotage group linked to the terrorist MKO group in northern province of Mazandaran has also been disbanded, according to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) intelligence officials.

Mostafa Bazvand, the IRGC commander in the city of Babolsar, said on Monday that the team was operating in the northern city with the intention of misleading young people.

Based on his remarks, the teams commanders engaged in acts of terrorism and sabotage and had direct communication with foreign-based organizations.

Since the riots began in Iran in mid-September 2022, the group had been sending video footage and other information to Persian-language media networks based in the United States and Britain while also misleading children, the IRGC commander said.

They were held by IRGC intelligence forces, he continued, and their social media accounts were also suspended.

When Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman, passed away in mid-September in hospital three days after collapsing at a police station in Tehran, riots erupted in certain cities across Iran.

Aminis death was eventually ascribed by an inquiry to her underlying medical condition rather than to alleged police abuse.

Over the past three decades, the MKO has carried out a number of terrorist attacks against Iranian citizens and government figures.

About 12,000 of the nearly 17,000 Iranians who have died in terrorist attacks since the Islamic Revolution in 1979 have been victims of MKO-perpetrated terror.

The EU designated the organization as a terrorist organization until January 2009, when the EU Council withdrew the label in response to intense political lobbying.

Likewise, the United States followed the decision in September of 2012.

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Iran arrests people suspected of having connections to French spies - Tehran Times

TEHRAN The historical town of Siba, which is situated in the Kukherd district of Irans Hormozgan province, has gained a national status to receive better maintenance and care.

The historical town of Siba, which is located in the Kukherd rural district in Bastak county, has been registered on Irans cultural heritage list, the provincial tourism chief said on Sunday.

Siba is home to an ancient hydraulic structure and arrays of ruined structures, castles, and fortresses, Mohammad Mohseni said.

In addition to the historical town, a former administrative structure, a bridge, and an edifice were added to the prestigious list, the official stated.

Siba fortress and a neighboring bathhouse are among the most remarkable examples of the cited Sassanid structures surrounded by a trench in the ancient town.

The history of Siba fortress was the center of government in that area. It acted as a fortified military base for some time and was surrounded by a huge trench for protection. A trench was an ancient defensive strategic feature to defend the cities, castles, and forts in Persia before the Islamic era. The gigantic structure was considered a traditional defensive ancient landmark like other landmarks at that time, such as huge city gates, cellars, security tunnels, and underground military storage.

The bathhouse was built adjacent to a natural hot spring, during the Sassanid era. It served Sassanid government officials, the merchants from nearby seaports and desert caravan routes, and the public.

The Sassanid era is of very high importance in the history of Iran. Under Sassanids, Persian architecture and arts experienced a general renaissance. Architecture often took grandiose proportions, such as palaces at Ctesiphon, Firuzabad, and Sarvestan, which are amongst the highlights of the ensemble.

Generally, a Sassanid archaeological landscape represents a highly efficient system of land use and strategic utilization of natural topography in the creation of the earliest cultural centers of the Sassanid civilization.

In 2018, an ensemble of Sassanian historical cities in southern Iran, titled Sassanid Archaeological Landscape of Fars Region, was named a UNESCO site.

AFM

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Sassanid town in southern Iran named national heritage - Tehran Times

Committing simple errors has become a death sentence thanks to Stand Your Ground laws.

Throughout April, three shootings have made national news due to the victims harmless mistakes. Sixteen-year-old Ralph Yarl received critical injuries after arriving at the wrong house to pick up his younger brothers. A shooter killed Kaylin Gillis because she pulled into the wrong driveway in New York. Texas cheerleader Payton Washington spent two weeks in the hospital after her teammate mistakenly entered the wrong car.

Each shooting occurred in states where Stand Your Ground laws protect a citizens right to use force in self-defense. Rather than protecting endangered citizens, Stand Your Ground laws are killing innocents. States need to rewrite these laws to protect citizens, not promote vigilante justice.

Florida passed the first Stand Your Ground law in 2005. Since then, 28 states have established self-defense laws, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. While the wording of each law differs slightly, the states share a common goalprotecting the right to bear arms.

Citizens should be able to access firearms for self-defense, but Stand Your Ground laws are unclear and often misinterpreted.

Floridas Stand Your Ground law states that a citizen has the right to stand his or her ground and meet force with force, including deadly force, if he or she reasonably believes it is necessary to do so to prevent death or great bodily harm. The law does not explicitly define force or bodily harm. These words are up to interpretation.

As a result, young adults are being fatally injured in the name of self-defense, with the shooters being hailed as heroes.

The cases of Yarl, Gillis and Washington resulted in the shooter facing criminal charges. But think about the other victims who have never seen justice.

Authoring a study with Southern Poverty Law Center, Ari Freilich researched the roles of Stand Your Ground laws in the justice system.

They encourage a trigger-happy culture of anxious vigilantism that cheapens the value of human life, Freilich said.

States should amend self-defense laws to include clearer wording and detailed explanations. The laws should specify the type of situations that fall under the protection of Stand Your Ground laws. I know every situation is unique, but states should institute guidelines for Stand Your Ground laws.

Although Stand Your Ground laws aim to save lies, look at what happens when people take matters into their own handsinnocent people die.

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'Stand Your Ground' laws promote violence The Hawkeye - The HawkEye

THE CONVERSATION In one key respect, Ralph Yarl was fortunate. The wounds the 16-year-old suffered after being shot twice on April 13 by the owner of the house whose doorbell he rang, thinking it was where he was due to pick up his two younger brothers, did not prove fatal.

Others who have made similar mistakes have died. TakeRenisha McBride, who sought help after wrecking her car in a Detroit suburb in 2013, orCarson Senfield, who entered the wrong car in Tampa thinking it was his Uber on his 19th birthday. And then there is the case of 20-year-oldKaylin Gillis, a passenger in a car that turned around in a driveway in upstate New York on April 15, 2023. What these young people have in common is that they were killed in accidental encounters with armed property owners.

As ascholar who has studiedAmericaslove affair with guns and lethal self-defense, I have explored the history oflaws that selectively shield citizens from criminal responsibilitywhen they use force and claim self-defense. Since 2005, these stand your ground laws havespread to around 30 states, transforming the United States legal landscape.

While preexistinglaws regarding justifiable use of forceallowed the use of lethal force for self-defense in some circumstances, they required that people first try to retreat from a perceived threat if it was safe to do so or to seek a nonlethal solution to a hostile encounter. Stand your ground laws, meanwhile, authorize defensive violence without a duty to retreat, wherever a person may legally be. Some also expand the circumstances in which someone could use lethal force to defend property.

Although the laws appear to apply to all law-abiding citizens, research shows that they arenot equitably enforced, and that they may be emboldening property owners to shoot first and question their actions later, even when there is no real threat of harm.

Certainly that seems to be the case with the shooting of Yarl. The wounding of the Black teen, who was simply trying to pick up his siblings, generatedwidespread outrage, especially when Kansas City Police Chief Stacey Graves suggested that investigators would consider whether the shooter an 84-year-old white man might have recourse to the statesstand your groundlaw as a defense against prosecution.

Given that the encounter took place on the shooters property, there is a possibility the shooter could find legal protection in the castle doctrine, which allows someone to use reasonable force without first trying to retreat in self-defense in their home. But he would still have to show reasonable cause for firing two shots at the unarmed teen standing at his front door.

Defining reasonable force

It seems that in the case of Yarl, state prosecutors believe that the bar of reasonable cause was not met. Andrew D. Lester, the homeowner, hassince been chargedwith two counts: assault in the first degree and armed criminal action.

This does not preclude the defense from invoking Lesters right to stand his ground and use force in self-defense, if his lawyers can show Lester truly believed Yarl posed a real threat.

Missourisstand your ground law, in place since 2016, removes the duty to retreat anywhere a person may legally be, even beyond ones castle. But you still need to prove that force is used reasonably, that it was not carried out in aggression or anger, and that there was a genuine fear for your life.

Indeed, the resolution of cases like the Yarl shooting turn on a highly subjective reckoning of what counts as reasonable force, and on which side prosecution or defense bears the burden of proof.

Traditional laws on the use of force place that burden on the alleged self-defender, who must prove that their actions were reasonable. But some other states with stand your ground laws, like Florida,remove the burden of prooffrom the defense, placing it on the prosecution.

This means that the prosecution must prove that the alleged self-defender was not truly fearful when using force. In some instances, as in the shooting of Senfield after he tried to enter a car he misidentified as his Uber, the stand your ground law becomes a shield against prosecution.No charges have been filedin that case, in large part because there were no other witnesses to contradict the shooters claim that he was in fear for his life when Senfield tried to enter his car.

Increase in gun homicides

Contrary to theclaims of the framers and promotersof stand your ground laws, there isscant empirical evidencethat the laws prevent crime. In fact,multiple studiesshow just the opposite.

Research on public health and crime reveals a pernicious effect of stand your ground laws on public safety, showing a correlation withincreased rates of gun homicide. One study, which includes an assessment of Missouris law, found that the passage of stand your ground laws correlates with an8% to 11% increasein firearm homicide rates.

Ananalysis of stand your ground cases in Florida, carried out by gun violence prevention group Everytown for Gun Safety, addressed the way removal of the duty to retreat encourages violent escalation; researchers suggested that over half the cases could have been resolved without loss of life.

Further, recent scholarship shows how stand your ground lawsintensify existing racial injusticesin the U.S. criminal legal system.A study by the think tank Urban Institutefound significant discrepancies in the rate at which homicides in stand your ground cases were deemed justified, depending on the race of the shooter and the race of the deceased. White shooters were significantly more likely to to be exonerated when their victim was Black, suggesting that particularly in states with stand your ground laws white people may feel more legally empowered to use lethal force and avoid prosecution, as long as their victims are Black.

Encouraging armed citizenry

In the Yarl case, the possible presence of racial bias has notescaped the attention of Kansas City prosecutors. Lesters grandson hasdescribed his grandfatheras a QAnon devotee with racist tendencies and beliefs that likely prompted his violent reaction to Yarls presence on his doorstep.

Against the backdrop of historical legacies of racial bias in the U.S., stand your ground laws intensify the risks of shooting deaths in an increasinglygun-saturated public. With laws that encourage armed citizens to use force against any perceived threat real or imagined even the most innocent mistakes and chance encounters can turn deadly.

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The Conversation: 'Stand your ground' laws empower armed ... - Press Herald

Following hours of passionate debate, during which Florida lawmakers were urged to respect life from conception to the casket, 70 House members voted to effectively ban abortions in Florida.

A short time later, 67 of those same 70 voted to help prosecutors make executions easier by lowering the threshold for a death sentence to eight of 12 jurors. Florida now has the lowest execution threshold of all 50 states with repeal of a 2017 law that required a jurys death recommendation to be unanimous.

How can you be pro-life on one hand and be pro-death on the other? Rep. Yvonne Hinson, D-Gainesville, who opposed both bills, asked her colleagues.

Supporters of a less restrictive death penalty law hardly bothered to answer. It was simply a primal political scream over the 9-3 jury recommendation that spared the life of the Parkland mass murderer. No one claimed it would prevent another such massacre, which of course it wont.

But it was an opportunity not to be missed by those who want to be seen as tough on crime, especially Gov. Ron DeSantis, who, with no trace of irony, signed both pro-life and pro-death into law.

The hypocrisy was just as obvious in the Florida Senate. The vote there was 26-13 for the six-week abortion ban (SB 300), and 29-10 for the pro-death legislation (SB 450). Sens. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, sponsor of the anti-abortion bill, and Ileana Garcia, R-Miami, were the only two senators to oppose the death legislation and another bill to execute child rapists.

Only three House members who voted for the anti-abortion bill opposed the death penalty bill. They were Mike Beltran, R-Tampa, Will Robinson, R-Venice, and Dana Trabulsy, R-Fort Pierce.

Those who supported both may have cossetted their consciences by distinguishing the execution of a criminal from the dismemberment of an innocent human child, as Rep. David Borrero, R-Sweetwater, described abortion.

Thats not how the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops sees it. The Conference, which has consistently opposed executions and lobbied against SB 450, issued a statement in answer to a question from the Sun Sentinel.

The Catholic Church embraces a consistent ethic of life from conception to natural death that calls for the promotion of public policies essential to the defense of human life, whether that life is innocent or has caused great harm, the church said. It commended those whose consistent pro-life votes demonstrated respect for the inviolability and dignity of all persons.

No doubt many of those who voted inconsistently do value criminals lives less than those of fetuses, but the disconnect indicates that the anti-abortion legislation is as much about political power as about sincerity and consistency. Women are collateral victims in the Republican Partys alliance with social conservatives.

The 2023 session will be remembered as one that repealed the required permit to carry concealed weapons in Florida. Since that will spawn more murders, building on Floridas reckless stand your ground law, the death penalty bill is an ironic addition to the culture of violence. There continue to be more mass shootings this year than days on the calendar. Its becoming frequent for hotheaded homeowners to shoot people who mistakenly knock on their doors or turn into their driveways.

The death penalty, lax gun laws and gunfire are the fruit of a deep-seated culture of violence our nation cannot seem to shed. Its origins are many: the frontier, genocide against Native Americans, the brutality of slavery, the Civil War, the lynching mentality that permeated the Southern and Western states where the death penalty is still most invoked, and the lawlessness fostered by Prohibition and glorified in popular culture. It is not a stretch to argue that the anti-abortion bills are violence against women.

The law in Florida is now as pro-death as it was before 1972, when defendants of capital crimes were automatically condemned unless a majority of the jurors recommended life. Now, a death recommendation is automatic unless seven of 12 jurors oppose it. Only Alabama permits a less-than-unanimous vote of 10 to 2, although two other states let a judge decide when juries cant.

The new Florida law also requires judges to explain in writing if they dont accept jury death recommendations. That further tilts the scales and may create openings for peeved prosecutors to appeal to a state Supreme Court thats stridently pro-death penalty.

No governor since Reubin Askew in the 1970s has questioned the usefulness or morality of the death penalty. Askew said he became convinced it wasnt a deterrent, but signed the new death penalty law the Legislature passed in December 1972 to replace what the Supreme Court had outlawed.

Only three of 160 legislators voted against that bill. This time a total of 40 did (10 senators and 30 House members), so Florida has made progress. But its not nearly enough.

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Hypocrisy on matters of life and death | Editorial - South Florida Sun Sentinel