Info:
Ali Rezvani (Rezvani) and Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour (Zabihpour) are IRIB “interrogator-journalists” who are both being designated pursuant to E.O. 13846 for having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, IRIB, a person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to E.O. 13628, which was revoked and superseded by E.O. 13846. Furthermore, both have cooperated with the MOIS and the IRGC Intelligence Organization in extracting and airing forced confessions in the style of documentaries. Both feature prominently in the IRIB’s notorious 8:30 broadcast, which regularly airs forced confessions
Zabihpour, as the head of the foreign Persian language media group at IRIB, also has a long history of direct involvement in the broadcast of coerced confessions of dual nationals, civil society activists, political prisoners, writers, and religious minorities. In 2017, Zabihpour produced and helped broadcast for IRIB a documentary-style program that attempted to portray Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliff, a British-Iranian woman held prisoner by the IRGC on charges of “collaborating with foreign institutions” and “participating in the soft overthrow of the government,” as a spy. Zabihpour was also directly involved in the interrogation of three labor activists in 2019, which resulted in forced confessions broadcast as part of a film called “Burnt Plot.” One of the activists arrested stated that Zabihpour was in the interrogation room to prepare a text to be read in front of the camera after hours of physical and mental torture.
Recently, Zabihpour’s programming has targeted the Iranian Baha’i community in tandem with nationwide raids on Baha’i homes conducted by MOIS and other Iranian security forces. As part of the crackdown, MOIS agents entered a kindergarten and handed out Baha’i materials to teachers, who were then forced to say on camera that the materials had been distributed by Baha’is. Zabihpour produced a staged documentary style broadcast called “Detention of a Number of Central Members of the Baha’i Espionage Party,” in which she narrates about “unauthorized Baha’i kindergartens,” falsely incriminating Iranian Baha’is for infiltrating kindergartens.
Zabihpour was also instrumental in producing the November 2019 and July 2022 forced confession videos of Fatemeh Davand, a protester detained during the November 2019 protests, and Sepideh Rashnu, a 28-year-old writer who was arrested in July 2022 for opposing mandatory hijab.
As the Government of Iran’s state-run media conglomerate, IRIB has a monopoly on television and radio services in Iran and plays a central role in restricting the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and impeding the free flow of information in Iran through censorship activities. IRIB produces, sponsors, and spreads government propaganda both in Iran and internationally.
Furthermore, IRIB broadcasts regularly make false and baseless accusations against Iranian citizens, dual nationals, and foreigners, and use falsified news to misinform and falsely incriminate perceived enemies of the regime. IRIB also cooperates extensively with security and intelligence agencies, including Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), to obtain and publicly disseminate forced confessions from Iranians, dual nationals, and foreign detainees. Testimonies and other evidence point to the use of torture, both physical and psychological; threats against family members; and degrading treatment to extract forced confessions. Since 2009, IRIB programs have broadcast hundreds of forced confessions as well as defamatory content against hundreds more. IRIB uses forced confessions in particular to frame dual nationals and foreigners as spies, demonize human rights activists, and legitimize repression against religious minority groups like the Baha’i community.
Involved In:
Spreading propaganda
Positions and Violations:
– IRIB Reporter on Political and Security Affairs, Tehran (2003 – present)
– Human Rights Violation: Producing a defamatory propaganda programme against Nazanin Zaghari Ratcliff using misrepresented stolen private data (23 Nov 2017 – 29 Nov 2017)
– Human Rights Violation: Participation in the interrogation, recording and broadcasting the forced confessions of Sepideh Gholian (19 January 2019)
– Human Rights Violation: Recording and broadcasting forced confessions of Fatemeh Davand (20 Novemeber 2019)
Legal Developments:
In a joint letter to the European Union Council on 30 January 2020, 13 international and Iranian human rights organisations have requested the sanctioning of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcast (IRIB), and seven officials responsible for the broadcast of forced confessions extracted from political prisoners on the 20:30 news bulletin, including Ameneh Sadat Zabihpour. In this letter the signatories write: “We, the undersigned of this joint letter, remain gravely concerned about the ongoing and systematic use of televised confessions obtained under torture and ill-treatment in Iran.”
Also Known As:
ZABIH POUR, Ameneh Sadat
ZABIHPOUR AHMADI, Ameneh Sadat
Country:
Iran
Address:
Tehran, Iran
DOB:
07 Aug 1984
POB:
Tehran, Iran
Nationality:
Iran
Passport:
09324611 (Iran) expires 05 Jul 2017