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An Iranian court has handed jail sentences of over 10 years each to a young couple who danced in front of one of Tehran's main landmarks in a video seen as a symbol of defiance against the regime, activists said on Tuesday.
Astiyazh Haghighi and her fiancé Amir Mohammad Ahmadi, both in their early 20s, had been arrested in early November after a video went viral of them dancing romantically in front of the Azadi Tower in Tehran.
Haghighi did not wear a headscarf in defiance of the Islamic republic's strict rules for women, while women are also not allowed to dance in public in Iran, let alone with a man.
A revolutionary court in Tehran sentenced them each to 10 years and six months in prison, as well as bans on using the Internet and leaving Iran, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) said.
The couple, who already had a following in Tehran as popular Instagram bloggers, were convicted of "encouraging corruption and public prostitution" as well as "gathering with the intention of disrupting national security", it added.
HRANA cited sources close to their families as saying they had been deprived of lawyers during the court proceedings while attempts to secure their release on bail have been rejected.
It said Haghighi is now in the notorious Qarchak prison for women outside Tehran, whose conditions are regularly condemned by activists.
Iranian authorities have clamped down severely on all forms of dissent since the death in September of Mahsa Amini, who had been arrested for allegedly violating the headscarf rules, sparked protests that have turned into a movement against the regime.
At least 14,000 people have been arrested, according to the United Nations, ranging from prominent celebrities, journalists and lawyers to ordinary people who took to the streets.
The couple's video had been hailed as a symbol of the freedoms demanded by the protest movement, with Ahmadi at one moment lifting his partner in the air as her long hair flowed behind.
One of the main icons of the Iranian capital, the gigantic and futuristic Azadi (Freedom) Tower is a place of huge sensitivity.
It opened under the rule of the last shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in the early 1970s when it was known as the Shahyad (In Memory of the Shah) Tower.
It was renamed after the shah was ousted in 1979 with the creation of the Islamic republic. Its architect, a member of the Bahai faith which is not recognised in today's Iran, now lives in exile.
© 2023 AFP
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Animals keep vanishing from the Dallas Zoo, or seeing their habitats mysteriously breached — and foul play is suspected, according to The New York Times.
According to reporter April Rubin, a pair of emperor tamarin monkeys were taken from their exhibit, with their habitat "intentionally compromised."
Kari Streiber, a spokeswoman for the zoo, said that the breach has been reported to the Dallas Police.
This is the latest in a series of incidents.
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"On Jan. 13, a female clouded leopard disappeared for several hours, prompting a 'Code Blue' alert at the zoo, which indicates that a nondangerous animal is out of its habitat," said the report. "She was later found uninjured, but a 'suspicious' tear was found in the enclosure, the authorities said. The opening was not an error or failure on the part of the habitat, exhibit or keeper, Gregg Hudson, the zoo’s president and chief executive, said earlier this month. The next day, similar cuts were found in the fencing of a habitat for langur monkeys, but all the monkeys were inside and appeared unharmed." Later, on January 22, a lappet-faced vulture was found dead with a "suspicious" wound.
According to the zoo, the leopard's escape prompted the zoo to install cameras and double night security patrols. Even despite this, per the report, "the police said that an intentional cut was found in the monkey enclosure and that the animals appeared to have been taken intentionally."
The Dallas Zoo has had unfortunate incidents in the past. In 2004, police were forced to shoot a charging gorilla who had injured several people and thrown a toddler.
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'Speed matters': Elie Honig fears Merrick Garland letting Trump wriggle away from slow probes
January 31, 2023
Attorney General Merrick Garland has faced widespread criticism for taking too long to prosecute Donald Trump, and one legal expert argued that could undermine his ability to prove charges if the former president ever gets indicted.
CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig is out with a new book, Untouchable: How Powerful People Get Away With It, that examines the various legal problems the former president faces or has already escaped, and he told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the attorney general needs to keep pace with other prosecutions.
"For all the evidence of all the crimes Donald Trump committed, and I have a chapter saying this is what an indictment could have and should have looked like, every prosecutor who looked at this backed down for one reason or another," Honig said. "That could change. We have Fulton County, in particular, seems like they're moving toward an indictment. We don't know what DOJ is going to do. The problem, I note in the book, is too much time passed. Two-plus years out from Jan. 6 and more from the prior incidents. Time and speed really matter. I mean, we work at a frenetic pace at the Southern District of New York because we know, you have to get your indictment in quickly. The farther you are away from the actions and the closer you are to be next the next election in this case, the harder it'll be to take indictment to conviction."
It may already be too late for some cases, he said.
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"I think that it's just been simply too long for Merrick Garland now," Honig said. "Yes, you want to make sure that you have everything in place, but we're two-plus years out now. I have seen DOJ, we've all seen DOJ move with remarkable speed. My criticism of Merrick Garland is that he just never focused at the top when he could have. Merrick Garland always says, well, we start at the bottom and build up and up and up. You don't have to do it that way. There's no reason Merrick Garland couldn't have gotten to, say, Cassidy Hutchinson or Marc Short in late 2021. He was beaten to the punch by the Jan. 6 committee. Yes, he's moving slow, but I think it is fair to say speed matters. At this point, he is moving too slowly. I think that's going to compromise his ability to make this case someday."
Watch the video below or at this link.
01 31 2023 07 06 20 www.youtube.com
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