Watchdog

The son of Iran’s last shah has urged Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi to intervene to help an Iranian activist jailed in Italy, saying he risks execution if he is extradited.

Mehdi Khosravi was arrested in northern Italy on August 6, with police saying they had carried out an international arrest warrant issued by Tehran, which aimed to have him extradited "for the crime of corruption."

In a letter addressed to Renzi and posted on social media on August 9, Reza Pahlavi said, "Any attempt to force Mr. Khosravi's return to Iran will lead to his incarceration, torture, and possible conviction and execution as a political and human rights opponent of the regime."

Pahlavi said Khosravi had been living in Britain as a political refugee since fleeing the Iran in the wake of protests surrounding the 2009 presidential election.

Pahlavi is the son of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was deposed during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Based on reporting by Reuters and dpa

Several hundred people have protested in a wooded park in northeastern Moscow against new antiterrorism legislation that critics have denounced as a massive state encroachment on privacy and civil liberties.

The package of laws and amendments to the legislation signed into law by President Vladimir Putin last month includes provisions stiffening punishment for extremism and terrorism and holding individuals criminally responsible if they fail to report others to the authorities in connection with certain crimes.

It also increases the government's surveillance capabilities, requiring communication providers to store users' calls, messages, photographs, and videos for six months.

At the August 9 demonstration in Moscow’s Sokolniki Park, some people carried banners reading "Down with political repression."

"There are lots of terrible things in this legislation, many unconstitutional things that we can object to as citizens," Kremlin critic Anton Nossik said.

"We should return to the streets," opposition leader Aleksei Navalny told the crowd. "We'll make Russia free."

Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP