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Hello and welcome to News Hour from the BBC World Service.

We're coming to you live from London.

I'm James Menendez.

And coming up a little later on the program.

I arrived here almost a month and a half ago.

I served there one and a half years.

I was given a two weeks holiday.

And I decided to desert.

I left Russia as I'm now facing criminal charges there.

The story of one Russian soldier who deserted and fled to Armenia.

That's coming up in just over half an hour.

But we are going to begin today in Iran and how the Iranian authorities appear to be using the war with the US and Israel as cover to step up the pressure on their opponents.

We heard on Friday how the regime has carried out at least 22 executions of political prisoners in just the past six weeks, many of them young people involved in the anti-government

protest back in January. Well, now comes some grim news about the country's most famous political

activists, the Nobel Peace Prize winner, Narges Mohamede. Here she is speaking to News Hour in June last year

after getting a temporary release from jail on medical grounds.

I spent 10 years of my life in prison

for simply defending human rights and defending peace.

So now that we are amidst a full-fledged war between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran,

I feel that we are in another chapter of the war between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the people of Iran.

So as an Iranian who has always supported human rights and who has always supported peace,

...