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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
_________________________________________ ____________________
RFE/RL Iran Report
Vol. 9, No. 40, 30 October 2006
A Review of Developments in Iran Prepared by the Regional Specialists
of RFE/RL's Newsline Team
******************************************** ****************
HEADLINES:
* CANDIDATES REGISTERED FOR LOCAL COUNCIL POLLS
* IRAN PREPARES FOR CENSUS
* RIGHTS GROUP GATHERS SIGNATURES TO BAN STONINGS
* END TO STONINGS DEMANDED
* RIGHTS GROUP WANTS INVESTIGATION OF EVIN PRISON
* DISSIDENT RELEASED ON BAIL
* REPORTS HIGHLIGHT PRECARIOUS RIGHTS IN IRAN
* STATE NEWSPAPER RESUMES PUBLICATION
* TEHRAN STUDENTS DISCIPLINED, CAMPUS JOURNAL SHUT DOWN
* DISSIDENT CRITICIZES EU INDIFFERENCE TO ABUSES
* SENIOR IRANIANS CHARGED IN 1994 BOMBING IN BUENOS AIRES
* FORMER SECURITY AGENT IN JAIL FOR REVELATIONS ABOUT DISSIDENT KILLINGS
* FOREIGN MINISTRY SUMMONS EUROPEAN ENVOYS OVER MEETINGS WITH TERRORISTS
* SANCTIONS DISCUSSED IN MOSCOW
* GUARDS CORPS EYEING ENEMY MOVEMENTS
* AHMADINEJAD DEPLORES 'AGGRESSIVE' U.S. ADMINISTRATION
*********************************** *************************
CANDIDATES REGISTERED FOR LOCAL COUNCIL POLLS. Registration of
aspiring candidates for local council polls due in December ended
late on October 22, with some prominent Iranians registering to run,
agencies reported. They included former Tehran police chief Morteza
Talai; Masumeh Ebtekar, a vice president in the reformist government
of Mohammad Khatami; Ishaq Jahangiri, former industry minister under
Khatami; and Ahmad Masjid-Jamei, Khatami's former culture and
Islamic guidance minister. Others registering were prominent
reformist Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, former state budget chief Muhammad Ali
Najafi, and conservative Mehrdad Bazrpash, who, until recently, was
an adviser to President Ahmadinejad, "Aftab-i Yazd" reported on
October 23.
Candidacies must be approved by the Guardians Council, a body
of clerical jurists. On October 23, leftist cleric Hadi Khamenei said
unfair disqualifications, bias among Guardians Council or related
personnel involved in electoral supervision, or the "citing of
amazing excuses or raising pseudo-legal obstacles" for aspirants will
discredit the upcoming polls for local councils and the Assembly of
Experts, a clerical body. "If...the gentlemen want to resort to their
old methods, the elections are flawed, even if nobody says so," ISNA
quoted him as saying. Khamenei is the brother of Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Vahid Sepehri)
IRAN PREPARES FOR CENSUS. Iranian authorities are preparing to carry
out the country's sixth nationwide census from October 28 to
November 27, IRNA reported on October 26. Officials reportedly expect
new surveying methods to give the count a 99.8 percent level of
accuracy. Households will answer 26 questions chosen "with
international advice" from 900 relevant questions used in similar
measurements. The survey is expected to cost $40 million and will be
carried out by 88,000 people, with the final results expected in
March 2007, IRNA reported.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad told a gathering of officials
and statisticians involved in the project on October 26 that "precise
and scientific planning" are necessary for the government's
stated plans to "implement justice and build the country," IRNA
reported. "A correct response to the country and the people's
needs requires correct and comprehensive information and figures,"
Ahmadinejad said. (Vahid Sepehri)
RIGHTS GROUP GATHERS SIGNATURES TO BAN STONINGS. Amnesty
International has gathered some 160,000 signatures to pressure
Iran's government to ban the practice of stoning, a lethal
penalty imposed on people -- more often women -- convicted of
adultery or extramarital sex, "El Pais" reported on October 25. The
rights group said seven women are now waiting to be stoned to death
in Iran, while a man and a woman were stoned in May, reportedly for
the first time since December 2002, according to elpais.es.
Iran's Islamic laws forbid extramarital sex. Articles 102
and 104 of its Penal Code explain the modalities of this punishment,
whereby men and women are buried to the waist or chest respectively,
before being stoned by mid-sized stones to ensure pain before death,
the daily reported.
Rights activist Mehrangiz Kar told Radio Farda on October 24
that the time has come for legal reformers to call for the
elimination of stoning from Iran's laws. She said a recent letter
written by jurists to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud
Hashemi-Shahrudi observed that even existing legal stipulations on
stoning are not properly implemented and there is "inconsistency" and
"subjectivity" in sentences issued by judges, Radio Farda reported.
(Vahid Sepehri)
END TO STONINGS DEMANDED. Women's rights activists in Iran have
called on the head of the country's conservative judiciary and
the parliament to end the stoning to death of convicted adulterers.
Under pressure from the European Union, Iran was said to have
introduced a moratorium on stonings in 2002. But activists accuse
judges of perpetuating the practice.
Reports suggest that two people were stoned to death in May
and at least eight women currently face stoning sentences.
Under Islamic laws as applied in Iran, the punishment for
adultery is stoning. It is widely considered to be among the cruelest
of punishments. Women are buried up to their chests in a pit; men are
buried up to their waists. And their hands are tied behind their
backs.
Then, as lawyer Elham Fahimi explains, they are struck with
rocks until they die.
"They put them in a hole and they wrap them in a kafan [a
white sheet used for burial] -- this is how it should be done,
according to the law," Fahimi says. "Then they call on those who have
not committed any crimes to come and throw stones." Death by stoning
is slow and painful. Islamic code prescribes that "the stone should
not be so big as to kill the offender with one or two stones" and
"nor should it be as small as pebbles."
Still Happening
The latest case of a judicially ordered stoning was
reportedly carried in early May in a cemetery in the holy city of
Mashhad in eastern Iran.
A woman, identified as Mahbubeh M., and a man, identified as
Abbas H., had been convicted of committing adultery and murdering the
woman's husband. Activists say that before the two were stoned to
death, they were treated like "lifeless corpses." They were given
final ablutions and then buried in a hole in the ground. Reports
claim that more than 100 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard
and Basij paramilitary forces participated in the stoning.
The case alarmed and outraged women's rights activists.
Their investigations suggested that judges in several cities have
continued to condemn people to death by stoning, despite the reported
moratorium.
Women's rights activist Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh tells
RFE/RL that one of the reasons new stonings are being ordered is
because the moratorium was not enshrined in law.
"Since under our laws, judges are independent, one reason
[for continued stonings] might be that with the new government [of
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad] coming to power and the change in the
political atmosphere, judges who are in favor of such sentences have
become more active," Abbasgholizadeh says. "Therefore, we think
stoning should be banned by law -- otherwise judges can issue such
sentences as they desire."
Silent Killings
Abbasgholizadeh says it is unclear how many stoning sentences
have been issued and carried out in Iran since reports of the
moratorium emerged four years ago.
"Currently they don't carry out stoning in public. I
don't know [why], maybe because of public opinion or
international pressure," Abbasgholizadeh says. "Now it seems that
they do it in the prison courtyards by prisoners or prison guards
[casting the stones]. I even know...a political prisoner who was
detained three or four years ago and had seen from his cell that they
brought a woman and forced other female detainees to stone her."
The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, has not
reacted publicly to the activists' calls for an end to stonings.
Parliamentarian Elham Aminzadeh was quoted by Iranian media
as saying after a trip to Brussels in mid-October that stoning
sentences are no longer being handed down in Iran. She said EU
officials had asked about the resumption of the practice. Aminzadeh
said they had referred to an Amnesty International statement and an
Internet list, which she described as invalid.
Abbasgholizadeh dismisses Aminzadeh's claim and says
rights activists have carefully documented stoning cases.
"We don't speak without proof," Abbasgholizadeh says.
"This lady speaks in a way that shows she's denying stoning and
saying that the judiciary has replaced it with other sentences. This
means she's saying stoning should not exist. Our point is that as
long as [a ban] doesn't become law, judges can [issue stoning
sentences] and are doing it. So this lady, who is a legislator and
opposes it, should make the ban a legal one."
Pressure Continues
On October 10, Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene
Khan called on Iran to abolish stoning "immediately and totally."
Activists have published the names of nine women and two men
whom they claim have been sentenced to death by stoning.
One of them is Shamameh Malek Ghorbani, who was reportedly
sentenced to stoning in June after relatives found a man in her home.
Amnesty International reported that her brothers and husband murdered
the man and also stabbed Ghorbani with a knife.
Ghorbani's lawyer, Fahimi, tells RFE/RL that the case is
being reexamined by a higher court.
"She is in Urumiyeh prison," Fahimi says. "Her crime is
adultery, and she has been sentenced to stoning. I visited her while
my colleague went to Qom to study her case, which is before the Qom
supreme court. The sentence has most probably been overturned."
Reports suggest that the stoning sentence against another
woman identified by Amnesty International, Ashraf Kalhori, has also
been suspended.
But activists are determined to continue their efforts until
the practice is rooted out of Iran.
Women's rights defenders say adultery cannot be
considered as deserving of such harsh punishment. They are quick to
add that "no crime deserves to be punished by stoning."
With officials largely silent on the issue except to deny
that it occurs, it is unclear how many more Iranians might be stoned
to death before authorities throughout the country are forced to
agree. (Golnaz Esfandiari)
RIGHTS GROUP WANTS INVESTIGATION OF EVIN PRISON. Four Iranian human
rights organizations have called on the United Nations and other
human-rights bodies and organizations to send an independent
delegation to investigate the situation in section 209 of
Tehran's notorious Evin prison. The human rights groups say most
prisoners held in section 209 are being maltreated and have no access
to their family or lawyers. Section 209 is reportedly controlled by
Iran's Intelligence Ministry and no other government bodies have
access to it.
Abdolfattah Soltani, a prominent human rights lawyer, was
detained in a cell measuring about five square meters in section 209
of Evin prison for more than seven months.
He was not physically tortured but he told RFE/RL that during
the first two months he was completely cut off from the outside
world.
Held Incommunicado
"One doesn't have any contact with family, a lawyer. For
two months I didn't have a television, radio, newspapers, or a
book -- just a Koran and maybe a [prayer book]," he said. "It is the
worst form of psychological torture when one has no contact outside
of the prison cell; many were ready to confess to anything just not
to be forced to bear those conditions."
Section 209 is Iran's most notorious detention center for
detained critics and activists.
Located inside Tehran's Evin prison, the names of the
individuals held there are not recorded on the official list of
Evin's prisoners and families of the detainees are sometimes left
clueless about where their loved ones are being held.
Political- and security-related prisoners are sometimes held
in section 209 in solitary confinement for months without being
charged or put on trial.
Reports Of Abuse
Detainees are reportedly subjected to long and multiple daily
interrogations. Some former detainees have said they were deprived of
sleep and medical care. Others have said they were threatened by
authorities with indefinite imprisonment. Some said they were beaten
up.
Soltani says prisoners in section 209 do not enjoy the same
rights as prisoners held in other wards of Evin prison.
"If anybody becomes sick there is a room there they call the
infirmary, inside 209, and only after many demands will they take
prisoners there where there is a general doctor with very limited
possibilities," he said. "I had a heart problem and I asked for an
appointment for two months -- then I was freed and still hadn't
had an appointment."
Four Iranian human rights groups have expressed concern over
the situation of scores of political prisoners, including dissidents,
human rights activists, and students who are reportedly being held in
section 209.
The rights groups that have sent an appeal to international
human rights bodies include the newly founded UN human Rights
Council, Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), the Committee for the
Defense of Human Rights in Northwest Iran, the Kurdish Human Rights
Defense Organization, and the Ahwazi Human Rights Organization.
Secret Service Controlled
HRAI's spokesman in Europe, Sadegh Naghashkar, says
section 209 is out of the control of bodies such as Iran's prison
organization and Evin's prison officials.
"[Section 209] is one of the most dreadful sections of
Evin's prison, and it is controlled by the Intelligence
Ministry," he said. "No one else has control over this section. The
interrogators in this section put pressure on detainees based on
their assessment."
Last summer, when a group of Iranian legislators visited Evin
prison, they were not allowed into section 209. One of the
legislators, Akbar Alami, said "most regrettably" the wing was closed
and added that this has contributed to "doubts" about what goes on in
section 209.
In recent years there have been reports of other unofficial
detention centers that are not under the control of Iran's prison
authorities. Their number is not known, however, as they are
officially not registered as prisons and are reportedly being run by
certain security bodies.
Some have been reportedly closed, including Prison 59, which
is controlled by the Revolutionary Guard.
Unexplained Deaths
Many reformist figures and human rights activists have
described such detention centers as illegal and called for their
closure.
Soltani says all detention centers should be under the
control of relevant authorities.
"According to the law, the Intelligence Ministry does not
have the right to have a detention center," he said. "It doesn't
have the right to do interrogations; it should do its investigation
and give its information to the police. The police then have the
right to make arrests with orders from the judiciary. But, in section
209 there is unfortunately no control over the actions of officials;
anything can happen to the detainees and that's a tragedy."
Soltani says there should be tighter control by the relevant
authorities of the prison situation and also monitoring should be
done by independent human rights groups. He said such measures could
prevent "tragedies" such as the murder of Iranian-Canadian
photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died from a head injury suffered
during beatings while in custody in Evin.
The human rights groups who have called for an international
investigation into the conditions in section 209 have published the
names of some of the detainees that are believed to be held there.
They include the outspoken Ayatollah Kazemeyni Borujerdi -- who was
arrested after calling for the separation of religion from politics
-- and student activists Kayvan Ansari and Kianush Sanjari. (Golnaz
Esfandiari)
DISSIDENT RELEASED ON BAIL. Former legislator Ali Akbar
Musavi-Khoeini was released on bail on October 21 after 130 days'
detention, Radio Farda reported on October 23, quoting his wife,
Zohreh Islamian. Musavi-Khoeni reportedly had to post bail of 150
million tomans (roughly $160,000). He said after his release that he
was jailed for his "useful and effective" activities when a member of
parliament and an activist, including for calling state officials to
account and defending the rights of detainees. Musavi-Khoeini was
arrested on June 12 after he participated in a Tehran demonstration
for women's rights (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," September 26,
2006). He vowed to continue his "social and human rights" activities,
Radio Farda reported.
Separately, Muhaddaseh Saberi, a supporter of detained cleric
Ayatollah Seyyed Hussein Kazemeyni Borujerdi, told Radio Farda on
October 22 that reports of that outspoken cleric's release are
false and that Borujerdi remains in Tehran's Evin prison. "They
want to make it seem as if [Borujerdi] has been released," she said,
so that no one "follow[s] up" on his case. (Vahid Sepehri)
REPORTS HIGHLIGHT PRECARIOUS RIGHTS IN IRAN. In a Reporters Without
Frontiers (RSF) report on press freedom in the world over the past
year, Iran is listed as a state that restricts free speech, Radio
Farda reported on October 23. The report includes Iran's Supreme
Leader Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad among the prominent enemies
of the free press, Radio Farda added. Separately, Iran's
Defenders of Human Rights Center has issued a report on the state of
human rights in Iran over the past six months, Radio Farda reported.
The center's report cites rights irregularities including 29
cases of legal action against journalists in that time; 38 cases of
interference in court cases by "irresponsible individuals";
prosecutions of 35 press editors; seven publications being banned;
books removed from bookshops; refusing to allow the publication of
certain books; 130 cases of disciplinary measures taken against
students; and 21 cases of prosecution or imprisonment of students,
Radio Farda reported. (Vahid Sepehri)
STATE NEWSPAPER RESUMES PUBLICATION. Publication of the "Iran"
newspaper resumed on October 28. "Iran," which is published by the
official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), was shut down in May
after its publication of a cartoon led to riots in the northwest and
demonstrations by ethnic Azeris elsewhere.
Islamic Culture and Guidance Minister Hussein Safar-Harandi
told state television on October 23 that there would be some changes.
"The way the work is done has been reviewed so that the newspaper
would look more pleasing to readers." (Bill Samii)
TEHRAN STUDENTS DISCIPLINED, CAMPUS JOURNAL SHUT DOWN. Three students
from Tehran's Amir Kabir University were summoned to the
university's disciplinary committee on October 21, while another
was temporarily banned from studying, on charges a university
official said are confidential, ISNA reported on October 23. Mohammad
Salmanpur told ISNA that he, Ibrahim Rahmani, and Saman Khosravi were
summoned to the disciplinary committee, adding that his own charges
related to allegedly disruptive behavior. The same university
confirmed a previous order to ban another student, Abbas Hakimzadeh,
from entering the campus, Hakimzadeh told ISNA. He said the
university also shut down his journal "Vazhe-yi-i No" (New Word). The
head of the student-affairs department at the university, identified
as Ataipur, told ISNA on October 23 that student dossiers are
"entirely confidential" and any disciplinary rulings are for presumed
political or campus-related misconduct. "If any student has been
prevented from entering the university, it must have been in line
with regulations, and if the disciplinary committee has issued an
order, we are not allowed to divulge its contents," he said. He added
the university does its best to respect students' rights. (Vahid
Sepehri)
DISSIDENT CRITICIZES EU INDIFFERENCE TO ABUSES. Government critic
Akbar Ganji was in Strasburg on October 24, where he met with EU
parliamentarians and criticized what he called EU tolerance of rights
abuses in Iran so as not to jeopardize commercial interests, Radio
Farda reported. He told the broadcaster that he met with German
Liberal and Greens parliamentarians the same day, and with Angelika
Beir, head of the European Parliament's Human Rights Committee,
with whom "we discussed the extensive violation of human rights in
Iran." Ganji also addressed the legislative body and answered
members' questions, reportedly criticizing the EU for "shutting
their eyes to rights abuses" for the sake of economic interests,
Radio Farda reported. (Vahid Sepehri)
SENIOR IRANIANS CHARGED IN 1994 BOMBING IN BUENOS AIRES. Argentinean
prosecutors have charged leading Iranian statesmen and Lebanon's
Hizballah militia with the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in
Buenos Aires in 1994, AFP and AP reported on October 25 (see RFE/RL
Iran Report," November 10, 2003). Chief prosecutor Alberto Nisman
issued a statement accusing Iranian leaders of planning the bombing
in 1993. Hizballah has close ties to Iran's government.
Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to issue arrest warrants for
Iran's then President Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and his
intelligence and foreign ministers, Ali Fallahian and Ali-Akbar
Velayati, among other suspects, AP reported.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Husseini on October
26 rejected the charges by "certain Argentinean judicial agents" of
official Iranian involvement in the 1994 AMIA bombing and repeated
the oft-stated Iranian stance, that Iran is a victim of terrorism,
IRNA reported. Iran "is itself a victim of various terrorist
activities and has borne heavy human, material, and moral costs," he
said. Husseini said previous irregularities in Argentina's
investigations into the bombing, and the acquittal by a British court
of Iran's then ambassador in Buenos Aires, Hadi Suleimanpur,
showed " the claims made about" Iran's involvement in the bombing
are "baseless."
The "new publicity," Husseini said, is "being fanned within
the framework of the political hostility of Zionists" and designed to
sow discord between Iran and Argentina and offset "the anti-Israeli
atmosphere" after recent "violations" against Palestinians and
Lebanese. Husseini said Argentinean officials must "move away from
past mistakes, and make reasoned and firm evidence the basis of any
statement of opinion," IRNA reported.
Separately, the public prosecutor in Rome asked for a life
sentence at an October 25 court session for a former Iranian diplomat
accused of orchestrating the murder of another former Iranian
diplomat-turned-government-opponent, Radio Farda reported. The court
is examining the 1993 killing of Mohammad Hussein Naqdi, a case in
which diplomat Amir Mansur Bozorgian is a suspect. Neither he nor an
attorney were present at the latest session, Radio Farda reported.
(Vahid Sepehri)
FORMER SECURITY AGENT IN JAIL FOR REVELATIONS ABOUT DISSIDENT
KILLINGS. The Student Committee of Human Rights Reporters of Iran
reports that Intelligence and Security Ministry official Reza Malek
has been held in Tehran's Evin prison for six years now for
having revealed parts of a report on the murders of dissidents in the
late 1990s by Iranian security agents, Radio Farda reported on
October 26. The group reports that Malek was given a 12-year prison
term for disclosing excerpts of an 80-page report on the killings,
which included the stabbing deaths in their home of prominent critics
Darius and Parvaneh Foruhar. Malek is reportedly in Evin's
section 209, where political prisoners are kept.
A group of political inmates in the Gohardasht prison in
Karaj, a city outside Tehran, have issued a statement expressing
concern over the condition of prisoners in Evin's 209th wing,
Radio Farda reported. Their statement reports that unspecified
detainees in the 209th wing are on hunger strike or "in an unsuitable
condition." It called on the UN Human Rights Council to send
inspectors there, Radio Farda reported. (Vahid Sepehri)
FOREIGN MINISTRY SUMMONS EUROPEAN ENVOYS OVER MEETINGS WITH
TERRORISTS. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of
Finland and Belgium on October 25 to express its displeasure at
meetings held in Belgium between parliamentarians and Iranian exiles,
including prominent opponent Mariam Rajavi, ISNA reported. Finland
currently holds the rotating EU Presidency. Rajavi is a self-styled
Iranian president-in-waiting and a leader of the National Council of
Resistance and the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (commonly known as
the MKO or MEK, and which uses a variety of cover names including
People's Mujahedin of Iran), both part of a left-wing militant
grouping considered terrorists by Iran, the United States, and the
European Union.
Rajavi met with Belgian Senate leader Anne-Marie Lizin on
October 24, while a 20-member delegation with her later met other
senators, AFP reported the same day. The visit was unofficial, but
Tehran had already summoned the Belgian envoy on October 22 to
protest it, AFP reported.
On October 25, Ibrahim Heidarpur, the director-general for
Western European affairs at the Foreign Ministry, said the
Senate's invitation was unfriendly toward Iran and a gesture of
support for terrorism, ISNA reported. Heidarpur told the envoys that
the EU is applying a "double standard" in its response to terrorism
and that "political games" like this could be "dangerous" for Iran-EU
relations, ISNA reported. (Vahid Sepehri)
SANCTIONS DISCUSSED IN MOSCOW. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice sought support from top Russian officials in Moscow on October
21 regarding the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran, news
agencies reported. But even before she arrived, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated his opposition to tough sanctions
against Iran. He told the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA that "any measures
of influence should encourage creating conditions for talks." Lavrov
added that "we won't be able to support and will oppose any
attempts to use the Security Council to punish Iran or to use
Iran's [nuclear] program [as an excuse] to promote the idea of
regime change there." In addition to discussing North Korea, Rice
appealed to Russia and Georgia to reduce the tension between their
countries.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Husseini said
in Tehran on October 22 that Iran will respond if sanctions are
imposed over its nuclear activities and contrasted Western threats
with what he suggested was Iran's cooperative approach, ISNA
reported. "If the West chooses sanctions, we too will decide in line
with their choice," he said, adding that the West's choice of
"the Security Council path, threats and...resolutions" will have
"regional, international, and global consequences and the West knows
this very well. Meanwhile, we have always stressed dialogue and
negotiations," ISNA reported.
Husseini said Iran's calls to form an international
consortium in Iran to produce nuclear fuel -- one of the activities
the West wants Iran to stop due to its potential military
applications -- are among the confidence-building measures that Iran
has taken, "which should have been encouraged and welcomed by other
states." Iran proposed talking about a "limited suspension" of
uranium enrichment and related activities if "conditions were fair,"
he said, while rejecting suspension in principle. Husseini asked why
Iran should accept suspension beyond the requirements of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to which it is a signatory. "We had
duties we have carried out, for which we must enjoy certain rights,"
he said. "They want to deprive us of those rights."
Senior legislator Alaedin Borujerdi said in Tehran on October
22 that Iran has no option but to "stand firm in the nuclear field,
and the entire system shares this view," IRNA reported. Borujerdi,
the head of the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy
Committee, was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of members of
the three branches of government. He said the nuclear dossier
constitutes a "difficult passage" for Iran. "We have no authority but
to go through this passage. America's red line is Iran's
enrichment and that is precisely our red line, and that is the point
causing the challenge. We must either surrender or tolerate difficult
events," he said.
"The West wants Iran to be a weak and impotent country, but
that will never take place because the government and parliament will
not accept it." Borujerdi said Iran must "state its case" but
"establish peacefulness in foreign policy," IRNA reported.
Parliament, he added, has passed three laws to safeguard Iran's
nuclear rights.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said on October 23 in Rey, south
of Tehran, that all Iranians wish to have "the full use of nuclear
energy" and "are standing by their right," IRNA reported. Iran, he
said, will continue to pursue activities that are "within the
framework of the law and regulations" in contrast to the conduct of
"certain forceful powers" that trample on "justice" and "morality."
He said he was certain the "nation will stand firm until the last
stage of its goal," though he urged foreign powers to "let us resolve
problems in an atmosphere of dialogue."
Also on October 23, Supreme National Security Council
Secretary Ali Larijani suggested Western powers accept the "formulae"
Iran proposed in recent talks between Larijani and EU negotiator
Javier Solana. These include, he said, Western recognition of
Iran's right to make nuclear fuel and engage in attendant
activities, and the formation of a multinational fuel-making
consortium to reassure the West there are no deviations in Iran's
program to bomb-making activities, IRNA reported. He was speaking
after a meeting in Tehran with Georgian Foreign Minister Gela
Bezhuashvili. (Patrick Moore, Vahid Sepehri)
GUARDS CORPS EYEING ENEMY MOVEMENTS. Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
(IRGC) commander Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said in Tehran on
October 22 that Iran's armed forces "have intelligence dominance
over supra-regional enemies and are precisely observing their
movements," IRNA reported, citing the IRGC public-relations office.
He said after a troops review that foreign powers have concluded that
the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon have learned to resist
"foreign domination" from Iran and its defense against Iraq from
1980-88, and that Iran's armed forces are "a powerful force,
equipped with advanced, contemporary equipment and technology."
Iran's armed forces have a "strategy of comprehensive deterrence
and defense," he said. (Vahid Sepehri)
AHMADINEJAD DEPLORES 'AGGRESSIVE' U.S. ADMINISTRATION.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad met with Belarusian Foreign Minister
Syarhey Martynau on October 22, stating Iran's desire for optimal
ties with Belarus and cooperation in energy, industry and defense
sectors, IRNA reported. Ahmadinejad said Iran wishes to work with
"independent" and "friendly" states to break the alleged injustice of
"the existing unipolar system in the world." The two discussed a
coming visit by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, although IRNA gave
no date for that trip.
Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Shemiranat, a suburb of
Tehran, on October 23 that "we have no problem with the people of
America, and believe [it] is currently under the sway of an
aggressive government," ISNA reported. Ahmadinejad was touring and
speaking in Tehran's environs that day.
He said there are two foreign policy perspectives in the
world presently, "the first perspective is [of] humiliation and
insults to nations" and seeks to curb the progress of nations. The
other perspective, Iran's, is of religious piety and "respect for
nations and human dignity." The United States, he said, now
fingerprints visiting Iranians at airports "like criminals," but Iran
"has not engaged in this policy toward American nationals, and we
believe [they] can easily travel to Iran. Of course if anyone wants
to spy or commit violations, we shall...not permit them to enter,"
ISNA quoted him as saying. He said "we asked parliament" to halt a
proposed bill to fingerprint U.S. visitors. (Vahid Sepehri)
**************************************** *****************
Copyright (c) 2006. RFE/RL, Inc. All rights reserved.
The "RFE/RL Iran Report" is a weekly prepared by A. William Samii on
the basis of materials from RFE/RL broadcast services, RFE/RL
Newsline, and other news services. It is distributed every Monday.
Direct comments to A. William Samii at [email protected].
For information on reprints, see:
http://www.rferl.org/about/content/request.as p
Back issues are online at http://www.rferl.org/reports/iran-report/
_________________________________________ ____________________
RFE/RL Iran Report
Vol. 9, No. 40, 30 October 2006
A Review of Developments in Iran Prepared by the Regional Specialists
of RFE/RL's Newsline Team
******************************************** ****************
HEADLINES:
* CANDIDATES REGISTERED FOR LOCAL COUNCIL POLLS
* IRAN PREPARES FOR CENSUS
* RIGHTS GROUP GATHERS SIGNATURES TO BAN STONINGS
* END TO STONINGS DEMANDED
* RIGHTS GROUP WANTS INVESTIGATION OF EVIN PRISON
* DISSIDENT RELEASED ON BAIL
* REPORTS HIGHLIGHT PRECARIOUS RIGHTS IN IRAN
* STATE NEWSPAPER RESUMES PUBLICATION
* TEHRAN STUDENTS DISCIPLINED, CAMPUS JOURNAL SHUT DOWN
* DISSIDENT CRITICIZES EU INDIFFERENCE TO ABUSES
* SENIOR IRANIANS CHARGED IN 1994 BOMBING IN BUENOS AIRES
* FORMER SECURITY AGENT IN JAIL FOR REVELATIONS ABOUT DISSIDENT KILLINGS
* FOREIGN MINISTRY SUMMONS EUROPEAN ENVOYS OVER MEETINGS WITH TERRORISTS
* SANCTIONS DISCUSSED IN MOSCOW
* GUARDS CORPS EYEING ENEMY MOVEMENTS
* AHMADINEJAD DEPLORES 'AGGRESSIVE' U.S. ADMINISTRATION
*********************************** *************************
CANDIDATES REGISTERED FOR LOCAL COUNCIL POLLS. Registration of
aspiring candidates for local council polls due in December ended
late on October 22, with some prominent Iranians registering to run,
agencies reported. They included former Tehran police chief Morteza
Talai; Masumeh Ebtekar, a vice president in the reformist government
of Mohammad Khatami; Ishaq Jahangiri, former industry minister under
Khatami; and Ahmad Masjid-Jamei, Khatami's former culture and
Islamic guidance minister. Others registering were prominent
reformist Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, former state budget chief Muhammad Ali
Najafi, and conservative Mehrdad Bazrpash, who, until recently, was
an adviser to President Ahmadinejad, "Aftab-i Yazd" reported on
October 23.
Candidacies must be approved by the Guardians Council, a body
of clerical jurists. On October 23, leftist cleric Hadi Khamenei said
unfair disqualifications, bias among Guardians Council or related
personnel involved in electoral supervision, or the "citing of
amazing excuses or raising pseudo-legal obstacles" for aspirants will
discredit the upcoming polls for local councils and the Assembly of
Experts, a clerical body. "If...the gentlemen want to resort to their
old methods, the elections are flawed, even if nobody says so," ISNA
quoted him as saying. Khamenei is the brother of Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Vahid Sepehri)
IRAN PREPARES FOR CENSUS. Iranian authorities are preparing to carry
out the country's sixth nationwide census from October 28 to
November 27, IRNA reported on October 26. Officials reportedly expect
new surveying methods to give the count a 99.8 percent level of
accuracy. Households will answer 26 questions chosen "with
international advice" from 900 relevant questions used in similar
measurements. The survey is expected to cost $40 million and will be
carried out by 88,000 people, with the final results expected in
March 2007, IRNA reported.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad told a gathering of officials
and statisticians involved in the project on October 26 that "precise
and scientific planning" are necessary for the government's
stated plans to "implement justice and build the country," IRNA
reported. "A correct response to the country and the people's
needs requires correct and comprehensive information and figures,"
Ahmadinejad said. (Vahid Sepehri)
RIGHTS GROUP GATHERS SIGNATURES TO BAN STONINGS. Amnesty
International has gathered some 160,000 signatures to pressure
Iran's government to ban the practice of stoning, a lethal
penalty imposed on people -- more often women -- convicted of
adultery or extramarital sex, "El Pais" reported on October 25. The
rights group said seven women are now waiting to be stoned to death
in Iran, while a man and a woman were stoned in May, reportedly for
the first time since December 2002, according to elpais.es.
Iran's Islamic laws forbid extramarital sex. Articles 102
and 104 of its Penal Code explain the modalities of this punishment,
whereby men and women are buried to the waist or chest respectively,
before being stoned by mid-sized stones to ensure pain before death,
the daily reported.
Rights activist Mehrangiz Kar told Radio Farda on October 24
that the time has come for legal reformers to call for the
elimination of stoning from Iran's laws. She said a recent letter
written by jurists to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmud
Hashemi-Shahrudi observed that even existing legal stipulations on
stoning are not properly implemented and there is "inconsistency" and
"subjectivity" in sentences issued by judges, Radio Farda reported.
(Vahid Sepehri)
END TO STONINGS DEMANDED. Women's rights activists in Iran have
called on the head of the country's conservative judiciary and
the parliament to end the stoning to death of convicted adulterers.
Under pressure from the European Union, Iran was said to have
introduced a moratorium on stonings in 2002. But activists accuse
judges of perpetuating the practice.
Reports suggest that two people were stoned to death in May
and at least eight women currently face stoning sentences.
Under Islamic laws as applied in Iran, the punishment for
adultery is stoning. It is widely considered to be among the cruelest
of punishments. Women are buried up to their chests in a pit; men are
buried up to their waists. And their hands are tied behind their
backs.
Then, as lawyer Elham Fahimi explains, they are struck with
rocks until they die.
"They put them in a hole and they wrap them in a kafan [a
white sheet used for burial] -- this is how it should be done,
according to the law," Fahimi says. "Then they call on those who have
not committed any crimes to come and throw stones." Death by stoning
is slow and painful. Islamic code prescribes that "the stone should
not be so big as to kill the offender with one or two stones" and
"nor should it be as small as pebbles."
Still Happening
The latest case of a judicially ordered stoning was
reportedly carried in early May in a cemetery in the holy city of
Mashhad in eastern Iran.
A woman, identified as Mahbubeh M., and a man, identified as
Abbas H., had been convicted of committing adultery and murdering the
woman's husband. Activists say that before the two were stoned to
death, they were treated like "lifeless corpses." They were given
final ablutions and then buried in a hole in the ground. Reports
claim that more than 100 members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard
and Basij paramilitary forces participated in the stoning.
The case alarmed and outraged women's rights activists.
Their investigations suggested that judges in several cities have
continued to condemn people to death by stoning, despite the reported
moratorium.
Women's rights activist Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh tells
RFE/RL that one of the reasons new stonings are being ordered is
because the moratorium was not enshrined in law.
"Since under our laws, judges are independent, one reason
[for continued stonings] might be that with the new government [of
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad] coming to power and the change in the
political atmosphere, judges who are in favor of such sentences have
become more active," Abbasgholizadeh says. "Therefore, we think
stoning should be banned by law -- otherwise judges can issue such
sentences as they desire."
Silent Killings
Abbasgholizadeh says it is unclear how many stoning sentences
have been issued and carried out in Iran since reports of the
moratorium emerged four years ago.
"Currently they don't carry out stoning in public. I
don't know [why], maybe because of public opinion or
international pressure," Abbasgholizadeh says. "Now it seems that
they do it in the prison courtyards by prisoners or prison guards
[casting the stones]. I even know...a political prisoner who was
detained three or four years ago and had seen from his cell that they
brought a woman and forced other female detainees to stone her."
The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Shahrudi, has not
reacted publicly to the activists' calls for an end to stonings.
Parliamentarian Elham Aminzadeh was quoted by Iranian media
as saying after a trip to Brussels in mid-October that stoning
sentences are no longer being handed down in Iran. She said EU
officials had asked about the resumption of the practice. Aminzadeh
said they had referred to an Amnesty International statement and an
Internet list, which she described as invalid.
Abbasgholizadeh dismisses Aminzadeh's claim and says
rights activists have carefully documented stoning cases.
"We don't speak without proof," Abbasgholizadeh says.
"This lady speaks in a way that shows she's denying stoning and
saying that the judiciary has replaced it with other sentences. This
means she's saying stoning should not exist. Our point is that as
long as [a ban] doesn't become law, judges can [issue stoning
sentences] and are doing it. So this lady, who is a legislator and
opposes it, should make the ban a legal one."
Pressure Continues
On October 10, Amnesty International Secretary-General Irene
Khan called on Iran to abolish stoning "immediately and totally."
Activists have published the names of nine women and two men
whom they claim have been sentenced to death by stoning.
One of them is Shamameh Malek Ghorbani, who was reportedly
sentenced to stoning in June after relatives found a man in her home.
Amnesty International reported that her brothers and husband murdered
the man and also stabbed Ghorbani with a knife.
Ghorbani's lawyer, Fahimi, tells RFE/RL that the case is
being reexamined by a higher court.
"She is in Urumiyeh prison," Fahimi says. "Her crime is
adultery, and she has been sentenced to stoning. I visited her while
my colleague went to Qom to study her case, which is before the Qom
supreme court. The sentence has most probably been overturned."
Reports suggest that the stoning sentence against another
woman identified by Amnesty International, Ashraf Kalhori, has also
been suspended.
But activists are determined to continue their efforts until
the practice is rooted out of Iran.
Women's rights defenders say adultery cannot be
considered as deserving of such harsh punishment. They are quick to
add that "no crime deserves to be punished by stoning."
With officials largely silent on the issue except to deny
that it occurs, it is unclear how many more Iranians might be stoned
to death before authorities throughout the country are forced to
agree. (Golnaz Esfandiari)
RIGHTS GROUP WANTS INVESTIGATION OF EVIN PRISON. Four Iranian human
rights organizations have called on the United Nations and other
human-rights bodies and organizations to send an independent
delegation to investigate the situation in section 209 of
Tehran's notorious Evin prison. The human rights groups say most
prisoners held in section 209 are being maltreated and have no access
to their family or lawyers. Section 209 is reportedly controlled by
Iran's Intelligence Ministry and no other government bodies have
access to it.
Abdolfattah Soltani, a prominent human rights lawyer, was
detained in a cell measuring about five square meters in section 209
of Evin prison for more than seven months.
He was not physically tortured but he told RFE/RL that during
the first two months he was completely cut off from the outside
world.
Held Incommunicado
"One doesn't have any contact with family, a lawyer. For
two months I didn't have a television, radio, newspapers, or a
book -- just a Koran and maybe a [prayer book]," he said. "It is the
worst form of psychological torture when one has no contact outside
of the prison cell; many were ready to confess to anything just not
to be forced to bear those conditions."
Section 209 is Iran's most notorious detention center for
detained critics and activists.
Located inside Tehran's Evin prison, the names of the
individuals held there are not recorded on the official list of
Evin's prisoners and families of the detainees are sometimes left
clueless about where their loved ones are being held.
Political- and security-related prisoners are sometimes held
in section 209 in solitary confinement for months without being
charged or put on trial.
Reports Of Abuse
Detainees are reportedly subjected to long and multiple daily
interrogations. Some former detainees have said they were deprived of
sleep and medical care. Others have said they were threatened by
authorities with indefinite imprisonment. Some said they were beaten
up.
Soltani says prisoners in section 209 do not enjoy the same
rights as prisoners held in other wards of Evin prison.
"If anybody becomes sick there is a room there they call the
infirmary, inside 209, and only after many demands will they take
prisoners there where there is a general doctor with very limited
possibilities," he said. "I had a heart problem and I asked for an
appointment for two months -- then I was freed and still hadn't
had an appointment."
Four Iranian human rights groups have expressed concern over
the situation of scores of political prisoners, including dissidents,
human rights activists, and students who are reportedly being held in
section 209.
The rights groups that have sent an appeal to international
human rights bodies include the newly founded UN human Rights
Council, Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), the Committee for the
Defense of Human Rights in Northwest Iran, the Kurdish Human Rights
Defense Organization, and the Ahwazi Human Rights Organization.
Secret Service Controlled
HRAI's spokesman in Europe, Sadegh Naghashkar, says
section 209 is out of the control of bodies such as Iran's prison
organization and Evin's prison officials.
"[Section 209] is one of the most dreadful sections of
Evin's prison, and it is controlled by the Intelligence
Ministry," he said. "No one else has control over this section. The
interrogators in this section put pressure on detainees based on
their assessment."
Last summer, when a group of Iranian legislators visited Evin
prison, they were not allowed into section 209. One of the
legislators, Akbar Alami, said "most regrettably" the wing was closed
and added that this has contributed to "doubts" about what goes on in
section 209.
In recent years there have been reports of other unofficial
detention centers that are not under the control of Iran's prison
authorities. Their number is not known, however, as they are
officially not registered as prisons and are reportedly being run by
certain security bodies.
Some have been reportedly closed, including Prison 59, which
is controlled by the Revolutionary Guard.
Unexplained Deaths
Many reformist figures and human rights activists have
described such detention centers as illegal and called for their
closure.
Soltani says all detention centers should be under the
control of relevant authorities.
"According to the law, the Intelligence Ministry does not
have the right to have a detention center," he said. "It doesn't
have the right to do interrogations; it should do its investigation
and give its information to the police. The police then have the
right to make arrests with orders from the judiciary. But, in section
209 there is unfortunately no control over the actions of officials;
anything can happen to the detainees and that's a tragedy."
Soltani says there should be tighter control by the relevant
authorities of the prison situation and also monitoring should be
done by independent human rights groups. He said such measures could
prevent "tragedies" such as the murder of Iranian-Canadian
photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died from a head injury suffered
during beatings while in custody in Evin.
The human rights groups who have called for an international
investigation into the conditions in section 209 have published the
names of some of the detainees that are believed to be held there.
They include the outspoken Ayatollah Kazemeyni Borujerdi -- who was
arrested after calling for the separation of religion from politics
-- and student activists Kayvan Ansari and Kianush Sanjari. (Golnaz
Esfandiari)
DISSIDENT RELEASED ON BAIL. Former legislator Ali Akbar
Musavi-Khoeini was released on bail on October 21 after 130 days'
detention, Radio Farda reported on October 23, quoting his wife,
Zohreh Islamian. Musavi-Khoeni reportedly had to post bail of 150
million tomans (roughly $160,000). He said after his release that he
was jailed for his "useful and effective" activities when a member of
parliament and an activist, including for calling state officials to
account and defending the rights of detainees. Musavi-Khoeini was
arrested on June 12 after he participated in a Tehran demonstration
for women's rights (see "RFE/RL Iran Report," September 26,
2006). He vowed to continue his "social and human rights" activities,
Radio Farda reported.
Separately, Muhaddaseh Saberi, a supporter of detained cleric
Ayatollah Seyyed Hussein Kazemeyni Borujerdi, told Radio Farda on
October 22 that reports of that outspoken cleric's release are
false and that Borujerdi remains in Tehran's Evin prison. "They
want to make it seem as if [Borujerdi] has been released," she said,
so that no one "follow[s] up" on his case. (Vahid Sepehri)
REPORTS HIGHLIGHT PRECARIOUS RIGHTS IN IRAN. In a Reporters Without
Frontiers (RSF) report on press freedom in the world over the past
year, Iran is listed as a state that restricts free speech, Radio
Farda reported on October 23. The report includes Iran's Supreme
Leader Khamenei and President Ahmadinejad among the prominent enemies
of the free press, Radio Farda added. Separately, Iran's
Defenders of Human Rights Center has issued a report on the state of
human rights in Iran over the past six months, Radio Farda reported.
The center's report cites rights irregularities including 29
cases of legal action against journalists in that time; 38 cases of
interference in court cases by "irresponsible individuals";
prosecutions of 35 press editors; seven publications being banned;
books removed from bookshops; refusing to allow the publication of
certain books; 130 cases of disciplinary measures taken against
students; and 21 cases of prosecution or imprisonment of students,
Radio Farda reported. (Vahid Sepehri)
STATE NEWSPAPER RESUMES PUBLICATION. Publication of the "Iran"
newspaper resumed on October 28. "Iran," which is published by the
official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), was shut down in May
after its publication of a cartoon led to riots in the northwest and
demonstrations by ethnic Azeris elsewhere.
Islamic Culture and Guidance Minister Hussein Safar-Harandi
told state television on October 23 that there would be some changes.
"The way the work is done has been reviewed so that the newspaper
would look more pleasing to readers." (Bill Samii)
TEHRAN STUDENTS DISCIPLINED, CAMPUS JOURNAL SHUT DOWN. Three students
from Tehran's Amir Kabir University were summoned to the
university's disciplinary committee on October 21, while another
was temporarily banned from studying, on charges a university
official said are confidential, ISNA reported on October 23. Mohammad
Salmanpur told ISNA that he, Ibrahim Rahmani, and Saman Khosravi were
summoned to the disciplinary committee, adding that his own charges
related to allegedly disruptive behavior. The same university
confirmed a previous order to ban another student, Abbas Hakimzadeh,
from entering the campus, Hakimzadeh told ISNA. He said the
university also shut down his journal "Vazhe-yi-i No" (New Word). The
head of the student-affairs department at the university, identified
as Ataipur, told ISNA on October 23 that student dossiers are
"entirely confidential" and any disciplinary rulings are for presumed
political or campus-related misconduct. "If any student has been
prevented from entering the university, it must have been in line
with regulations, and if the disciplinary committee has issued an
order, we are not allowed to divulge its contents," he said. He added
the university does its best to respect students' rights. (Vahid
Sepehri)
DISSIDENT CRITICIZES EU INDIFFERENCE TO ABUSES. Government critic
Akbar Ganji was in Strasburg on October 24, where he met with EU
parliamentarians and criticized what he called EU tolerance of rights
abuses in Iran so as not to jeopardize commercial interests, Radio
Farda reported. He told the broadcaster that he met with German
Liberal and Greens parliamentarians the same day, and with Angelika
Beir, head of the European Parliament's Human Rights Committee,
with whom "we discussed the extensive violation of human rights in
Iran." Ganji also addressed the legislative body and answered
members' questions, reportedly criticizing the EU for "shutting
their eyes to rights abuses" for the sake of economic interests,
Radio Farda reported. (Vahid Sepehri)
SENIOR IRANIANS CHARGED IN 1994 BOMBING IN BUENOS AIRES. Argentinean
prosecutors have charged leading Iranian statesmen and Lebanon's
Hizballah militia with the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in
Buenos Aires in 1994, AFP and AP reported on October 25 (see RFE/RL
Iran Report," November 10, 2003). Chief prosecutor Alberto Nisman
issued a statement accusing Iranian leaders of planning the bombing
in 1993. Hizballah has close ties to Iran's government.
Prosecutors have asked a federal judge to issue arrest warrants for
Iran's then President Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani and his
intelligence and foreign ministers, Ali Fallahian and Ali-Akbar
Velayati, among other suspects, AP reported.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Husseini on October
26 rejected the charges by "certain Argentinean judicial agents" of
official Iranian involvement in the 1994 AMIA bombing and repeated
the oft-stated Iranian stance, that Iran is a victim of terrorism,
IRNA reported. Iran "is itself a victim of various terrorist
activities and has borne heavy human, material, and moral costs," he
said. Husseini said previous irregularities in Argentina's
investigations into the bombing, and the acquittal by a British court
of Iran's then ambassador in Buenos Aires, Hadi Suleimanpur,
showed " the claims made about" Iran's involvement in the bombing
are "baseless."
The "new publicity," Husseini said, is "being fanned within
the framework of the political hostility of Zionists" and designed to
sow discord between Iran and Argentina and offset "the anti-Israeli
atmosphere" after recent "violations" against Palestinians and
Lebanese. Husseini said Argentinean officials must "move away from
past mistakes, and make reasoned and firm evidence the basis of any
statement of opinion," IRNA reported.
Separately, the public prosecutor in Rome asked for a life
sentence at an October 25 court session for a former Iranian diplomat
accused of orchestrating the murder of another former Iranian
diplomat-turned-government-opponent, Radio Farda reported. The court
is examining the 1993 killing of Mohammad Hussein Naqdi, a case in
which diplomat Amir Mansur Bozorgian is a suspect. Neither he nor an
attorney were present at the latest session, Radio Farda reported.
(Vahid Sepehri)
FORMER SECURITY AGENT IN JAIL FOR REVELATIONS ABOUT DISSIDENT
KILLINGS. The Student Committee of Human Rights Reporters of Iran
reports that Intelligence and Security Ministry official Reza Malek
has been held in Tehran's Evin prison for six years now for
having revealed parts of a report on the murders of dissidents in the
late 1990s by Iranian security agents, Radio Farda reported on
October 26. The group reports that Malek was given a 12-year prison
term for disclosing excerpts of an 80-page report on the killings,
which included the stabbing deaths in their home of prominent critics
Darius and Parvaneh Foruhar. Malek is reportedly in Evin's
section 209, where political prisoners are kept.
A group of political inmates in the Gohardasht prison in
Karaj, a city outside Tehran, have issued a statement expressing
concern over the condition of prisoners in Evin's 209th wing,
Radio Farda reported. Their statement reports that unspecified
detainees in the 209th wing are on hunger strike or "in an unsuitable
condition." It called on the UN Human Rights Council to send
inspectors there, Radio Farda reported. (Vahid Sepehri)
FOREIGN MINISTRY SUMMONS EUROPEAN ENVOYS OVER MEETINGS WITH
TERRORISTS. The Iranian Foreign Ministry summoned the ambassadors of
Finland and Belgium on October 25 to express its displeasure at
meetings held in Belgium between parliamentarians and Iranian exiles,
including prominent opponent Mariam Rajavi, ISNA reported. Finland
currently holds the rotating EU Presidency. Rajavi is a self-styled
Iranian president-in-waiting and a leader of the National Council of
Resistance and the Mujahedin Khalq Organization (commonly known as
the MKO or MEK, and which uses a variety of cover names including
People's Mujahedin of Iran), both part of a left-wing militant
grouping considered terrorists by Iran, the United States, and the
European Union.
Rajavi met with Belgian Senate leader Anne-Marie Lizin on
October 24, while a 20-member delegation with her later met other
senators, AFP reported the same day. The visit was unofficial, but
Tehran had already summoned the Belgian envoy on October 22 to
protest it, AFP reported.
On October 25, Ibrahim Heidarpur, the director-general for
Western European affairs at the Foreign Ministry, said the
Senate's invitation was unfriendly toward Iran and a gesture of
support for terrorism, ISNA reported. Heidarpur told the envoys that
the EU is applying a "double standard" in its response to terrorism
and that "political games" like this could be "dangerous" for Iran-EU
relations, ISNA reported. (Vahid Sepehri)
SANCTIONS DISCUSSED IN MOSCOW. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice sought support from top Russian officials in Moscow on October
21 regarding the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran, news
agencies reported. But even before she arrived, Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated his opposition to tough sanctions
against Iran. He told the Kuwaiti news agency KUNA that "any measures
of influence should encourage creating conditions for talks." Lavrov
added that "we won't be able to support and will oppose any
attempts to use the Security Council to punish Iran or to use
Iran's [nuclear] program [as an excuse] to promote the idea of
regime change there." In addition to discussing North Korea, Rice
appealed to Russia and Georgia to reduce the tension between their
countries.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Husseini said
in Tehran on October 22 that Iran will respond if sanctions are
imposed over its nuclear activities and contrasted Western threats
with what he suggested was Iran's cooperative approach, ISNA
reported. "If the West chooses sanctions, we too will decide in line
with their choice," he said, adding that the West's choice of
"the Security Council path, threats and...resolutions" will have
"regional, international, and global consequences and the West knows
this very well. Meanwhile, we have always stressed dialogue and
negotiations," ISNA reported.
Husseini said Iran's calls to form an international
consortium in Iran to produce nuclear fuel -- one of the activities
the West wants Iran to stop due to its potential military
applications -- are among the confidence-building measures that Iran
has taken, "which should have been encouraged and welcomed by other
states." Iran proposed talking about a "limited suspension" of
uranium enrichment and related activities if "conditions were fair,"
he said, while rejecting suspension in principle. Husseini asked why
Iran should accept suspension beyond the requirements of the Nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to which it is a signatory. "We had
duties we have carried out, for which we must enjoy certain rights,"
he said. "They want to deprive us of those rights."
Senior legislator Alaedin Borujerdi said in Tehran on October
22 that Iran has no option but to "stand firm in the nuclear field,
and the entire system shares this view," IRNA reported. Borujerdi,
the head of the parliamentary National Security and Foreign Policy
Committee, was speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of members of
the three branches of government. He said the nuclear dossier
constitutes a "difficult passage" for Iran. "We have no authority but
to go through this passage. America's red line is Iran's
enrichment and that is precisely our red line, and that is the point
causing the challenge. We must either surrender or tolerate difficult
events," he said.
"The West wants Iran to be a weak and impotent country, but
that will never take place because the government and parliament will
not accept it." Borujerdi said Iran must "state its case" but
"establish peacefulness in foreign policy," IRNA reported.
Parliament, he added, has passed three laws to safeguard Iran's
nuclear rights.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said on October 23 in Rey, south
of Tehran, that all Iranians wish to have "the full use of nuclear
energy" and "are standing by their right," IRNA reported. Iran, he
said, will continue to pursue activities that are "within the
framework of the law and regulations" in contrast to the conduct of
"certain forceful powers" that trample on "justice" and "morality."
He said he was certain the "nation will stand firm until the last
stage of its goal," though he urged foreign powers to "let us resolve
problems in an atmosphere of dialogue."
Also on October 23, Supreme National Security Council
Secretary Ali Larijani suggested Western powers accept the "formulae"
Iran proposed in recent talks between Larijani and EU negotiator
Javier Solana. These include, he said, Western recognition of
Iran's right to make nuclear fuel and engage in attendant
activities, and the formation of a multinational fuel-making
consortium to reassure the West there are no deviations in Iran's
program to bomb-making activities, IRNA reported. He was speaking
after a meeting in Tehran with Georgian Foreign Minister Gela
Bezhuashvili. (Patrick Moore, Vahid Sepehri)
GUARDS CORPS EYEING ENEMY MOVEMENTS. Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
(IRGC) commander Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi said in Tehran on
October 22 that Iran's armed forces "have intelligence dominance
over supra-regional enemies and are precisely observing their
movements," IRNA reported, citing the IRGC public-relations office.
He said after a troops review that foreign powers have concluded that
the peoples of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon have learned to resist
"foreign domination" from Iran and its defense against Iraq from
1980-88, and that Iran's armed forces are "a powerful force,
equipped with advanced, contemporary equipment and technology."
Iran's armed forces have a "strategy of comprehensive deterrence
and defense," he said. (Vahid Sepehri)
AHMADINEJAD DEPLORES 'AGGRESSIVE' U.S. ADMINISTRATION.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad met with Belarusian Foreign Minister
Syarhey Martynau on October 22, stating Iran's desire for optimal
ties with Belarus and cooperation in energy, industry and defense
sectors, IRNA reported. Ahmadinejad said Iran wishes to work with
"independent" and "friendly" states to break the alleged injustice of
"the existing unipolar system in the world." The two discussed a
coming visit by President Alyaksandr Lukashenka, although IRNA gave
no date for that trip.
Ahmadinejad said in a speech in Shemiranat, a suburb of
Tehran, on October 23 that "we have no problem with the people of
America, and believe [it] is currently under the sway of an
aggressive government," ISNA reported. Ahmadinejad was touring and
speaking in Tehran's environs that day.
He said there are two foreign policy perspectives in the
world presently, "the first perspective is [of] humiliation and
insults to nations" and seeks to curb the progress of nations. The
other perspective, Iran's, is of religious piety and "respect for
nations and human dignity." The United States, he said, now
fingerprints visiting Iranians at airports "like criminals," but Iran
"has not engaged in this policy toward American nationals, and we
believe [they] can easily travel to Iran. Of course if anyone wants
to spy or commit violations, we shall...not permit them to enter,"
ISNA quoted him as saying. He said "we asked parliament" to halt a
proposed bill to fingerprint U.S. visitors. (Vahid Sepehri)
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