The Beginning of the End of the Clerical Rule in Iran
No.696
Downfall
Majlis deputy lashes out at Ahmadinejad aide in midst of feuds31 August 2010
In another sign of persistently widening rifts in the Iranian regime, a member of the regime’s Majlis (Parliament) used an official session to lash out at an aide of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the mullahs’ President, the state-run Fars news agency reported on Sunday.
The mullahs’ Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, was also present at the session. The Majlis deputy, Elias Naderan, criticized Rahim Mashai, who Ahmadinejad appointed recently as the chair of the “Supreme Council for Exiled Iranians,” using openly condescending language.
Naderan called the institution “illegal,” and told Mottaki, “If that notorious individual [Mashai] is supposed to run this council, then why not just appoint him as the foreign minister, too?”
Naderan also uncovered more information about the regime’s attempts to assemble its elements from abroad in Tehran in the context of a “conference” in July, which turned into a high profile fiasco and fueled more infighting among regime officials.
In view of the unrewarding so-called conference, Naderan complained, “Each guest [at the conference] had four people with them. We paid for their tickets, rented charter planes for them, and gave them a cross-country tour. We also picked up the tab for their stay in Tehran and paid their 31 years of unpaid salaries.”
Iran: Former IRGC Commander concerned about regime's future31 August 2010
The former commander of the Iranian regime’s Revolutionary Guards has voiced concern about the Iranian regime’s future and the devastating impact of international sanctions.
Rahim Safavi’s unusually frank comments were published on Sunday by the state-run Mehr news agency. “We are currently in extraordinarily complex political, cultural, economic, security and social circumstances. This is true with regards to regional, global and domestic spheres.”
“The future is uncertain and we cannot [proactively] manage what the future has in store for us.”
Rahim Safavi was the commander-in-chief of the Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) until September 2007. He was succeeded by Mohammad Ali Jafari. He is now described as the senior advisor to the mullahs’ Supreme Leader in military affairs.
Safavi also compared the regime’s current international isolation with the pre-Iran-Iraq war era and said, “The same coalition has taken shape now, too. They want to create trouble for us with economic sanctions, political pressures and domestic tensions in Iran.”
“We must prepare ourselves for every scenario and not allow sanctions to cause problems for us in the future,” he said.
He also made reference to the US troops withdrawal from Iraq, and said, “The Americans are currently in the process of withdrawing. It seems that 30-50 thousand forces and five bases will remain in Iraq. This will be like the South Korea model; they will remain in Iraq for years to come to be able to dominate it.”
Multi-billion dollar fraud conspiracy by Iranian regime’s Oil Ministry31 August 2010
The state-run website Jahan News revealed a multi-billion dollar fraud conspiracy by the Iranian regime’s Oil Ministry and wrote two companies that had an initial capital of just $100 are partnered in the giant $21 billion South Pars gas field contract.
“The Iranian Petro Paydar Company – Stock Limited that is involved in the $5 billion Phase 13 development stage consortia, was founded exactly on the date of this contract, 15 June 2010, with an initial capital of $100,” Jahan News wrote mentioning the contract. “This company was registered under license number 377800 and national certificate number 10320271640 in the Office of Company Registration.”
According to this report, the second company that signed to take part in this enormous investing contract is named The Petro Sina Aria Oil & Gas Company – Stock Limited that is involved in the $5 billion Phases 22-24 development consortia. This company was founded on 14 June 2010, one day before the signing of the contract, with an initial capital of just $100, registered under license number 377660 and national certificate number 10320271046 in the Office of Company Registration.
This state-run media added, “The main question facing the respected directors of the Oil Ministry and the Presidency is that how, why and with what legal basis is this multi-billion dollar contract – signed in their presence –with two $100 dollar companies with exact same directors and stockowners, on the date of their foundation? And how are they joined in profits made from 3 billion dollar euro debentures and 3 trillion Rial debentures?”
It should be noted that the so-called signing of this contract took place with the presence of Ahmadinejad on 15 June with deceiving propaganda.
Workers protest 16-month unpaid wages30 August 2010
Herana News Agency reported workers of the Long Distance Communications plant in Shiraz protested outside the factory, chanting “Life, Livelihood, are our basic rights” and “Workers’ wages must be paid.”
Wages of some workers hasn’t been paid for over 16 months, state-run ISNA News Agency reported. These workers are in very poor financial conditions and have no hope for insurance or retirement funds. They are not even able to pay their insurance bills.
Suppression
Silent executions continue in Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad
Aug. 30, 2010
They bring those who are to be executed in groups of 70 to the visiting hall of Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad and an hour before sunset; they are hanged in a mass execution with nooses sent from Tehran. Those who are to be executed do not know until moments before their execution why they have been summoned to the Prison Office and only when all the prison phones go dead an hour before sunset do other prisoners realize that it is time for the executions.
This is the horrific state of Vakil Abad Prison in Mashhad in the past few months. A human rights activist in Mashhad described what he had heard from soldiers in prison saying that in the past weeks at least 60 to 70 people were taken to the gallows every week without their own knowledge or that of their families; prisoners that did not have lawyers and did not receive fair trials.
It seems that the heads of Mashhad’s Revolutionary Court had the order, according to a directive issued by Mohsen Ejeyi, to send all drug related death row prisoners to the gallows in a speedy and ceaseless manner.
The deaths sentences are mostly issued by the four judges of Mashhad’s Revolutionary Court – Kavousi, Kaboli, Soltani and Yasayi and have been promptly carried out. The haste in carrying out the executions is to the extent that prisoners realize their fate moments before their execution. According to a prison guard, only a few moments after a prisoner met with his wife, the prison guard took him to the hall where sentences are carried out while the prisoner and his wife did not know anything about his execution.
The numbers of hangings in Vakil Abad Prison have reached 500 according to reports from cellmates and the few families who are willing to talk. The lack of communications, fear among the families and even prisoner employees has made the task of getting reports on the fate of prisoners very hard. But according to reports in the past 5 months, a number of prisoners have been executed every week in an alternate fashion and the families only realized that the number of executions are very high after collecting the corpses of their loved ones (from prison). Prison officials intimidate these families who are mostly from poor classes and prevent them from spreading the news. They also had to pay 7 thousand tomans for the noose (their loved ones were hanged with). Most of the prisoners did not have lawyers and because lawyers charge 'between 10 to 15' million tomans to appeal the death sentence, most families cannot afford lawyers.
The hangings of Vakil Abad was not limited to only Iranians and in a number of instances Afghan nationals and in one instance a Nigerian was also executed. They have all been charged with narcotics trafficking but according to the human rights activist in Mashhad, the death sentence was given to light crimes which prisoners usually receive prison terms for. There are reports that the Mashhad public prosecutor's office has said that Mohsen Ejeyi, the Prosecutor General of Iran, intends to commemorate Khalkhali by executing narcotics traffickers.
In the beginning of the 80’s, Ayatollah Sadeq Khalkhali sent many drug addicts and small time narcotics traffickers to the gallows in a speedy plan to eliminate narcotics in Iran. It is said that Khalkhali believed that if a death sentence was wrongly given to a prisoner, that prisoner would go to heaven after his execution.
Political prisoner in coma after 48 days of hunger strike; denied medical attention
Aug. 30, 2010
According to reports, political prisoner Arjang Davoudi went into a coma last night on his 48th day of hunger strike. The life of this political prisoner is in danger.
On Sunday night, august 29, at about 12 am, Davoudi was taken to the infirmary on a stretcher while he was close to a coma. Before being treated, the medical staff put a paper in front of him and asked him to sign it so that he would take full responsibility for anything that might happen to him. But this political prisoner refused to sign the paper. The medics then gave him an unidentified injection and after 45 minutes, left him in the hallway of cellblock 3 even as he was in very critical condition. They refused to keep him in the infirmary.
He has been on a stretcher from last night until now in the hallway. His health has deteriorated and he is unable to open his eyes or talk. The life of this political prisoner is in danger.
Aids and other illnesses spreading in Iranian prisons
30 August 2010
The chairman of the Iranian regime’s Prisons Organization admitted to a growing number of tuberculosis and Aids infections among Iranian prisoners as well as drug smuggling in the regime’s prisons.
The state-run media reported on Sunday that Gholam-Hossein Esmaili said 1.7 percent of the prisoners have been infected with the Aids virus and 265 inmates are suffering from tuberculosis.
He added, “Even after all the controls have been put in place, the Prisons Organization can never completely stop the smuggling of drugs into the prisons.”
It is worth mentioning that the main culprits of smuggling drugs into prisons are the regime’s own wardens and interrogators. On Thursday, a clerical regime official, Zaeri, said, “In our system, even healthy people who, for example, are imprisoned on charges of fraud become addicted to drugs while spending time in prison.”
Mother of slain prisoner dies after torching herself in protest
Aug. 30, 2010
The mother of a prisoner who set herself on fire in protest to the murder of her son in prison died in Orumieh hospital.
According to reports, the mother of Bahman Massoudi, an ordinary prisoner in the Central Orumieh Prison, self immolated on August 23 after hearing that her son was killed in prison.
This Azeri mother died after being taken to the hospital despite efforts by the doctors to keep her alive.
Bahman Massoudi was murdered by a prison agent named Khanzadeh after being hit with a baton in the head while in solitary.
01 September 2010
A physicist from the country of Azerbaijan specializing in laser technology, who spent a year and a half in Iranian prisons and was recently released and extradited to his native country, has revealed his experience at the Iranian regime’s prisons as well as the regime’s tactics to hold him captive.
In an interview on Tuesday, Dr. Rashid Aliev said he was surprised by “arbitrary trials and violations of prisoners’ rights in Iran.” He added that he was most inspired by the high morale, persistence and world outlook of political prisoners at Ward 209 of Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison.
“I am always worried about their future,” Dr. Aliev said in reference to the political prisoners. “Although they were sentenced to death, they had unbelievably high morale and continued to engage in political conversations. It was as if their determination to bring change to their society could not be erased from their minds.”
“One example was Farhad Vakili. Several days before he was hanged, we had an interesting political discussion. I later heard from his friend that at the time of his execution, this political prisoner gladly placed the noose around his own neck.”
Mr. Aliev said he worked at Baku University and the Sciences Academy as a physicist specializing in laser technology until 2006 when he was headhunted by an Sazan Electronics company in Iran.
“When I was first came across the Iranian legal system, I was shocked. After a year and four months in prison they issued a sentence in absentia without allowing the defendant to have an attorney. They also distorted and fabricated evidence. The interrogator told me to draw the equipment that I was working on. I told him the equipments are available in the laboratory. But he insisted that I have to draw them on paper and I did it.”
“Later, they had offered those drawings as evidence in court, pretending that I had stolen them with the intention of smuggling them out of the country. On top of the page they had written, ‘I confess that I wanted to smuggle these documents out of the country.’ On the bottom of the page there was my signature where they had told me previously to sign after drawing the schematics.”
Aliev added, “I was shocked by this fabrication and deception. I told them I built the laboratory myself with technology from 30 years ago, which I imported into Iran myself. Why would I possibly want to steal this?”
Recounting his prison experience, he said, “I was going crazy due to stress. I spent 50 days in solitary confinement and was on a hunger strike for five days. I wished for death every single day. I experienced my own grave in solitary confinement.”
“For a 57 year old like me, one year was equivalent to 20 years. There was both physical and psychological torture in wards 209 and 350 [in Evin], especially the latter. Prisoners did not receive any food or fruits and humidity pierced through your bones. Doctors did not carry out any serious treatments. Prisoners’ letters never made it to their destinations.”
“I want to tell Iranian [regime officials] that no force would be able to block the path of evolution. Force is not the answer and will not produce any results,” he added.
Former head of Dezfoul’s Jondi Shapour University arrested
30 August 2010
Reports from inside the country indicate Amir Hossein Shirouy, former head of Jondi Shapour University and member of the university’s science board was arrested in the early hours of Sunday, 22 August. He was arrested in his home in Dezfoul, SW Iran.
Dezfoul intelligence agents also confiscated this university professor’s laptop and other belongings.
Political prisoner dies from cancer; denied on-time treatment
Aug. 30, 2010
Kaveh Kordi Moqadam, a Kurd political prisoners from Ashnavieh who was serving his time in Orumieh Prison passed away yesterday on August 29 in Orumieh Hospital.
According to reports, this political prisoner who suffered from stomach and lung cancer was granted a medical leave one month ago to receive treatment, but passed away because of the delay in treatment.
Doctors had warned about his critical condition from a long time ago and had told officials that he had to be under the care of a hospital and treated by specialists but prison officials refused to grant him a medical leave until a month ago.
Kaveh Kordi Moqadam was arrested in 2008 on charges of ‘acting against national security’ and was sentenced to 3 years of prison by the first branch of the Orumieh Revolutionary Court.
Another innocent border tradesman fatally shot by security forces; more than 900 tradesmen murdered by security forces last year
Aug. 31, 2010
Security forces in the Hassan Salaran Base in Saqez shot and killed 20 year old Mohammad Khoda Rahmi and severely injured Anvar Khoda Rahmi after they opened fire on their automobile. Anvar Khoda Rahmi was taken to this town’s general hospital.
According to reports from the Saqez Information Center, security forces claimed that they opened fire on these two citizens because they were carrying smuggled goods in their automobile. This is while villagers from several villages have announced that they are willing to testify in court that these two men were not smugglers and were going to Saqez from their village for automobile maintenance.
Last year, more than 900 border tradesmen and carriers were shot and killed by security forces.
Iran tortures two Azeri activists in Tabriz
Aug. 1, 2010
Eunice Soleimani, the former editor of Ildrim student publication in the Bu-Ali Sina University in Hamedan and Ayat Mehr Ali Biglu were tortured in the Tabriz Intelligence Detention Center.
Yusef Soleimani, the brother of this student activist said, “In the visit I had with my brother on August 25 in Tabriz Prison I realized that he was given electric shocks and injected with mind altering drugs”.
According to Eunice’s brother, he suffered heart problems as a result of the torture and was hospitalized in the Sepah Hospital in Tabriz for three days.
A number of Azeri activists in the Tabriz Intelligence Detention Center told their families in visits that Ayat Mehr Ali Biglu was also tortured and that they could hear him crying out while being tortured by agents.
Biglu has not had any contact with his family in the past month and his family have requested from the fourth branch of the Tabriz Revolutionary and Public Court to visit him and see his face but Judge Hashem Zadeh who is seeing to his case has announced that due to the security nature of the case, he cannot allow his family to see him.
Eunice Soleiman was arrested on June 17, 2009 in Ardabil and Ayat Mehr Ali Biglu was arrested on May 10, 2010 in the town of Sufian. Judicial sources have not announced their charges.
Students Committee in Iran (Supporters of PMOI)
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Iran-Students-Committee/222864894745?ref=ts
Iranstudentscommittee.blospot.com
Facebook Profile: Sarzamin Pak
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