The Foundation for Democracy in Iran has called on the Islamic Republic authorities to release jailed student leaders Manoucher Mohammadi and Gholamreza Mohajeri-Nezhad, as well as all other persons illegally detained during the recent protests in Tehran and other Iranian cities.
The Intelligence Minister announced on Sunday, July 18, that it had arrested Mohammadi and Mohajeri-Nezhad, and accused them of conspiring with "with the help of the counter-revolution and of the so-called human rights circles" to plan the recent student protests. Relatives of both men expressed fear that they could be executed under Iran's tough 1996 espionage law. Seyyed Javad Emami and Hasan Zare'zadeh Ardeshir, of the Central Committee of the Student's Islamic Association, and Mohammad Salamati, the secretary of the Student's United Front , were also reportedly taken into custody.
On Monday, Mohammadi was displayed briefly on state-run television, looking puffy-faced and drugged, "confessing" to having made contact with outlawed political parties during a trip last year to Turkey and the United States. In the staged confession, Mohammadi agreed to charges, first aired by the Intelligence Ministry the day before, that he had coordinated the student protests with a "counter-revolutionary agent" in Turkey, and had received payment from him.
This outrageous show trial has fooled no one in Iran or in free countries. On the contrary, Mohammadi's courage in facing up to torture at the hands of the Islamic Republic authorities, and his steadfast struggle for democracy and freedom of expression, will serve as an example for other student leaders who will take up the banner of democracy and freedom in Iran.
Parading Mohammadi on state-run television after he had been so obviously beaten and drugged will only reinforce the determination of freedom-loving Iranians around the world to stand up and be counted in their opposition to tyranny. Far from quelling unrest, the authorities are inviting further disturbances.
In his denunciation of the student protesters on July 12, President Khatami revealed his true colors, choosing repression, not freedom. By denouncing the right of Iranian students to protest peacefully, President Khatami showed that the "rule of law" he seeks to promote bears no resemblance to any internationally-recognized standard of human rights. If President Khatami is to claim any legitimacy as a reformer, he should immediately seek the unconditional release of Mohammadi, Mohajeri-Nezhad, and all others arrested during the student protests. FDI has few illusions that he will do so.
This is why we believe it is important for Iranians, and for freedom-loving people everywhere, to unite in protesting the outrageous behavior of the clerical regime in Tehran, and demand the immediate and unconditional release of all of those arrested during the recent protests.
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is a private, non-profit corporation registered in the State of Maryland. Contact: Kenneth R. Timmerman, Executive Director (exec@iran.org). FDI materials, including the FDI Newswire, are available free-of-charge via the Internet at http://www.iran.org/.