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* Forouhar attacked during Tehran rally
* Marzieh tells son to drop dead
* Rafsanjan deputy rejected by Majlis
* Clashes between KDPI and army reported
* Payam- Daneshjou publisher banned
* Vice President's paper banned
* Hanged man to be executed... again!
* Executions for homicide, adultery
* Hijacker Condemned to Death
* "Human Rights Emissaries are sick," says Lajaverdi
* Debate over IPO
* Paper Criticizes Turkey's Erbakan
* Business as usual at Mostazafan
* Cool Summer, Hot Autumn for Universities
* Besharati versus Karbaschi
Forouhar attacked during Tehran rally
Darioush Forouhar, the leader of the Iran Nation's Party, wasattacked by a group of Hezbollahis on motorcycle while leaving aceremony on the first anniversary of the death of National Frontleader Karim Sanjabi in Tehran.
A statement issued by Forouhar's party in Tehran said theHezbollahis "fled when they faced determined resistance from youngparty members" who were protecting Forouhar. The clash took place infront of a mosque in Tehran on July 4.
A Hezbollah group had warned citizens not to organize or attendany commemoration of Sanjabi, or "Face its consequences , with isdeath in the hand of Hezbollah." Sanjabi was from the Sanjabi tribeof Iranian Kurds from the Kermanshah region. [INP statement7/4/96]
Marzieh tells son to drop dead
In a peculiar interview with the Mujahidin radio station last weekin London, that was rebroadcast in Los Angeles, the famous Iraniansinger Marzieh called her own son "an animal" for having attempted toembrace her during her June 25 concert in London.
As we reported in last week's newswire, the son, MahmoudMalak-Afzali, was beaten by several dozen Mujahidin security guardswhen he called on his mother to "sing for 70 million Iranians," andnot for the Mujahidin.
In the interview, Marzieh claimed that her son was "an agent ofthe Iranian Ministry of Intelligence," and that his intervention ather concert was "an operation" that had been orchestrated by MOISwith the help of Nasser Khajeh-Nouri, an Iranian exile living in theWashington, DC area who has been a frequent target of Mujahidinpropaganda. (In fact, Khajeh-Nouri had worked as a consultant to theMujahidin, but says he broke with them over a financialdisagreement).
Massoud and Miriam Radjavi were "the only alternatives" to thecurrent regime, Marzieh said, and anyone who made propaganda againstthem "was actually an agent of the Islamic Republic."
The Mujahidin have frequently used the same line in condemninganyone who criticizes their organization (and we expect to be calledagents of the IRI for running this piece - stay tuned!). [RadioSedaye Iran 7/5].
Rafsanjan deputy "un" rejected by Majlis
The Majlis is now reconsidering its earlier rejection of thenewly-elected member from President Hashemi-Rafsanjani's home town ofRafsanjan, Mr. Hamid Bahrami Ahmadi. Mr. Ahmadi was elected on thefirst round of elections in March, soundly defeating 4-term Majlisdeputy Hossein Hashemian.
Hashemian, who is a relative of President Rafsanjani and a memberof the board of directors of the Rafsanjan Pistachio Company, wasaccused by a weekly paper Payam-e Daneshju of corruption. (Seebelow). Following these allegations, the company took out full pageads in all major Iranian newspapers, calling the revelations a plotby "international competitors" in the pistachio market.
At first, the Majlis rejected Ahmadi's credentials, leading towidespread protests in Rafsanjan on June 21, as we reported in lastweek's Newswire. According to Kayhan, the protests have now led theMajlis to reconsider its position. The Majlis had opened aninvestigation into Ahmadi's past, alleging he had dark connections tothe United States. [Kayhan 6/25]
Clashes between KDPI and army reported
The Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI) claims to have killed"scores" of Iranian government soldiers in a June 21 attack on amilitary outpost in Faraveh village, near the town of Saquez inIranian province of Kurdistan. According to a statement released bythe KDPI in Paris on July 6, two Iranian army colonels , identifiedas Hushang Varmaghani, and Rahman Mehrabani, were killed during theoperation.
The KDPI also reported clashes between peshmergas and governmentforces in Sanaday, Orumieh, Kamyaran, Marivan, and Saquez.
A KDPI supporter, Kazem Kirza'i, was said to have died undertorture in Orumieh prison on June 18. He was arrested two years ago.[KDPI statement 7/6]
Payam- Daneshjou publisher banned
Heshmatollah Tabarzadi , the publisher and editor-in-chief of thebanned Payam-e Daneshjou weekly, was fined 10 million rials ($3,300)and banned from journalism for five years, by a special press court.The court had initially condemned him to one year in prison, butsubsequently relaxed the sentence because of his service during theIran-Iraq war.
Payam-e Daneshjou was banned and its publisher put on trial afterinvestigative pieces it ran on the Saderat Bank, the PistachioCooperative of Rafsanjan, and the Bonyad-e Mostazafan. All threegroups attacked the paper for libel. [Jomhouri-e Eslami,7/2].
Tabarzadi was accused of "spreading lies, calumny, documentforging, and spreading anxiety in the society" by the press court. Inhis defense, Tabarzadi said he considered revealing corruption cases"a religious duty," and pointed out that during the two years thatfollowed his paper's initial revelations on the Saderat Bank the bank"never issued a denial ... against our charges." [Jomhouri-eEslami 7/2].
Vice President's paper banned
The Basijis were not alone in their problems with the press laws.Recently even a Vice President of the Islamic Republic, AtaollahMohajerani, has run afoul of the law, and has been condemned by thespecial press court of "spreading lies", "defamation", "insults" forarticles published in his weekly about the Jameh-e Ruhaniat-eMobarez, the Combatant Clerics Society of Parliament-speakerNateq-Nouri.
Mohajerani says he closed his weekly newspaper, Bahman, "forfinancial reasons" after the second round of the Majlis elections.The court banned him from journalism for one year and fined him500,000 rials ($167).
Bahman had accused the JRM of receiving a $1 million bribe duringthe election campaign. In a separate article, the paper accused JRMof "using force to achieve its goals," and of being the main cause ofpolitical asphyxiation and the lack of freedom in Iran.
Mohajerani defended himself in court by evoking the poisonousatmosphere of the Majlis campaign. "Our genuine concern was thespreading violence and repression in the name of the religion," hesaid, referring to the pro-Rafsanjani list of Majlis candidates, theServants of Construction.
Mohajerani has been very active in recent years as an unofficialspeaker for Rafsanjani supporters , mainly through writing articlesin the pro-government press.
The court decision would appear to be another show of force byNateq-Nouri to his opponents. [Salam 7/3]
Hanged man to be executed... again!
A hanged man who survived has been condemned to hang - again.
Niaz Ali, said to be in his thirties, was hanged in February,after he was condemned to death for killing a man near the city ofHamadan three years earlier.
He stayed suspended from the rope for 20 minutes before beingpronounced dead by the authorities. But when his brother went to themorgue to claim his body five hours later , he noticed that his heartwas still beating slowly. He asked for help, and the hanged manrevived. He taken back to jail... and now the authorities want tohang him again.
In an interview with Kayhan from his prison cell, Niaz Ali beggedfor clemency. "I've already faced my punishment and I do not have theheart and nerves to bear it again. I am enjoying a new life in prisonand I pray to God every day for it to continue. Now I've asked theauthorities to pardon me. But they say I should be hanged again,unless the parents of the man I killed forgive me. So I beg them toforgive me. I really regret what I have done and I have changedcompletely," he said. [Kayhan, 7/4]
Executions for homicide, adultery
A man identified as Manuchehr Mehrban was executed this month inTehran's Qasr prison on charges of homicide. In its report on theexecution, Hamshahri said Mehrban's crime occurred last yearfollowing a family dispute.
Because of the increased scrutiny by human rights organizations ofpublic accounts of executions, which used to flood the Iranian press,the Tehran government has given strict orders only to reportexecutions for crimes such as murder, theft, and rape, and even theseappear as notices on the inside pages of official newspapers in abrief and uniform format.[Hamshahri 6/22].
Meanwhile, Kayhan reported that a 29 year-old woman, identifiedonly as Homeyra, and her lover, Alireza, were executed in Shiraz oncharges of adultery. No other details were provided. [Kayhan7/1]
Hijacker Condemned to Death
The Prosecutor General of Tehran's Revolutionary Court ,Hojjat-ol-Eslam Gholam Hossein Rahbarpour, announced that the man whohijacked an Iran Air Boeing 727 to Egypt in 1984, Gholam-RezaBahid-Jou, has been condemned to death.
"He asked for clemency, but his request was rejected by thesentencing committee," Rahbarpour said. He released no information onthe date or conditions of the trial.
Iran has repeatedly announced in the past that it would prosecutehijackers who flew civilian airliners to Iran, but has never done so.[Ettelaat 6/20]
"Human Rights Emissaries are sick," says Lajaverdi
The head of the Islamic Republic's Prisons Organization has calledWestern human rights emissaries who visit Iran "sick people." But hehad kinder words for the UN's new special representative for Iran,Maurice Copithorne.
"We don't have any problem to letting human rights groups visitour prisons," said Asadollah Lajaverdi, "because the quality of lifein our prisons is very good. But these people are sick...They come tosee the reality of our prisons, but go away reporting what theyalready had in their minds. They have made human rights into apolitical issue," he added.
Lajaverdi was more upbeat about Copithorne's recent report on thehuman rights situation in Iran, which he called "somewhat positive,and better than previous reports." Nevertheless, he said, Copithorne"did not reflect all the truth."
Lajaverdi, who is as "Jallad-e Evin" (the butcher of Evin) toformer prisoners, said Iran welcomed visits to its prisons. He alsooffered some intriguing figures on the number of prisoners currentlybehind bars, which contradicts other recent statements by Iranianofficials.
In all, some 110,000 persons were currently behind bars, hesaid.
"The majority of our prisoners are there for drug related offenses(53,5%). The rest have been jailed for theft (14%), financial crime(7%), disturbing public order and wickedness (5%), anti-Islamicbehavior (4%), homicide (4%), security offenses (3%), forgery (2% ),smuggling (1.5%), unintentional homicide (1.2%), illegal borderviolations (0. 5%), driving offenses (0.3%), vandalism (0.3%),family offenses (0.3%), illegal occupation of property (0.2%), hesaid.
But not a single one of those 110,000 persons could be considereda political prisoner, Lajaverdi insisted. Not one. "We have no onewho is in prison for thinking in a way that is different from theregime, or for political activities. You can see that politicalactivities are allowed everywhere in Iran. People can speak theiropinions freely, and no one will bother them. We do have a fewmembers of armed groups, but their number is fortunately very small.Even they are not in prison because they belong to a group, butbecause they have committed armed robbery or terrorist crimes. InEvin Prison, which once was full of them, today they can be countedby the fingers of two hands."
Lajaverdi painted a positively idyllic picture of the prisons ofthe Islamic Republic,. They have "flowers in the gardens, andaquariums in halls." Prison libraries are stocked with "hundreds ofthousands of books," while prison medical clinics offer "the bestmedical services" in Iran. In addition to that, prisons are given"quality food," and access to "sports and cultural activities," hesaid.
"If any guardian assaults or mistreat a prisoner, he will beseverely dealt with. We know that the best way to treat prisoners isby love and corrective methods. Most of the prisoners are like sickpeople who need to be cured," Lajaverdi said. Indeed, one third ofall prisoners were eventually cured, because "they recite Koranfluently. 2300 of them have completely memorized the Koran."[Jomhouri-e Eslami, 6/23]
With prisons like this, who wants to live in the southern suburbsof Tehran?
Debate over IPO
No, it's not an initial public offering... It's the IslamicPropagation Organization, and there's an ongoing debate in the Majliswhat to do with it.
Some government ministers and parliamentarians have sought tosubsume it within the Ministry of Islamic Culture and Guidance. Butfor Majlis speaker Nateq-Nouri that "is not a wise thing to do,"since by his own admission the IPO engages in activities which thegovernment "must avoid because of national security concerns," suchas sending clerics as recruiters to Bosnia and elsewhere. Therefore,retaining plausible deniability as to who is really running the showis the better way to go, he told a recent gathering celebrating the15th anniversary of the IPO.
The IPO receives millions of dollars from the government's annualbudget. Its mission is to spread fundamentalist propaganda in Iranand throughout the world. It has branches in dozens of countries,acting closely with Iranian embassies. But the arrest and expulsionof IPO emissaries in Bosnia this past winter, their huge organizationin Lebanon which funnels money to Hezbollah, has raised concerns ofthe organization's support for Iranian government-sponsored terroristactivities.
Nouri, claiming that the U.S. is trying to overthrow the IslamicRepublic by infiltrating Iranian culture, called on Iranians to"defend Islam on the cultural front, by starting a new cultural andintellectual movement. The U.S. is quietly planing our culturaldefeat. It main target is our youth. So we should maintain control onour youth and university students through propaganda and culturalactivities. We should fight corruption and cultural assault by everypossible means, including physical means when necessary."
Nateq-Nouri's suggestion for countering America's culturalonslaught? More mullahs, and Islamic films. "I regret that the numberand the quality of our preachers has dropped. We should replacepreaching by art and culture, projecting films in the mosques toabsorb the youth," he said. [Iran, 6/22]
Paper Criticizes Turkey's Erbakan
A conservative Tehran daily had sharply criticized Turkey's newPrime Minister, Necmeddin Erbakan, for having formed a coalitiongovernment with former prime minister Tansu Ciller.
"In their second attempt to form a government, Erbakan's RefahParty has turned to Ciller, the head of the secular True Path Party,and has stepped back from their positions to meet Ciller's satanicdemands," Jomhouri-e Eslami said in an editorial. The paper wasfounded by and reflects the views of Supreme Leader Ayatollah AliKhamene'i.
"The undeniable truth is that the Islamist Welfare Party haschosen the wrong way to achieve power." The daily called Erkaban'scooperation with Ciller as "paying a political bribe in order to gainpower. This is an indefensible approach which is surely not shared bythose who voted massively for the Welfare Party."
"Political analysts believe that even if a coalition government isput together between True Path and Welfare, it will be short livedbecause of fundamental differences in the goals of the two parties,"the paper added. [Jomhouri-e Eslami, 6/22]
Business as usual at Mostazafan
Two month after the publication of the Majlis report on fraud andcorruption at the Bonyad-Mostazafan (Foundation of the Oppressed),nothing has changed. Although the report revealed astonishing detailsabout mismanagement and embezzlement in the privatization ofFoundation assets, the Bonyad continues to put companies and realestate on the auction block. But apparently only crooks and croniesneed apply.
In a June 23 announcement carried in Jomhouri-e Eslami, the Bonyadput five more of its companies up for sale. Just as in previousannouncements, the Foundation gave the names of the companies andinvited bids. No price or conditions for the sale were announced.
The latest companies were the Kerman Industrial Complex (100% ofshares for sale); the Keshpoud Elastic and Industrial Label Factoryin Rasht (100% of shares on sale); the Naval Equipment DistributionCo., located in Chalus, a manufacturer of fiberglass and other kindsof boats (100% of shares on sale); Electro Danube, an industrialelectronic equipment factory in Tehran (74% of shares on sale); andthe Oxygen Gas Factory in Abadan (100% of shares on sale).
Since the Majlis report was released, all investigations appear tohave been dropped, and no steps have been taken to prevent theFoundation from altering or destroying evidence. Majlis investigatorscomplained on numerous occasions during their investigation thatfiles they had sought were systematically withheld or simply declaredmissing or in the personal possession of Rafiq-doust and thereforeinaccessible. [Jomhouri-e Eslami, 6/23]
Cool Summer, Hot Autumn for Universities
Basiji students will get special instructions over the summervacation, aimed at "countering perverse movements" at Iran'suniversities, Basij commander Alireza Afshar told a gathering in Qomof the Islamic Propagation Organization.
"The aim of the Velayat Plan is to inform Basiji universitystudents of Islamic values and current affairs of the country duringthe summer holidays , to prepare them for a wave of culturalactivities to face perverse movements," Afshar said. He revealed thatthe Plan will be carried out with the help of clerics from the Qomseminary. [Kayhan, 6/24]
The government and senior clerics have been calling for a vastpurge of the universities for some time, but this was the first timethe mechanics of the purge were discussed in public.
A deputy Minister of Culture and Higher education, Mohammed RezaShojai'i Fard, denied there were plans to dismiss teachers orstudents, calling them "all rumors. This is not the will of theSupreme Leader. Islamization of the universities will be a long andgradual program." [Resalat 6/23].
But he did confirm that some professors would be fired. "Theprofessors the Supreme Leader referred to them [as unfit toteach] will have to go. But their number will not besignificant."
Meanwhile, the governor of Maragheh (A major city in EastAzerbaijan Province) called the academic level in provincialuniversities "shameful".
"In this town, fresh college graduates are teaching B.S. courses.I ring the warning bell for our universities," he said. [Resalat,6/24].
(And this is before teachers with bad attitudes get the knife.Wonder who will be teaching these classes after the purge?)
Besharati versus Karbaschi
A new incident pitting the LEF against the Mayor of Tehran has notonly revealed the continuing political tension between thepro-Rafsanjani and pro-Khamene'i/Nateq Nouri factions, but seems toconfirm an emerging rivalry between Interior minister Ali MohammadBesharati, and Gholam-Hossein Karbaschi, the controversial TehranMayor.
On June 23 , Rev. Guard General Yousef Abolfathi, the commander ofLEF for the greater Tehran region, announced that his forces alonewill be allowed in the future to sell the special permits allowingcars to circulate in central Tehran. [Salam 6/25]
Abolfathi's announcement puts an end an end to an important sourceof income for the Tehran Mayor, who has closed Tehran streets in anapparent effort to fight pollution and then turned around and soldvehicle circulation permits on a daily, monthly, or annual basis.Karbaschi has used fees from permit sales to finance his ambitiousmunicipal plans.
This new challenge to Karbaschi came only days after one of theMayor's deputies denied any change in the traffic permits, and askedTehranis to buy their permits from the Municipal Traffic Office asbefore.
Earlier this year, Karbaschi spent millions of dollars to installparking meters throughout Tehran, only to have the LEF declare themeters were illegal, outlawing their use.
Two weeks ego, the LEF broke up a municipal police lock out in thebazaar on Besharati's order. (See our 6/24 Newswire).
Some observers see the rivalry between Besharati and Karbaschi asan extension of the Rafsanjani/Nateq-Nouri split. But others see themas rivals for a single chair - the Mayor's - and believe theBesharati is looking for a new job. [Salam 6/25]