Iranian lawyer Mohammad Assadi, who was arrested in 1993 on charges of spying for Israel, membership in the Lions Club, the Free Masons, as well as for importing American agricultural machinery and equipment, faces imminent execution by the Islamic judiciary, family members said last week. The lawyer's daughter, Camelia Biau-Assadi, said in Paris she feared the real reason behind her fathers prosecution and conviction was his refusal to cede ownership of his lands to certain ayatollahs who had been eyeing his property. She acknowledged that her father had traveled to Israel (as do many Iranians), but as tourist before the revolution. She also denied that her father had ever been belonged to a Masonic organization. [Iran Press Service 5/9]
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is concerned with Mr. Assadi's plight, and calls on the Tehran authorities to grant him a fair and public trial, with the right to defense.
The European Parliament passed a resolution on May 14, expressing solidarity for the victims of Iranian government terrorism and announcing that it "supports all the democrats opposed to the present Iranian regime who are fighting to establish a truly democratic and secular state in Iran." The resolution urged the European Union "to put a definite end to the 'critical dialogue' with the regime and to enhance dialogue with all those promoting the transformation of Iran into a democratic state."
No specific groups were mentioned in the statement, which also condemned "in the sharpest possible terms the persistent acts of state terrorism perpetrated by the Iranian government at home and abroad." [EP statement 5/14]
The leftist Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution, a group headed by former Heavy Industries minister Behzad Nabavi, has warned of widespread fraud in Friday's elections by supporters of Majlis speaker Nateq-Nouri, and decried what it called the "amazing move" by the Council of Guardians to ban election monitors from polling stations. The monitors were seen as a real guarantee against election fraud, and were to include representatives of all four candidates. The group also complained of interference by the Rev. guards and bassij force commanders in the elections through their active support of Nateq Nouri, and the proliferation of leaflets defaming challenger Mohammad Khatami. [Salam 5/18]
Foreign policy issues have been remarkably absent in the current election campaign - as they are in many countries struggling with immense economic, social, and political difficulties. But at a press conference on May 18, Foreign Minister Velayati gave another reason why foreign policy was not an issue: because the regime's foreign policy options are all designated by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamene'i, making any debate moot.
There have been numerous reports recently of clashes between the LEF and Khatami supporters. On Saturday night, May 18, the LEF arrested youths driving cars festooned with photographs of Khatami. The arrests were carried in the Sunday editions of Resalat, Keyhan, and Salam. On Monday, the French Press Agency estimated that 100 youths had been arrested on Saturday. Also on Monday, Rev. Guards Brigadier Youssef Reza Mir Abelfathi, commander of the Tehran LEF, said that more than 280 persons had been arrested in Tehran for "illegal acts" in connection with the elections. [Radio Israel, 5/19, quoting Tehran press reports].
A surprise two-week recess of the Majlis has provoked a furor among pro-Khatami deputies who believe the break was orchestrated to benefit Majlis speaker Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri. The Majlis Presiding Board declared the recess on May 8, without any warning. Deputy Majlis Speaker Hassan Rohani gave two reasons for the recess: the need for lawmakers to return to their constituencies during the elections, and the Muharram mourning period.
80 Majlis deputies wrote to the Presiding Board to oppose the recess, which they claimed was "a politically motivated move in the interests of one particular faction," Majlis deputy Samad Qassempour told Iran News. "The break will enable the deputies to go back to their constituencies to campaign in favor of a particular candidate." Another Majlis deputy, Ghulam Haider Ibrahimbaie Salami, echoed Qassempour's concerns, and voiced doubts that the state-controlled radio and television would remain neutral during the election campaign.
According to the Presidential Election Law, the four presidential candidates have equal access to the media to introduce their programs. [Iran News, 5/8] On Monday, May 12, Salam (which is pro-Khatami) reported that more than 190 out of the 270 members of the Majlis have openly declared their support for Nateq-Nouri [5/12] The director of the Statistics Center of Iran, Abbas Zali, announced that a total of 33 million are eligible to vote in the forthcoming election. [Tehran Times, 5/11]
An INP activist has been arrested by the security forces in the Kurdish city of Boukan, the party's Youth Organization says, for having distributed leaflets calling on citizens to boycott the Presidential elections. Khosrow Kordpour was apparently one of several hundred INP activists arrested on Friday, May 16, the party announced in Tehran. The INP claimed that "family members of those arrested gathered in front of the LEF stations and asked for the immediate released of their loved ones," many of whom had been beaten and tortured in jail. [INP statement 5/17]
INP leader Darioush Forouhar told a Los Angeles radio station by telephone that he believed "people are indifferent to the presidential election but the leaders of the Islamic Republic want to portray it as a popular move." [Radio Sedaye Iran 5/16]
Daily Keyhan reports that 51 persons have been arrested on charges of tearing down election posters. The daily said the detainees were all employees of a company belonging to the Tehran Municipality, which publishes Hamshahri newspaper, a strong supporter of Khatami's candidacy. [Keyhan, 5/14] Meanwhile, in the "Hello, Salam" column of Salam newspaper, a reader claims that the paper has disappeared from Tehran news stands because "some people are buying and destroying your newspaper." [Salam, 4/28]. Salam is a major Khatami supporter, too.
A little-known opposition group, the NAVID organization, has threatened the regime and regime-officials with terrorist attacks, unless they cancel this Friday's elections. In a statement issued in Germany by spokesman Homayoun Moghaddam, the group said that unless the elections were canceled, "the military operations of the Babak Khorramdin Organization (BKO) will be resumed throughout the country."
BKO claimed responsibility for numerous attacks against Iranian officials during the early 1990s, and against the Swiss subsidiary of Bayer, which was attempting to ship biological warfare production gear to Iran in 1992 and 1993.
NAVID said it would use the BKO to launch attacks "against the following targets: the leader of the Islamic Republic, the heads of executive, judicial and parliament powers, the Minister of Intelligence, heads of the General Depts of the MOIS with the exception of the Counter/Intelligence Dept, foreign experts and advisors to the MOIS, heads of censorship sections in the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, heads of censorship sections in the Radio and TV organization, commanders of the Ghods force of the Rev. Guards who are involved in planning and executing assassination attempts against opposition elements, heads and commanders of Ansar-e Hezbollah organization in the cities of Mashad, Tehran, and Shiraz, Minister of Post, Telephone and Telegraph of the Islamic Republic, and all the authorities who are responsible for the torturing and harassment of political prisoners."
The group also said it would begin a series of publications aimed at exposing "the financial, political, and social corruption of the leaders of the regime." [NAVID statement 5/19]
Challenger Mohammad Khatami stressed "social justice" and "national solidarity" in his major election speech, sounding many of the themes that have seen him branded as a "liberal." Although Khatami has been publicly associated with Rafsanjani's "pragmatist" faction, these themes have long been associated with the "radical" faction, which favors greater state control over the economy, suggesting that Khatami's true ideological roots may be with them. [IRIB 5/10]
Nateq-Nouri made his official presentation three nights later, on May 13, focusing on the economy, the ills of inflation, but also devoting a lot of time to the Velayat-e Faqih, which is fast becoming a real campaign issue. On the morning of Nateq-Nouri's speech, Jomhouri-e Eslami questioned Khatami's loyalty to the Velayat-e Faqih, which is the ideological underpinning of the regime, saying that in recent days he had "openly questioned" it as a principle of government. [Jomhouri-e Eslami 5/13]. In an earlier editorial, the paper attempted to delegitimize Nateq-Nouri's opponents, Khatami included, by accusing them of "being against the Velayat-e Faqih." [5/11].
It has also reported that Ibrahim Yazdi, Ali Akbar Moinfar, and Ezatollah Sahabi were rejected as candidates because they all had crossed out the section regarding "Velayat-e Faqih" in their registration form [Jomhouri-e Eslami 4/30]
Ayatollah Khamene'i weighed in (again) on May 13, in an address to employees of the state broadcasting service. "How is it possible that there would be no idea about one of the candidates?" he said. "In my opinion, the election of the best candidate is only natural" [Tehran Radio 5/14].
Khamene'i's support for Nateq-Nouri has been widely commented upon in the Tehran press. Ansar-e Hezbollah has again been insulting Khatami as "disloyal" to the Islamic republic, this time in leaflets distributed in the city of Kermanshah [Salam 5/10].
One Khatami supporter wrote to Salam that he feared Khatami would be assassinated by his opponents [Salam 5/10]
The endorsement of Nateq-Nouri by the Association of Qom Seminary Teachers last fall was called into question by two of its members who argued that the endorsement should not have been given before Khatami entered the race. The two dissenters, Ayatollah Masudi Khomeini (no relation to Ruhollah Khomeini) and Ayatollah Seyed Jaafar Karimi disputed the endorsement in interviews with Hamshahri and Salam. [Iran News, 5/1]
Ayatollah Meshkini touched on the same theme by warning against those who believe in "the American brand of Islam." In his Friday prayer sermon in Qom, he said that when Khomeini wrote to Mr. Gorbachev, "he said that the Islam that he was referring to was the Islam which our nation called the American Islam. This Islam compromises with everything. It compromises with bullying, with bullies. You should elect someone who is the follower of the pure Islam." [ IRIB, May 3]
In a stunning reversal for Khatami, the Central Council of the influential workers organization, Labor House, announced that it would not be supporting any particular candidate, despite their long-standing ties to Khatami's leftist supporters. Instead, they issued a call to members to vote for any of the three front-runners, all of whom were the "most qualified". The Khaneh Kargar, or Labor House, is a worker organization that extends its influence across the country among workers and traditional families. In the past, the body, headed by 'Ali Reza Mohjub, put its support behind leftists, including Majma'-e Rohaniyun-e Mobarez, the Militant Clerics Society. During the 5th Majlis elections last year, it supported the pro-Rafsanjani Servants of Construction, or G-6. [Iran News, 5/7]
"Right now, Mr. Khatami is facing an uphill task because of the silence of the Labor House," an unnamed Tehran analyst quoted by Iran News said. With Labor sidelined, Nateq-Nouri is banking his victory on the wedge of votes from farmers, who comprise 45 percent of the total population, the analyst said. "Mr. Nateq-Nouri expects that 80 percent of the farmers will cast their votes in his favor," the analyst said. "Both Mr. Nateq-Nouri and Mr. Khatami are closely fighting for the votes of government employees, and Mr. Khatami will succeed in receiving comparatively more votes from major cities." [Iran News 5/18]
"We lack technical know-how for the opinion polls at least at this stage of our election history," admitted Iran News. Another flaw is that those who are conducting these polls are affiliated to one or the other political faction," the newspaper said. [April 30] The latest poll, conducted by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance's National Center for public Opinion Studies and Assessment, showed 40.8 percent support for Nateq-Nouri with Khatami trailing with 33.8 percent. The poll was conducted in Tehran and was based on interviews with 1,182 people. [Akbar, 4/30]
In a meeting with the families of martyred commanders, Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i harshly criticized those who have shown signs of "leniency toward the United States" and have not taken a "stand against global arrogance and the arrogant spirit of aggressor governments." His remarks were seen as direct rebuke to Khatami who has vowed greater political and personal freedom if elected.
"Why should some people speak of human rights and women's rights in a way that runs counter to the view of Islam or talk as if we had to bring our views closer to those of the Westerners?" Khamene'i asked without directly naming Khatami. "It is the Westerners who should bring their viewpoints closer to ours. They should correct their wrong views about human rights, women's rights and democracy and should adapt them to the views of Islam," he said [Iran Times, 5/8]
The day before Khatami had attended a question-answer session with teachers in which he said women would have a place in his government. Khatami said that half of Iran's population were women, but that they "have not been provided with equal opportunities alongside men throughout history." Khatami also stressed the virtues of tolerance." It is necessary we become accustomed with each other, stand beside each other, present our views, (and) not resort to sanctities in order to eliminate those whom we do not like, leaving judgment to the people." He called for expanding the "civil society" in Iran. [Tehran Times, 5/7]
42 intelligence agents of the Tehran government have been warned by Germany to leave German soil, the opposition Nimrooz weekly reported recently from Munich. The 42 persons "are well known elements who have been in the service of the Islamic Republic and have spied for the Islamic Republic embassy in Germany," the London-based weekly said. Nimrooz added that the German government believed the 42 persons were connected to "some events" which have happened on German soil., and that the German authorities have launched a series of investigations into individuals suspected of spying against Iranian refugees and opposition figures in Germany. [Nimrooz 5/9]
A prominent Iranian lawyer and former judge told a Tehran-based women's magazine recently that Islamic Republic laws are "against women." Ms. Shirin Ebadi, who is also a professor at Tehran University, told Zanan ("Women") magazine that the nation's laws "are extremely anti-women. Even the right of existence for men and women is not the same. If a man kills a woman, the family of the woman must pay millions to the family members of the man if they want the court to punish the man."
She noted that under the Islamic Republic, girls can legally be married as of the age of eight and a half, with a provision that a girl's guardian (father or grandfather) can legally commit the girl to a marriage partner as of birth. "If a girl who has married a man at the age of 9, and has delivered a child by the age of 13, looses her husband and decides to work in order to feed her child, according to the law she cannot because the minimum working age is 15. How is such a young mother supposed to care for her child?" [Quoted by Nimrooz, 5/9]
Yet another Iranian writer, Hesamedian Nabavi-Nejad, has been arrested, and continues to be subject to harassment by the intelligence ministry, an Iranian cultural group said last month in Sweden. Mr. Nabavi-Nejad is a well-known lawyer and the editor of Zendeh Roud magazine, which was recently banned in Isfahan, an exile journal said. The Pouya Art and Cultural Club in Sweden issued a statement on April 27 claiming that Nabavi-Nejad had recently been arrested and jailed for one week by the MOIS, and was still be harassed by MOIS agents after his release. [Nimrooz 5/2]
Saudis stationed agents at Jeddah Airport in order to distribute free books on the life, the thoughts, and the decrees of Muhammad Bin-'Abd-al-Wahhab to the pilgrims, charged daily Keyhan. The free books were in Farsi, English, Malaysian, Indonesian, Turkish, and any other language spoken by the pilgrims. The newspaper added that the Saudi agents were also handing, a copy of the Koran, "thus making any decent person ashamed to reject the offer." Keyhan claimed that the free books were scattered on the floor at Jeddah Airport and no one was keen on reading them. "The style used by the author of the books--at least the ones in Farsi--was very Afghan and as though written by someone like the Talebans. This showed that the author, the publisher, and the financier did not know anything about the difference between Afghan and Farsi literature. But what can one do when the students of the school of Muhammad Bin-'Abd-al-Wahhab--that is, the Talebans in Saudi Arabia--are unable to understand such things?" [Keyhan, 4/28]
In a response to a letter from Dr. Khosrow Akmal, the Secretary General of the Constitutionalist Movement of Iran (CMI) to the Prime Minister John Major last month, Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office has replied that Britain "will continue to work with our EU partners to put pressure on Iran to improve its behavior," although the FCO believed that "the broad international support for sanctions against Iran does not exist." The FCO reply, dated May 7 (after the elections that swept Labor Party leader Tony Blair to power), put human rights at the top of the EU and British agenda, and said the UK had "no intention" of letter the Sarkuhi affair drop. "We take a very serious view of all human rights abuses in Iran and work closely with our EU partners through the UN machinery to maintain pressure on Iran to improve its human rights record." [FCO letter to CMI, 5/7]
Colonel Hassan Aghilipour, the leader of a "Crisis Cabinet in Exile" based in Paris, has called on the international community to impose a travel ban on Iranian diplomats and other officials from the Tehran regime because of their terrorist activities. "Establishing a critical dialogue, allowing the free circulation of Iranian officials in the world, and continuing sensitive trade with this regime is a crime of complicity with those who have committed crimes against humanity and who threaten peace in the region and in the world," Aghilipour said in a statement addressed to European Foreign Ministers. "We ask you this time to defend the honor of the Free World and of the civilization of the third millennium, by taking an international decision against the leaders of that country and not against the oppressed people of Iran. Sufficient measures exist - legal, economic, and political - that would exclude Iran from the international community." [5/12 statement]
Ayatollah Mehdi Rouhani, the leader of the Shiite community in Europe and a member of the FDI board, has called on the international community to "to forget the political situation in Iran" and come to the aid of Iranians whose villages were devastated by the recent earthquake. "It is time for every Iranian and Iranian opposition group to set aside their political differences with the regime and try to help and to heal the victims of this tragic event," he added. [5/13 statement]