The Latest from Iran (20 April): Intrigues and a Bombing

2045 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. It is reported that detained journalist Mehdi Mahmoudian, who helped expose the Kahrizak Prison abuses, has been taken to hospital in handcuffs.

2040 GMT: The Silenced Reformists? The Government may be putting out the story of the recommendation by "watchdogs" that reformist political parties shoud be banned. However, members of Parliament haven't suspended their criticisms.

Iran Document: The Speech Khatami Would Have Given at Japan Disarmament Conference
Iran Document: “Our Sons’ And Daughters’ Agony” (Sahabi)
The Latest from Iran (19 April): Stay Firm, Spread the Word

Dariush Ghanbari has said that the Government must pursue a reform of the media law and that rulers must recognize the opposition's rights to political activity.

Mostafa Kavakebian has asked why the regime only shuts down newspapers that are critical of the Government, while Jamshid Ansari criticises "parallel" intelligence services, saying that one makes arrests while the other remains uninformed.


2035 GMT: Today's Video Moment. A video has emerged of the Iranian New Year meeting of women's rights activists with Zahra Rahnavard, the prominent activist, academic, and wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi. ()

The video comes out as the Government announces a plan to create a "Women's Ministry".

2030 GMT: Seeking the Help of Clerics. Rah-e-Sabz writes that a report on torture in Iranian prisoners has been passed in an open letter to marja (senior clerics).

2015 GMT: Guess Who's Waiting for Mir Hossein? It's not unusual to see the question, "Will Mousavi's Green Manifesto be published soon?" After all, the the way forward for the Green Movement is a top subject of discussion.

It is a bit different, however, when the question is being asked by Ali Larijani's Khabar Online.

2000 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Even if a detainee is freed, his encounter with Iranian authority may be far from over. Green Voice of Freedom reports that the family of Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was imprisoned for months after the election, has been threatened.

1955 GMT: Academic Corner. The suspension or expulsion of "troublesome" professors, which we have followed in update, is summarised by Green Voice of Freedom.

1545 GMT: We'll be on an extended break today. Thanks to all readers for continuing to bring in news and comment.

1215 GMT: Breaking the Opposition? Following the recommendation by Iranian "watchdogs" for the suspension of two major reformist parties and the banning of Bahar newspaper, pro-Ahmadinejad MPs have maintained pressure. Ali Abbaspour has declared that Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have not stopped treasonous activities, while Ruhollah Hosseinian said the post-election role in "fitna" (sedition) by the Islamic Iran Participation and the Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution justified their dissolution.

However, in a sign that not all may be running one way, Hosseinian was not present at yesterday's meeting of clerical MPs with the Supreme Leader.

1205 GMT: The Subsidy Battle. Despite reports of a settlement between Parliament and the Government over subsidy cuts and spending proposals, there is still some confusion over what exactly will be implemented. Pro-Ahmadinejad MP Iraj Nadimi has insisted that all is settled but chided reporters not to ask questions such as when when the cuts will start.

In that context, readers can interpret the latest statement of Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani that the Government must enforce laws passed by the Majlis.


1200 GMT: A car bomb in Ilam has killed at least three people.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xq_XPVPcyK8&feature=youtube_gdata[/youtube]

1130 GMT: Politics, Rights, and Deportation. Bita Ghaedi, an Iranian women who fled to Britain because of alleged domestic violence, is due to be deported today, despite fears of how she will be treated upon her return to Iran. Activists are publicising her case, protesting in London yesterday.

Beyond the bureaucratic procedures of Britain's Home Office, Ghaedi's case is complicated by her participation in a rally in summer 2009 over the treatment of Iranian residents of Camp Ashraf in Iraq. Most of those residents are connected with the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran,  the political wing of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MKO) who have sought the overthrow of the Islamic Republic for more than 30 years.

For the moment, Ghaedi's deportation is held up because of a twist beyond politics: UK flights to Iran are grounded because of the ash cloud from last week's volcanic eruption in Iceland.

1040 GMT: The Uranium Swap Talks Are On? Agence France Presse reports on the visit of Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to Tehran (see 1000 GMT):

Davutoglu...said that Turkey, which has resisted a US push for a fourth round of sanctions against Iran, "is ready to act as an intermediary in the issue of uranium exchange as a third country and hopes to have a fruitful role in this. We will continue to try our best to see what we can do for this nuclear fuel swap."

And Press TV, after its initial PR focus on Turkish support for Tehran, has now gotten to the heart of the matter, thanks to Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki: "We think that if the other sides have this real will to materialize this nuclear fuel deal then this swap can be a multilateral confidence building for all sides including the Islamic Republic of Iran." (Curiously AFP misses the signal, claiming that Mottaki "did not explicitly react to Ankara's latest offer".)

1030 GMT: Academic Corner. Students at Elm-o-Sanat University in Tehran have written an open letter in support of lecturers who have been suspended from teaching.

1000 GMT: A quiet start to the day. We're now far enough away from the Washington and Tehran showpieces on nuclear disarmament for the often-diversionary headlines to fade, even though the real stories are still there to be evaluated.

For example, in Iran, Press TV's press release on Turkish Foreign Ahmet Davutoglu's visit --- "Turkey has always supported Iran's stance when it comes to the nuclear program" --- fails to approach the interesting questions about his discussions with Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki.

Given Turkey's persistent role in the uranium talks as broker and intermediary, do the talks point to a serious renewal of negotiations on a swap of uranium and possible "third party enrichment"? Press TV only offers, "On a UN-backed deal that would provide fuel for Tehran's research reactor, the top diplomat said that Turkey would be willing to act as a mediator and Ankara would 'do its best' to see what it could do for the fuel swap."

In the US, the curious aftermath lingers after this weekend's fuss over Secretary of Defense Robert Gates' three-page memorandum on US policy towards Iran. Unnamed officials used The New York Times to argue that the Secretary of Defense was blasting the Obama Administration for being indecisive and that he was looking towards military "containment" of Tehran.

Gates has quickly repudiated the claims: "The New York Times sources who revealed my January memo to the National Security Advisor mischaracterized its purpose and content."

Fine, but what exactly did Gates say in that memo to the head of the National Security Council, James Jones, if he wasn't criticising an Obama policy caught between sanctions, discussions with Iran, and the US military presence in the Persian Gulf? And who, if the Secretary of Defense is correct, was trying to misrepresent him through a Page 1 story? (Or the alternative: is Gates trying to back away, at least in public, from concerns that were in fact "correctly" expressed in the leak to the Times?)

Comments

[Catherine]

The family that protests together dies together

Death Sentence for Members of a Family
http://www.roozonline.com/english/news/newsitem/article/2010/april/19//death-sentence-for-members-of-a-family.html

[Catherine]

Richard Haas thinks: "The Gates memo is right to focus attention on the real choices. In the end, it is Iran, far more than Afghanistan or Iraq or even Pakistan, that is likely to prove the most significant strategic decision and challenge for the forty-fourth president."
http://www.cfr.org/publication/21925/gatess_welcome_take_on_iran_realities.html

Didn't the president of Iran recently say the same thing - that Iran is Obama's only chance to get something significant done in his foreign policy agenda? :-)

[Catherine]

Students Condemn Arrest Of Filmmakers Panahi, Nourizad
http://www.rferl.org/content/Students_Condemn_Arrest_Of_Filmmakers_Panahi_Nourizad_/2018157.html

[Catherine]

CPJ denounces Iranian threats against Maziar Bahari

The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned threats made by the Iranian government against Newsweek correspondent Maziar Bahari. Bahari, who was imprisoned in Iran for 118 days on fabricated antistate charges following last year’s disputed June presidential election, told CPJ that family members in Iran had received a threatening phone call on Saturday from a man who identified himself as an Iranian court official.
More: http://en.irangreenvoice.com/article/2010/apr/19/1708

[WitteKr]

The Guardian has just published an interesting analysis on the Gates memo:

*Obama feels the heat on Iran's threat*
The release of Robert Gates's memo has exposed disquiet over Obama's diplomatic approach to stopping Iran going nuclear" [...]

"Robert Gates, the defence secretary, lit the blue touch paper with a secret memo, penned in January and revealed this week, in which he reportedly warned the US lacked a coherent, long-term plan to deal with Iran, should it persist with uranium enrichment and long-range missile development. Gates has since insisted his views were misrepresented. The US was "prepared to act across a broad range of contingencies in support of our interests," he said. All the same, the timing of his White House memo was not coincidental." [...]
"A Pentagon report sent to Congress this week makes clear that a great deal of detailed thinking about the parameters and consequences of military action in Iran is going on. It includes the prediction that Iran may construct a missile capable of striking the US by 2015."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/apr/20/obama-defence-failed-iran-diplomacy
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63J04H20100420

[Megan]

Catherine,

Re: Post #1

I was not able to open the link you have provided.

I heard about this family last Saturday but that report did not provide any detail.

I wonder if EA has reported or if you had heard about the suspicious death of Omid Reza Mir Sayafi, a blogger, in Evin prison. Omid Reza apparently suffered from cardiovascular disease and he had died from an apparent overdose of Blood pressure medication in Evin prison.

Abass Khorsandi, a political activist who had recently fled Iran to Kurdistan province in Iraq was interviewed about his flee from Iran and about Omid Reza who had been his cellmate in the last month of his life. Khorsandi who himself suffers from cardiovascular disease had frequented prison infirmary and hospitals outside of prison where he had been treated while chained to the hospital bed. He had fled Iran while briefly released awaiting his appeal.

Khorsandi described other prisoners who were in very poor health and in agony. Among them was Omid Reza; a gentle soul, an artist, apolitical, a blogger who blogged art and not politics, a person with no history of political activities. Yet regime, according to Khorsandi, had brought two separate cases against Omid Reza and sentenced him to 3 years in one case and 4 years in the second- a total of 7 years. Omid Reza’s elderly parents had tried tirelessly to prove their son’s innocence to no avail. Khorsandi said Omid Reza was hoping to go home for Norooz and that did not happen. According to Khorsandi this took its toll on the 26 year old Omid Reza whose gentle soul was not cut for daily brutal interrogation and psychological torture of prison. Omid Reza who had lost hope and no longer could bear seeing his parents agnozing over his release apparently in an attempt to end his life had decided to take all of his blood pressure medications at once. Khorsandi said he was not sure how Omid Reza had gotten access to a handful of BP pills. He said he found Omid Reza very sick and tried to get help from prison infirmary. Prison infirmary could not or would not pump Omid Reza’s stomach and sent him out of Evin. Khorsandi said it was not clear what if any was done outside of prison to save Omid Reza’s life and consequently he heard Omid Reza a 26 year old blogger had died.

Khorsandi also talked about easy access to narcotics in general population section of Evin prison. It appears regime is crushing its opposition by turning them into drug junkies in prison and in the meantime helps its prison guards making some extra money on the side by pushing narcotics and prescription drugs. Smoke was coming out of my ears listening to the horrors in Islamic Republic prisons described by Khorsandi.

[Catherine]

Megan - and all,
Here's another more detailed report on the family sentenced to death than the one I posted yesterday.

Most relevant bits:
.... Motahareh Bahrami and Mohsen Daneshpour Moghaddam (husband and wife) and their son, Ahmad Daneshpour, together with two of their close friends, Rayhaneh Haj Ebrahim and Hadi Ghaemi (not related to the Campaign’s executive director of the same name) have been sentenced to death.

The family’s other son, Meysam Daneshpour, told the news-website Roozonline that his family members were arrested at their home following Ashura protests. In an interview with the Campaign, Meysam Daneshpour confirmed the execution sentences and said that his family did not have any recourse to an independent lawyer during the lower court’s prosecution. He also said family members had no access to detainees during the prosecution. “We did not have access to them [detainees] for two months, but now we can meet them on a regular weekly basis,” Meysam Daneshpour told the Campaign.

All five had court-appointed lawyers during the prosecution, who failed to inform the family of the execution sentence. Maysam Daneshpour told the Campaign that he had not received an official notification of the court hearing or death sentence.

During the appeals process, Mohammad Sharif, a prominent human rights lawyer, was able to represent the defendants and launch an appeal for Motahareh Bahrami, Rayhaneh Haj Ebrahim, and Hadi Ghaemi, and is under review at Branch 36. However, the appeals case for Mohsen and Ahmad Daneshpour had been sent to Branch 36 and already confirmed before Sharif could lodge a defense.

According to Meysam Daneshpour, intelligence agents arrested his parents, brother and their friend, Hajebrahimi, at the family’s home following Ashura protests on 27 December 2009, and not during a protest. Their lawyer Mohammad Sharif told the Campaign the defendants are charged with “deliberate cooperation with MKO,” “gathering and colluding against national security,” and “propaganda against the regime and in the interest of enemies.” The evidence supporting these charges included a trip by the parents to Iraq to visit another son, who is a member of MKO, sending videos and pictures to MKO, and participating in demonstrations.

Sharif said these activities, even if proven, would not justify a death sentence, and he had represented clients in similar situations who were sentenced to prison terms and not execution.

..... A lawyer who presents political prisoners told the Campaign that when authorities accuse political prisoners of being members of opposition groups such as MKO, it becomes impossible for Iranian media, human rights lawyers and defendants’ families to publicize these cases. “The Iranian media cannot touch on these cases, and lawyers like me will face severe difficulties to pursue our work if we advocate on behalf of such defendants regarding the nature of such affiliation,” the lawyer said. “This gives the authorities a free hand to use such punishments to terrify government critics and dissidents.”

Full report: http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2010/04/family-sentenced-death/

[Megan]

Thank you, Catherine.