Iran: Former Tehran Chancellor Maleki on Detention & Green Movement's "Forgotten Children"

Mohammad Maleki, the former chancellor of Tehran University, was detained on 22 August. Suffering from ill health, he was finally released on bail on 1 March as he awaited trial.

Maleki, imprisoned before the 1979 Islamic Revolution for five years and arrested again in 2000, spoke with Radio Zamaneh this week:

MALEKI: Yesterday, I was told by my lawyers that they have met with the judge and have obtained his consent. They had taken with them documents related to my medical condition which proved the need for my ongoing treatment. Therefore, the judge agreed to postpone the trial and said that we will be informed of the new date.


RZ: You mean, during the time you were detained, you were not informed of your charges?

MALEKI: No, I did not see the charges. I have been charged with insulting the Supreme Leader and acting against national security, but I have not seen the indictment or its contents. The lawyers and the magistrate have said these are my charges.

RZ: Mr. Maleki, you have said that you will not take part in a closed trial. Are you not worried that this will have a negative effect on the case and will result in a heavier sentence? What are the reasons for your decision?

MALEKI: Attending or not attending will not make a difference. There should come a day, when this country at least respects its own constitution. Things cannot remain the same; 30 years after the Revolution one of the most important parts of the Constitution is still not respected. The Constitution says explicitly that political charges should be tried by jury in open trials with the presence of media.

Back in 2000, when I was arrested with national-religious activists, I said that I would not take part in the trial because I considered the trial to be illegal. Therefore, I think this matter should be resolved once and for all. We either have to respect the constitution in its entirety or just keep those articles that please us and guarantee the interests of the regime. The constitution has provisions that guarantee the rights of the people and must be respected.

I won’t even mention that these rights are not respected during arrests and interrogations under the usual pretext that political crime has not been defined by the law. Why should this be my problem as the accused? Since the Revolution I have been arrested 3 times for being anti-revolutionary. Anti-revolutionaries are those who break the law which, according to their own words, is the birth child of the Revolution. Therefore, how can I attend the trial? Yesterday, a hearing was supposed to be held and yet I have no knowledge of the indictment and have not been allowed to read what has been written against me.

RZ:Mr Maleki, when you were arrested you were in a bad physical condition; you were ill throughout your detention and were hospitalized for a while. How is your condition now?

MALEKI: My physical condition is the same. During the 6 months I was there, I was not able to receive the injections I need, and suffered burning and pain as a result. Since my release I have been injected twice and the burning and pain is reduced. I feel, however, that since I have come out my psychological condition is worse than before.

RZ: Can you tell us why your emotional state is worse now compared to when you were in prison?

MALEKI: Because I keep worrying for those kids; there are so many unknown and anonymous students in prison and no one is thinking about them. No one remembers that they are the children of this country. What crime have they committed? One day this matter must be addressed. Unfortunately, not only this is not the regime’s concern, but I have scarcely seen the Green Movement friends come strongly to their defence. Make a decision about them, they have a life and studies they need to go back to; their families keep waiting for them outside Evin. These are the things that hurt me more than cancer.

RZ: Mr. Maleki, you were not active during the election. You had said you did not believe in it and therefore did not participate. Yet, your arrest was related to post-election events. What is your current view of the election?

MALEKI: As you said, I was not at all active during the election because first of all, I was sick, and secondly, I don’t believe in an election where you have to vote for a few candidates chosen by the Guardian Council. I was arrested on 22 August, so I was in prison when most of those events happened. I was in solitary confinement for the first 3 months without access to newspapers or television. Until I was taken to the general ward, I was unaware of what was happening outside prison.

When I was taken there (to the general ward), I got some information, but since my release, I have come to the realisation that all the old problems continue to exist. The insider/outsider divide remains. No one is thinking about these kids. What I noticed about the supporters of the Green or reformist movement is that their behaviour towards others has not changed a lot. They have held on to their outsider/insider culture. They welcome those who are one of their own but others remain outsiders to them.

In the one and half months since my release, I have maybe gone out 10 times, mostly to the hospital or my doctor. I have tried to have little contact and have not been interested in what is happening. Our people have not fundamentally changed during this time, we are the same people we were before. Our elite have kept their egocentric and selfish culture.

RZ: Dr Maleki, it seems like you are disappointed with the green movement leaders.

MALEKI: I am extremely disappointed. Those imprisoned kids are not getting the attention they deserve, especially the unknown students. I know many of them and saw them in prison, but there is no mention of them on websites. They have been in prison for months and some of them have been handed 4-5 year prison terms for no reason.

Sometimes they (the Green Movement or reformists) refer to them, but they never defend them strongly. The type of defence Mr. Sahabi --- God bless him --- demonstrated a few days ago, I really enjoyed. His letter tells the painful story on behalf of all of us. We have some years behind us (a reference to being old) and have suffered both before and after the revolution. We have seen the Shah’s prisons as well as those of the Islamic Republic. These kids are our children. They haven’t come from another country. They are the children of this country who had something to say and said it. Even if they shouted their words inside or outside universities, this does not warrant the treatment they have received.

The Latest from Iran (16 April): Grounding the Opposition

1910 GMT: Khatami Grounded but Still Speaks. Former President Mohammad Khatami may have been halted from leaving Iran, but he has not been silenced. Khatami has spoken out against government pressure on newly released Iranian political prisoners “to denounce their connections with certain movements and public figures”.

Khatami claimed that the newly released prisoners “are being forced to make public confessions against their actual opinions and beliefs and they have been told that their limited freedom will be taken away from them if they do not do so".

1830 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. A court of appeal has confirmed a six-year prison sentence for journalist Masoud Lavasani as well as a ten-year ban on any journalism. Lavasani was originally sentenced to eight years after his detention in late September.

Mohammad Reza Lotfi Yazdi, a Mashhad student activist, has been released from Evin Prison after a six-week detention. Ali Sepandar and Behzad Parvin, two members of the Central Council of the Islamic Association at Birjand University, have also been freed.

Iran: A View From Tehran “The New Year Challenges”
Iran: A Note About the Voice of America, NIAC, and the “Journalism” of The Washington Times
The Latest from Iran (15 April): Accepting Authority?

1825 GMT: The Labour Front. Back from an extended break to find a useful summary by Iran Labor Report of developments, including economic downturns, protests over unpaid wages, and strikes.


1145 GMT: The Banning of the Reformists? We are watching this story carefully to see if it develops into the effective suspension of "legal" political activity by reformists in Iran:

The members of Article 10 Commission of Iran which monitors the activities of political parties in the country held a session yesterday asking the Judiciary to ban two reformist parties, Islamic Iran Participation Front (Party) and Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization.

They also submitted a letter to Tehran's Public Prosecutor's Office and requested for issuing a decree on the dissolution of both pro-reform parties. The decision was made through observing their background and actions taken by them.

1155 GMT: Recognising Activism and New Media. Iranian blogger, journalist, and women’s rights activist Jila Bani Yaghoub has been awarded the Reporters Without Borders Freedom of Expression prize for her blog “We are Journalists” at the 6th international “Best of the Blogs” event in Berlin.

Bani Yaghoub and her husband Bahman Ahmadi Amoui were detained last year during the post-election crisis. After her release, she wrote a moving open letter to her still-detained spouse and "Mr Interrogator".

1110 GMT: A Discussion. Seyed Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the late Ayatollah Khomeini, has met Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Sane'i to consider "the problems of the country".

1055 GMT: Not Forgetting. Golnaz Esfandiari summarises the attempts by Iranian websites and bloggers to ensure that the cases and situations of "lesser-known" political prisoners are not forgotten.

1045 GMT: Corruption Watch. Rah-e-Sabz claims that the Supreme Leader has intervened to order a halt to the corruption investigation of First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi. Several high-profile members of Parliament have led the call for the inquiry against Rahimi, connected with the "Fatemi Avenue" insurance fraud.

1040 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The Green Voice of Freedom claims it has a letter from a group of detainees in Evin Prison, announcing their plan to fast from 21 April until the anniversary of the election on 12 June. They make five demands: annulment of post-election sentences for political prisoners; release of all detainees on bail until trials are held; respect of Article 168 of the Constitution regarding political and press offences; investigation into illegal and unjust judicial procedures and interrogations at all levels; improving recreation, health and hygiene in all prisons and detention centres in the country.

The letter to the “Great Iranian Nation” states:

You know better than anyone, that thousands of your children who supported reformist candidates during the June 2009 presidential election and [identified with] the Green Movement were arrested at their workplaces or homes --- even in the middle of the night --- and taken to known and unknown detention centres and prisons on baseless grounds and accusations that mostly lacked (and still lack) legal justification. [Their imprisonment] clearly went against the constitution and the country’s current laws and citizen rights.

1035 GMT: The Court in Evin Prison. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has called for the closure of a recently-established “special court” at Evin Prison.

Attorneys for detainees say their work has become "impossible” with the newly established court. One of them, Nasrin Sotoudeh, summarises:

The judges are residing in a space that is under the strict control of the Ministry of Intelligence and during preliminary investigations, which are the most difficult time during a suspect’s prison term, case judges only receive information from intelligence officers, and neither the suspect’s lawyer nor his or her family can provide any information to the judges.

Another defense attorney, Farideh Gheyrat, said she is highly concerned about the inaccessibility of her clients’ files and claims that now even extracting the old “simple and incomplete” pieces of information about cases has become impossible.

1030 GMT: Labour Watch. A Street Journalist provides an English summary of a Deutsche Welle story, reported in EA earlier this week, of workers' protests and strikes in Khuzestan in southwest Iran.

1020 GMT: Economy Watch. As a sign of Iran's economic troubles, Rah-e-Sabz reports a sharp decline in employment in the town Asalouyeh in the south of the country. State companies have not paid wages for several months, and the Government owes owes 40 billion toman (more than $40 million) to private companies, for example in the electricity sector.

The website also reports that Iran's social security organisation is in deep trouble with a large deficit building from 2007. It claims that the head of the organisation has gone to Qom to seek help from clerics.

1015 GMT: A Subsidy Compromise? Khabar Online reports that the Parliament and Government have reached an agreement allowing President Ahmadinejad to take in and control more revenue from subsidy cuts.

Parliament had set the extra revenue at $20 million, half of the President's demand, but according to Khabar, "this week the Parliament gave a free hand to the government in arranging a schedule for implementing the plan, to define new prices for subsidized goods and above all adding tax incomes to the 200 trillion rials ($20 billion) budget".

EA's sharp readers will already note the double-edged sword for the Government if this compromise has been struck: it may indeed take in more money but only by raising prices --- through the subsidy reductions --- further on basic provisions such as food and energy.

1000 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Ayatollah Javadi Amoli has taken a swipe at the Government with the declaration that society must be governed with respect and fed so it can stand on its own feet. It is not difficult to govern with mercy.

Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani has added that the majority must be kept satisfied. If the Iranian people have reasonable demands, they should be addressed.

0950 GMT: And Take This, Opposition. Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati has issued a forceful denunciation of those challenging the regime. He claimed that they wanted to weaken the system of velayat-e-faqih (ultimate clerical authority) after the Ahmadinejad victory last night. The culprits included monarchists, Baha'i, reformist parties such as Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution and Islamic Iran Participation Front, National Front, communists, and secularists. (An EA reader wonders, "Is there anyone left who is not an opponent?")

0930 GMT: We return from extended break to follow up on yesterday's report that former President Mohammad Khatami was planning to attend a global disarmament conference in Japan next week.

EA readers quickly wrote us that the Iranian authorities intervened to prevent the journey. Parleman News wrote that Khatami, who was supposed to leave the country on Wednesday night, was not blocked at the airport or had his passport has not been withdrawn, but he succumbed to pressure and cancelled the trip at his own initiative.

Khatami remains a major international figure for his approach of "global dialogue", which he promoted in the late 1990s as an alternative to the notion of a clash of civilizations. More immediately, his presence in Japan would have deflected from Iran's own attempts to take the nuclear high ground with its own conference on nuclear disarmament, scheduled for Saturday and Saturday.

The Latest from Iran (15 April): Accepting Authority?

1315 GMT: We'll be on extended break today, as I'll be lost in the wilds of Georgia in the US. While I make my way back, EA readers --- as they did yesterday --- will be keeping the news and chatter going.

1300 GMT: The Oil Squeeze (cont.). This time, it's exports rather than imports (see 0920 GMT) causing an issue. Khabar Online reports, "From the early 2010 Iran’s oil export has dropped by 378,000 barrels a day compared to 2009 and it will cause a $9.5 billion deficit in the country’s oil revenues this year."

NEW Iran: A View From Tehran “The New Year Challenges”
NEW Iran: A Note About the Voice of America, NIAC, and the “Journalism” of The Washington Times
Iran’s Nukes: Can Tehran and the US Make A Deal?
The Latest from Iran (14 April): Ahmadinejad’s Struggle

Still, Iranian officials maintain a positive line:

Iran's Oil Minister says US-led sanctions against Iran have failed as the country has managed to become self-sufficient in oil production and products.

"International sanctions are not a new issue and we have no problem in dealing with them," Masoud Mirkazemi told reporters on Wednesday after a cabinet session.

1105 GMT: We've posted a separate analysis, "A Note About the Voice of America, NIAC, and the 'Journalism' of The Washington Times". And we also open a window on analysis inside Iran with a piece from Iran Review, "The New Year Challenges".

1055 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. RAHANA claims that Mottahareh Bahrami, currently detained in Evin’s women’s ward, has been sentenced to death, pending appeal, for alleged links to the Mujahedin-e-Khalq "terrorist" organisation. Bahrami was arrested on Ashura (27 December 27), along with her husband, her son and 2 friends.

1050 GMT: The Subsidy Battle. More back-and-forth over the Ahmadinejad fight with Parliament on subsidy reductions and spending. Mohammad Reza Khabbaz of the Majlis' Economics Committee has reiterated that the Government must implement the Parliament-approved subsidy plan; however, Ahmadinejad backer Ali Asghar Zarei has insisted that implementation is up to the President.

On another front, Fereydoun Hemmati of the Supreme Audit Committee has insisted that the budget report for last year cannot be altered. The report has a number of provocative claims, including the "loss" of oil revenues by the state.

1035 GMT: The Corruption Allegations. As the charges of corruption by prominent MP Elyas Naderan against First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi resonate, the "hard-line" newspaper Kayhan has called for an end to fighting amongst "fundamentalists".

1025 GMT: Rumour of Day. Khabar Online suggests that former President Mohammad Khatami will be attending a global disarmament conference in Japan next week. The Japan event comes after this week's nuclear summit, led by President Obama, in Washington and Iran's own gathering this weekend.

0930 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Peyke Iran claims news of an "unknown" prisoner, student and Mousavi campaigner Yasser Yousefzadeh, who has been held incommunicado for more than a month.

Baha’i photographer and musician Artin Ghazanfari, released last week on $50,000 bail, has been re-arrested.

Human rights activists, via A Street Journalist, offers a full summary of developments, including the report that almost 30 detainees across Iran are now on hunger strike.

0920 GMT: The Oil Squeeze. Another intriguing report this morning, and one arguably with far more significance than the Iran Parliament's reported retreat....

A company spokesman has said that Malaysia's Petronas is halting oil shipments to Iran. Petronas, one of the largest suppliers to Tehran, has not made any deliveries since mid-March.

0910 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Meanwhile, back to immediate everyday concerns....

Kalemeh claims that the renewed detention of Abdollah Momeni, the leading student activist, was caused by his refusal to cooperate with security and intelligence agents while on temporary release. Other activist and Momeni’s wife, assert that Momeni was pressed to denounce Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, and his organisation, Advar-e Takhim Vadat. Momeni was also asked to participate in a series of staged student gatherings.

Momeni's return to prison followed a meeting last week of Mousavi and Advar-e Takhim Vahdat.

0900 GMT: We return from an extended break to find the headline-grabbing story, as framed in The New York Times, "Iran’s Parliament Limits Its Power as a Watchdog".

Nazila Fathi's story, drawn from state media but with no details, claims, "Parliament’s decision...limited lawmakers’ ability to review regulations adopted by the Guardian Council, the Assembly of Experts, the Supreme National Security Council and the Expediency Council." Fathi evaluates, "The decision seemed to be an acknowledgment of the reality that the elected Parliament was often blocked from fulfilling its role as a watchdog over the institutions of state."

It is, to the say the least, a most curious report. Parliament has been embroiled in a heated dispute with President Ahmadinejad over his economic proposals, and the corruption allegations against First Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi offer a possible showdown.

We'll look for developments, but for now, is this a Parliamentary retreat or a bit of mischief by some state media "reporters"?

Iran: A View From Tehran "The New Year Challenges"

Analysis from inside Iran can often be as interesting for what lies behind the words on the page as for the claims on the surface. Consider, for example, the latest perspective in Iran Review from Firouzeh Mirrazavi:

About one month after the beginning of the new Iranian calendar year (March 21, 2010) and following international registration of Norouz by the United Nations General Assembly, Iran is facing new challenges: part of this is domestic while another part emanates from Iran’s international and regional policies as well as international pressures it is bearing. Some Iran experts maintain that social unrests following presidential polls in 2009 have led to the isolation of certain parts of the Iranian society, political circles, media crew, and political parties and activists. Post-election events have deepened the gaps and put the country on a wrong track which cannot help to solve any of the existing problems.

The Latest from Iran (15 April): Accepting Authority?

As history has proven in past several thousands of years, enemies usually hit the country in such junctures by fanning the flames of differences. Ambiguities in international relations, especially where Iran’s national security is at stake, have further complicated the situation. Examples to the point include:


1. Iran’s nuclear case and plans by the Security Council and 5+1 to impose tougher sanctions on Iran as the country is getting ready to host an international conference on disarmament and nonproliferation and a similar conference on nuclear security is forthcoming in the United States;

2. Elections in Iraq and persistence of political challenges over the composition of the next Iraqi government;

3. The ongoing situation in Afghanistan and prospects of possible reconciliation between [President Hamid] Karzai and NATO alliance and Taliban forces;

4. Iran’s relations with Saudi Arabia which have been marred by an ongoing crisis of distrust between the two states in addition to territorial and strategic pressures from other Persian Gulf states which are in line with the regional interests of western countries;

5. Israel’s continued threats to use military force against Iran;

6. Tension between Iran and its northern neighbors over the country’s share of the Caspian Sea’s energy resources; and

7. Insecurity of the Iranian borders due to widespread presence of foreign troops in neighboring countries and activities of terrorist and insurgent groups in border areas.

Having a healthy, happy and progressive society by taking advantage of knowledge, expertise and efficiency of all social classes and political groups is the best way to overcome the above-mentioned difficulties. Problems can be successfully solved only when the majority of the Iranian nation, regardless of their political tendencies, lends its support to the government. National unity is an inevitable necessity under existing circumstances and to secure Iran’s rights and interests, there is no better option than strengthening national unity and fostering peace and tranquility in the country.

Iran: A Note About the Voice of America, NIAC, and the "Journalism" of The Washington Times

The Washington Times, never a shy paper in its assertions and opinions, leaves no doubts about its position in an editorial, "Voice of the Mullahs". With the supporting headline, "Public Diplomacy Takes A Pro-Islamist Tilt", the opinion pieces begins, "The Voice of America is becoming the Voice of the Islamic Republic of Iran."

Inflammatory stuff, and the newspaper keeps pouring on the gasoline. After giving big space to a letter to President Obama from 70 legislators requesting that the White House "investigate reported mismanagement and bias at Voice of America's Persian News Network (VOA-PNN)", two cases are cited:

1. On March 29, VOA-PNN interviewed Hooshang Amir-Ahmadi, "an anti-sanctions activist called "Iran's pseudo U.S. lobbyist" by Iranian democracy groups. Mr. Amir-Ahmadi expressed the view that Iran's belligerent posture and nuclear program are the natural results of being surrounded by U.S. missiles and bombs; hence, progress can come only through the United States softening its policies toward Tehran.

2. On April 1, VOA gave airtime to Trita Parsi, head of the National Iranian American Council (NIAC), which has received millions of dollars in federal funds to promote democracy in Iran. Mr. Parsi expressed various odd positions, such as that Israel prefers to have hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in power in Tehran, that members of the Obama administration know sanctions won't work but pursue them only as a bargaining position, and - most strangely - that even if Iran succeeded in establishing a democracy, the United States would nevertheless keep sanctions in place. VOA gave Mr. Parsi preferential treatment by banning callers while he was on the air even though he appeared on a call-in show; those who later took issue with his views were quickly cut off.

Allegations that the US Government's media outlets appease or even support the enemy are far from new. The Voice of America was a prime target for Republican Congressmen, including Senator Joseph McCarthy, and even Radio Free Europe, which pressed for "liberation" in Eastern Europe, came under fire in the 1950s.

This time, however, the VOA is just the whipping boy for the bitter conflict between The Washington Times and NIAC. We noted last autumn that one of the newspaper's reporters had channelled the claims of Hassan Daioleslam, who is being sued by Parsi over a series of allegations, that NIAC was an unregistered lobbying firm. The implication soon follows that NIAC is not only lobbying but doing so on behalf of the current Iranian Government.

There is no need to take a position on those claims, which have split Iranian-American activists in the US, to note the shallowness of The Washington Times' latest assault. I haven't come across recordings of the two cases, but even the newspaper's attacking spin is shaky. One does not have to agree with "Iran's belligerent posture and nuclear program are the natural results of being surrounded by U.S. missiles and bombs" to note the argument that Washington's perceived hostility in measures such as the Nuclear Posture Review could prompt Tehran to respond with aggressive statements.

Parsi's supposed statement that "members of the Obama administration know sanctions won't work but pursue them only as a bargaining position" is a distortion of his position, set out in other articles, that US officials may not think that a toughened international sanctions regime will not be possible through the UN but take that line to achieve other goals. One might note, for example, EA's own analysis that the public posture on sanctions covers the "real" story, which is disinvestment by private firms who are quite likely to be in contact with Western Governments.

(Someone at the newspaper might want to reflect, if only for a few seconds, on the effectiveness of a broadcaster which provided only those views which were supportive of the official line of the US Government and/or those --- like The Washington Times --- who advocate military action against Iran.)

Irrespective of one's opinino on NIAC, even more important in this attack piece is The Washington Times' wilful attempt at collateral damage. This histrionic assault on the Voice of America does no good for a broadcaster which continues to provide news and analysis despite the serious restrictions on media by the Iranian regime. If the newspaper is really saying that the broadcasting services funded by the US Government are actually propaganda outlets for Tehran, then be honest and provide evidence for that sensational charge.

The Iranian Government claims VOA is part of America's "soft war" for "regime change"; The Washington Times claims VOA is not Washington's voice but that of Tehran.

Sometimes self-constructed paradoxes speak even more loudly than polemic posing as journalism.

(Full disclosure: I appeared in March on a panel at the US Senate organised by NIAC. I did so in a personal capacity, presenting my views on the internal situation in Iran and on US foreign policy towards Tehran. At no point did NIAC try to "steer" my comments.)