The Latest from Iran (16 October): Prisoners and the Economy

1905 GMT: Currency Watch. Green Correspondents is claiming that Iranian banks are offering European financial institutions a 16% brokerage fee, four times the typical rate, for wire transfers of currency.

1845 GMT: Iranian-American National Freed. A family spokesman says Iranian-American dual national Reza Taghavi, detained in Iran since 2008, has been freed from Evin Prison and will be leaving the country soon.

Tehran accused Taghavi, 71, of passing $200 in cash to an Iranian man linked to themonarchist group Tondar. There was no reason given for his sudden release.

Taghavi's lawyer had asked for the businessman's freedom on humanitarian grounds. His family claim Taghavi has diabetes and was in poor health.

1700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. A note from Ali Shakouri-Rad, leading member of the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, written shortly before his arrest last week, has emerged. Shakouri-Rad made clear:

I have done no crime that would be a reason for my arrest therefore my arrest will be illegal and I will not cooperate with those who arrested me and will not give in to interrogations....

Anything [from these interrogations] quoted on my behalf is not true, and even if I myself say something from prison which would indicate that I have agreed and cooperated with my interrogators, just ignore it....

My beliefs, opinions and views are those that I have always said till now and wrote in my personal blog and I stand by them and defend them.....

I wish that God blesses me and my family, especially my mother, wife and children, to be patient and strong....

I have trust in the faith and honesty of the Green leaders. I see such purity in Mir Hossein Mousavi that prevents me from having slightest doubts in the path that I have chosen. I have not seen anything but caring for the nation and country from Mir Hossein Mousavi; I see God’s hand with him and I believe in triumph of this path.

1655 GMT: Warning to Non-Governmental Organisations. Alireza Afshar, deputy of the social and cultural section of the Ministry of Interior, has warned, “NGOs should not engage in any political activity....They can by all means criticize government bodies in private meetings but it is not acceptable that they engage in discrediting the government in the media.”

Afshar added the caution that NGOs should take care not to fall in “enemy traps.”

1645 GMT: Nuke Talks in a Month? Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has said discussions with the 5+1 Powers (US, Britain, France, China, Russia, and Germany) could resume on 15 November: "Both sides are now working on confirming it and agreeing on the location for the talks."

Talks between Tehran and the 5+1 --- the first public, direct contact between the US and Iran on Tehran's uranium enrichment --- took place last October. After initial optimism over an agreement, they collapsed at the end of the month.

1640 GMT: Our Atrocities Are Not as Bad as Your Atrocities. The head of Iran's State Inspectorate Organization, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi has asserted that the Kahrizak detention centre should not be compared to America's facility at Guantanamo Bay.

Pour-Mohammadi said the comparison was because Iran's judiciary had dealt with those involved in Kahrizak's abuses and deaths, suspending and convicting them while the centre was closed on the order of the Supreme Leader.

Iranian authorities have admitted that three people died at Kahrizak in summer 2009. Two personnel were sentenced to death and 11 others given jail terms for their roles, although no high-level officials --- including Saeed Mortazavi, then Tehran Prosecutor General and now Presidential aide --- have been punished.

1410 GMT: Discussions. The Expediency Council has met today, according to Mehr. No significant details have emerged of the talks yet.

1400 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. After 115 days in detention, Azeri activist Zahra Farajzadeh has been released on bail from Tabriz Prison.

Farajzadeh was arrested when she went to court for information on her imprisoned husband, Ayatollah Mehrali Biglou, who has been in prison for five months and is reportedly barred from visits by his lawyer and family.

University student Azad Kamangar has been released on bail. He is the nephew of Farzad Kamangar, who was executed in May.

1235 GMT: Film Corner. Abu Dhabi has opened its international film festival with The Accordion, directed by Jafar Panahi.

Panahi was detained in March for almost three months before being released on $200,000 bail.

The festival's organisers said the screening of Panahi's film was "an initiative in support of free speech and open-mindedness".

0930 GMT: Economy Watch. Mohammad Nahavandian, the chairman of Iran Chamber of Commerce, has said that sanctions have brought a 15 to 30% increase in the price of imports.

0920 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Four political detainees in Rajai Shahr Prison have petitioned attorney Nasrine Sotoudeh, who was six weeks ago, to end her hunger strike.

Sotoudeh is reportedly entering the third week of the strike.

0720 GMT: Presenting the News. In an interview with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, former IRIB presenter and producer Reza Valizadeh offers some valuable revelations about the state broadcaster. For example, he said of his time in radio:

We were told to report less on negative news and cover more news considered positive. We were told to focus on news and reports that would portray the work of the government and the establishment in a positive light. We were told not to talk about news that would demonstrate the inefficiency of the government. Reporting news about the work of the security and military forces was a major red line. We didn’t have the right to even get close to it.

And then this about state television:

Regarding news and information, instead of bringing the focus on the responsibilities of the policymakers and officials, we always had to focus on the other side of the coin, which was the irresponsibility of the people and their lack of attention. For example, regarding the lack of water, the report would not focus on the role of officials and their responsibilities in that matter but it would look at the role of people -- whether they were saving water and not if officials were doing their job and making sure people had access to water.

There were many reports and programs that were produced directly on the orders of the security organs. We saw some examples after the presidential vote.

[Did you know from where the orders came?]

No, it wasn’t clear, but it was obvious that the news was coming from an organ that wasn’t a media or news organization. They would emphasize those types of news items, and even the presenter was chosen carefully....

All the news and reports aired on state television were aimed at neutralizing the protest movement of the Iranian people. They wanted to delegitimize the reports that were spreading on the Internet [about the protests] and also reports by satellite television. Reports about the show trials of [key reformist figures, activists, and journalists] were aired and also false confessions. All of it was a continuation of state repression. All they wanted to do was to legitimize Ahmadinejad and portray the protests against his reelection as riots by foreign-backed elements.

0715 GMT: The Fight in Parliament. MP Ahmad Reza Dastgheib, who was slapped by a government legislator in an altercation in the Parliament this week, has said he will not reappear in the Majlis. Dastgheib, who represents Shiraz called on "brainless Shaabans" (a reference to a legendary figure in the 1953 coup that overthrew the Mossadegh Government) to resign and said there was no security in Iran, even in the Parliament.

0710 GMT: The State of the Opposition. Arash Ghafouri, a journalist who had to leave Iran after the 2009 elections, reviews the latest efforts to repress and intimidate the opposition. His message is clear: "The Green Movement is Down but Not Out".

0655 GMT: Subsidies Watch. Another shot at the Government, this one from MP Asadollah Badamchian: "After subsidy reform, we'll have to live on bread and butter."

In the least surprising news coverage of the day, the opposition site Kalemeh --- in contrast to state media --- has extracted the portion of the Tehran Friday Prayer by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati on subsidy cuts. Jannati warned that water and power prices are very high, and the government should not make people dissatisfied. 

0650 GMT: Energy Watch. Green Voice of Freedom, citing the Russia agency Novosti, claims that Moscow has withdrawn from the India-Iran gas pipeline project.

0645 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Feresteh Ghazi follows up on the story of two members of the Mothers of Mourning, Akram Neqabi and Jila Taramsi, and their daughters, all of whom have been arrested.