Iran Feature: A Cartoon Reply to Tehran's Apologists over Human Rights

Race for Iran is a website, run by two former US Government officials, devoted to the defence of the Iranian Government. Normally the coverage is of geopolitics, Iran's regional position, and the nuclear issue, but occasionally the authors try to slip in comments on internal matters.

This morning the website pays tribute to the recent US public-relations tour of Mohammad Javad Larijani, the head of the human rights section of Iran's judiciary. Posting the transcript of his interview with Charlie Rose of the US Public Broadcasting Service, they hail Larijani's "glimpse of how important supporters of the Islamic Republic regard the rule of law as a governing principle of their political order". 

So Larijani is praised for his remark, "Lawyers, as far as the professional act is considered, as far as they are pursuing the support and defense of their client, nobody will put them in jail for that purpose." (Many prominent defence attorneys, including Mohammed Ali Dadhkah, Mohammad Oliyifard, Nasrine Sotoudeh, and Mohammad Seifzadeh have been imprisoned since 2009. Others such as Mohammad Mostafaei have fled the country to avoid detention.)

I could spend many pages setting out a critique of Larijani's comments --- and of the apologies for them --- but I think Mana Neyestani is far more eloquent with just one cartoon: