The Latest from Iran (27 September): Corruption and Economic Crisis

2034 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, at his press conference for Iran's judiciary, said officials were following up the claims of torture in detention made by Hamzeh Karami, former aide to Hashemi Rafsanjani and managing editor of the website Jomhouriyat.

Karami had written a five-page letter about his treatment in prison, parts of which came out in the opposition media. Rafsanjani also personally presented Karami's file to the Supreme Leader and asked for his intervention.

2030 GMT: Oil Squeeze. Earlier today (see 1520 GMT) we reported on the warning by Hamid Katouzian, the chair of Parliament's Energy Commission, that Minister of Oil Masoud Mirkazemi might be impeached if he defied the Majlis over international treaties. 

That was not all. Katouzian also took apart Mirkazemi's public claim that Iran was rapidly becoming self-sufficient in gasoline production, warning that such a push --- with measures such as conversion of petrochemical plants --- could be harmful in the long term to the country.

2020 GMT: Sanctions Watch. The Guardian of London, citing "sensitive trading documents", claims Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell has increased its business with Tehran despite sanctions, paying at least $1.5bn for crude oil this summer.

Shell did not act illegally because United Nations, US, and European Union sanctions stop short of banning the import of Iranian oil. 

From May to August, Shell increased its purchases by more than $100 million a month, a 27% increase. The company enjoyed a discount on purchase prices as demand fell --- according to analysts, in part because of sanctions. 

Documents show French company Total and Italy's API also increased purchases, by 12% and 70% respectively, between May and August and also enjoyed discounts on prices.

2010 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch: The four-year prison sentence for journalist and student activist Ali Malihi has been upheld by an appeals court.

Malihi, the head of public relations at the Iranian Students Association (Tahkim-e Vahdat) was arrested in February and convicted of crimes against national security and “insulting the president”.

1915 GMT: Banning the Reformists. In his press conference as spokesman for Iran's judiciary, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei that the two major reformist parties, Mojahedin of the Revolution and the Islamic Iran Participation Front (Moshakerat), have been disbanded by the courts and are formally banned from undertaking any political activity. Dedicated Iran-watchers should keep eyes open to see what happens to Norooz News, one of the most outspoken outlet published inside Iran.

1635 GMT: Defending the People. Former President Mohammad Khatami has asserted that the Government's policy is elimination of the majority. He asked if the people were not with reformists, why did the Government give an official order to ban reformists' statements from the media? 

Khatami also condemned the pro-regime attacks on the houses of Hamid Bakeri and Ebrahim Hemmat, martyrs of the Iran-Iraq War. 

In a meeting with the daughter of Bakeri and other youth, Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani said "reforms are the natural right of the people".

1619 GMT: Parliament v. President. A stream of attacks on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad....

Former Deputy Speaker Mohammad Reza Bahonar criticised the government for doing everything to avoid implementing laws. Specifically, he challenged the government's manipulation of unemployment data and its handling of the disputed 5th Budget Plan.

In the same meeting, Ahmad Tavakoli said that running a state is not possible with battles and conflicts. The 5th Budget Plan was "unacceptable from the start" and should have been given back to the Parliament for amendments immediately.

MP Mohammad Khoshchehreh, a former advisor to President Ahmadinejad,  has declared that officials should react to the President's statement on Majlis, which violate the words of Imam Khomeini.

Khoshchehreh went farther: "This is a good occasion to confront a current which has attacked religion during the past years and tries to set Islam against Republicanism or Iranism against Islam". 

MP Abdollah Kaabi,agreed that the President's statement on the Majlis was incendiary and meant to cause a crisis.

Reformist Mostafa Kavakebian asserted that Ahmadinejad's statement on Majlis is unacceptable, and Parliament can only pardon him, if he corrects it. He asked how the Parliament can defend the Iranian people when it cannot defend itself.

MP Amir Taherkhani argued that subsidy cuts will make poor layers of society more fragile and said the government has no idea how to implement them.

1615 GMT: Sanctions/Economy Watch. Mohammad Mehdi Shahryari, a member of Parliament's National Security Commission, has said that sanctions have "grounded" Iran's industries. He asserted that the Majlis did not have "the slightest idea" of plans for subsidy cuts and said they were not favourable at this time.

1610 GMT: The Analyst Strikes. University of Tehran professor Sadegh Zibakalam has pronounced that President Ahmadinejad's statements in New York "were in no way favourable to our country".

Zibakalam explained that, while Holocaust denial may please one million people in Gaza or one million in West Bank, it would not please the majority of the world's population. He added that talk about social justice is of no use, if it is not implemented in Ahmadinejad's own country. 

1525 GMT: Execution (Sakineh) Watch "Mahmoud, You're Wrong". Iran's Prosecutor General, Gholam Hossein Mohseni-Ejei has effectively contradicted the President, telling a press conference that a sentence of death by stoning was handed down to Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani over her adultery conviction.

President Ahmadinejad fervently denied last week during his stay in New York that Ashtiani had ever been condemned to die, saying that the case was ongoing. His close advisor Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai also declared this when he was questioned on a New York sidewalks by journalists and protesters.

1520 GMT: Parliament v. Government. Hamid Katouzian has said that the Minister of Oil Masoud Mirkazemi will be impeached, if he refuses Majlis supervision on international treaties.

1510 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Yesterday we reported the mathematics that 1100 years in sentences have been handed out to 217 political detainees at Evin Prison. Kalemeh provides the list of names and further details.

1500 GMT: Karroubi Watch. Mehdi Karroubi has issued a message to students at the start of the new university year:

The year that passed was a hard year with lots of ups and downs for all of us,and unfortunately our academic community paid a heavy prices. You, the students, alongside other classes of people were targeted with political attacks and assaults.... 

The university has always been the scene for students seeking justice as well as science and knowledge, due to the pure and honest intentions  of the youth and their desire for reform in the country’s affairs.

1455 GMT: Claimed footage of yesterday's gold market strike in the Tehran Bazaar:

Peyke Iran adds that gold markets have been closed in Qazvin. Correspondents add Mashhad, Tabriz, Ahvaz, Ghazvin Neyshabour, Sabzevar, and Torbate Heydariyeh to the list.

1445 GMT: Currency Crisis? Mehr reports that the Iranian toman is weakening "by the hour" against the dollar and the euro. Khabar Online claims that currency traders are removing their price boards.

1435 GMT: Striking News. Kalemeh claims Minister of Economic Affairs Seyed Shams al-Din Hosseini has asked daily newspapers not to report on the strike amongst gold vendors in Iran's bazaars, giving only the government's position on the value-added tax. 

1420 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. According to Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the former head of Iran's judiciary, at some point the Revolutionary Guard will remove former President Hashemi Rafsanjani as the head of the Assembly of Experts.

1415 GMT: Parliament v. President. Another prominent conservative member of Parliament, Gholam-Reza Mesbahi-Moghaddam, has declared that the Majlis can impeach President Ahmadinejad.

1030 GMT: Looking Back. In another glimpse of a re-assessment of the Islamic Republic's past, Zahra Rahnavard has described the mass execution of political prisoners in Iran in 1988 as a black stain for the country and condemned the government’s action against the dissident group, People’s Mojahedin Organization, as a mistake.

Rahanvard said, “The crimes and the terrorist operations of the said group (People’s Mohajedin of Iran Organization) are evident to all. However, the revengeful response of their adversary was a big error and is not acceptable.”

The issue is a sensitive one amongst Iran's reformists and the Green Movement given the possible connection of figures such as Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was Prime Minister in the late 1980s, to the events.

And Rahnavard was careful to add in her comments that the current Supreme Leader, who was President of Iran in 1988, and Mousavi “were not informed about these crimes”.

1025 GMT: Airplane Update. Earlier this year we reported an inconvenience for Iran Air when its planes were denied refuelling at certain airports in Germany and the Arabian Peninsula.

That episode, prompted by international sanctions, seemed to have passed, but now it's back. Tehran Times reports, via Al-Seyasseh, that Kuwait Petroleum International has stopped supplying fuel to Iranian aircraft in European airports. KPI contributes to other companies supplying aircraft fuel, such as Shell, Exxon Mobil, and Total.

The Director General of Kuwait Aviation Fuelling Company, Nasser Al-Mudaf, said the company will continue supplying fuel for Iranian aircraft at Kuwait International Airport, provided it does not exceed $5 million yearly. 

0830 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. RAHANA reports that student activist Zia Nabavi was beaten after his transfer to Ahvaz Prison and held in solitary confinement for 48 hours. The website, citing the Committee of Human Rights Reporters, also claims poor food and hygiene in the facility.

Nabavi was arrested on 15 June 2009 and later sentenced to 15 years in prison, reduced to 10 years on appeal. He has written an open letter about his treatment by the authorities.

0610 GMT: We begin with two stories this morning from the economic front.

The former Iran Prosecutor General, Ayatollah Abdolnabi Namazi, has said that "judiciary officials are under pressure not to deal seriously with well-connected corrupt elements".

Namazi continued that when corruption cases are referred to the Committee for Campaign against Financial Corruption, the judiciary is pressed through phone calls and meetings,preventing it "from dealing independently and freely with the cases and issuing rulings".

Namazi specifically said that "those who are involved in corruption and those who are granted sizable loans are influential and supported by the people in power".

And here's the intriguing part: where was Namazi's interview printed? Not on a trouble-making opposition website or even in a reformist newspaper, but in the "hard-line" Fars.

Meanwhile, the opposition site Green Correspondents makes the dramatic claim that an emergency meeting of Iran's Central Bank has been held to deal with a currency crisis. The report asserts that thousands of Iranians who have bank accounts in Europe have been sent "warning letters" asking for explanations of why money is held abroad.