The Latest from Iran (31 January): Hatching Freedom

1945 GMT: Execution Watch. Looks like the Iranian authorities are scrambling to justify their sudden execution of Dutch-Iranian national Zahra Bahrami (see separate feature)....

Press TV is claiming it has a video in which Bahrami explains how she concealed cocaine and opium in her house. In the video, Bahrami gives the camera crew a tour of her house, showing them how she concealed drugs in a compartment inside her bed, in cereal boxes and in an electric heater.

The style of the video sounds similar to Press TV's recent "documentary" in which Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, whose death sentence for adultery has also been condemned internationally, was released from prison to make a "confession" in her home.

The Tehran Prosecutor's Office now claims that, during a search of Bahrami's house, 450 grams of cocaine and 420 grams of opium were uncovered. Previously, Iranian officials said Bahrami was holding a kilogramme of cocaine.

1800 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Women's rights activist Mahboubeh Karami has been given a three-year prison sentence.

Teacher Zahra Hatami has been released after 61 days in detention, 56 of them spent in solitary confinement.

1755 GMT: Cyber Watch. Iranian authorities appear to have tightened up access to the Internet, blocking both Yahoo News and Reuters.

Google News was still accessible, but many of its links to foreign news websites were blocked, with a list of government-approved sites offered instead.

1745 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Sajede Kianoush Rad and Sama Bahmani have been freed on bail today.

1740 GMT: Execution Watch. Get ready for someone else to be hung in a high-profile demonstration --- Iran Prosecutor General Mohseni-Ejei says another "Israeli spy" has received a death sentence.

1725 GMT: The US Hikers. According to Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei, a Revolutionary Court in Tehran has summoned Sarah Shourd, one of three US hikers detained in July 2009, to return to Iran and stand trial on 6 February.

The date has been set for a hearing on Shourd and her companions, Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, who are both still detained.

Iran has warned it will seize Shourd's $500,000 bail, paid by an unknown guarantor, if she does not return for trial.

However, Iranian authorities have repeatedly delayed the date of the hearing, and Ejei indicated this could happen again. He said a postponement could occur if the lawyer for the defendants requests more time.

1715 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Fars News writes, from Iranian officials, that the official website of former President Hashemi Rafsanjani is not registered and therefore is not licenced.

If true, the claim could lead to the blocking of the site.

1705 GMT: Parliament v. President. The dispute over Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's open letter criticising the Parliament, the judiciary, and the Expediency Council for challenging his plans rumbles on. MP Asadollah Badamchian has said the President's letter has no legal basis, and reaction to it was visible in the relatively low level of approval for the nomination of Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

Vice President Mohammed Reza Mirtajoddini, the President's advisor for Parliamentary affairs, counters that Ahmadinejad is much better informed about the impact of subsidy cuts than economists.

1700 GMT: At the Movies. Director Mohammad Ali Talebi has asked the Fajr Festival to remove his film "Wind and Fog", being shown without his permission.

Director Fereydoun Jirani has also withdrawn his film from the Festival.

1650 GMT: Campus Watch. Back from an academic and Egypt break to find that Ali Saeedi, the Supreme Leader's representative to the Revolutionary Guards, has offered a solution for higher eduction. By converting humanities in universities, the Revolutionary Guards will end Iran's biggest problem: the vacuum of religious rule.

0905 GMT: Hatching Freedom. The Assembly of Combatant Clergy has issued a statement that the anger of Egyptian people is the "inevitable result of a reign of oppression and silencing".

0900 GMT: And Now to Sports. Radio Farda is claiming that several top Iranian athletes, amidst attention to the Asian Games, have left the country.

0855 GMT: Reading Corner. Booksellers are reportedly on the verge of bankruptcy because of harsh censorship and the effects of subsidy cuts on paper.

0850 GMT: So You Think Social Media Isn't Important? Peyke Iran claims a novel explanation from Grand Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani as to why the Hidden (12th) Imam has not yet appeared: it is because "new media" are not yet developed enough.

0725 GMT: Lots of discussion this morning that the Kurdish detainee Loghman Moradi has been moved from his cell, a possible steps towards execution.

Moradi and his brother Zainar are accused of violent acts, including the murder of the son of the Friday Prayer leader in the city of Marivan. They claim confessions were extracted under torture, but in December they were convicted and sentenced to death on the charge of mohareb (war against God). 

0710 GMT: We open this morning with the observation of Maya Nayestani on movements for freedom in Iran, Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen. On the left, the chicks in the Arab world are emerging, while on the right the Iranian opposition are squabbling inside the egg:

Meanwhile....

Reformist MP Ahmad Reza Dastgheib claims that the number of signatories asking the President to come before the Parliament for questioning has 50. A total of 73 signatures, 1/4th of the Majlis, is needed to force an Ahmadinejad appearance. 

Other critics of the Government, notably principlist MP Ali Motahari, have made previous claims that they were close to the required number but no petition has succeeded so far.