The Latest from Iran (5 January): Dramatic and Routine Detentions

2220 GMT: Academic Corner. Rooz Online writes that distinguished sociologist Gholam Abbas Tavassoli has been forcibly retired by Tehran University.

1830 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The Munich chapter of United4Iran notes an appeal in Bild am Sonntag, made by 100 prominent Germans, for the release of two of the newspaper's staff from an Iranian prison.

Marcus Hellwig and Jens Koch were detained in October as they were interviewing the son and lawyer of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, condemned to death for adultery.

1745 GMT: Corruption Watch. This could get nasty....

According to Rah-e-Sabz, 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi has struck back at political punishment and/or a trail on corruption allegations. He said that Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani had received large amounts of money during his Presidential campaign in 2005.

1525 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has denied yesterday's reports that he has filed lawsuits against the editors of the newspapers Iran and Vatna Emrooz for "spreading lies".

Last week, the editor of Iran, Kaveh Eshtehardi, was sentenced to a sentence of six months in prison and 10 lashes, suspended for three years, for his presentation of a court case involving Mehdi Hashemi, Rafsanjani's son.

1455 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Ali Tavakoli, the brother of detained student activist Majid Tavakoli, has been released after he was detained in a raid on Majid's home earlier today (see 1310 GMT).

Reza Sharifi-Boukani has been given 3 1/2 years in prison by the Shahriyar Revolutionary Court for activities against national security.

The trial of Sharifi-Boukani, who was arrested last spring, was held in a closed court and without the presence of a lawyer.

1420 GMT: Economy Watch. The head of Iran's Customs Administration, Ardeshir Mohammadi, has been fired. There is no clear reason for the dismissal.

1415 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. War veteran Mohammad Moghadam, the head of Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Veterans Committee, has been freed from prison after almost two months in detention.

1410 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Execution Edition). Iranian-Dutch dual national Zahra Bahrami has been given the death sentence by Judge Abolqasem Salavati for drugs charges. Salavati also ordered the confiscation of all of Bahrami's assets.

The sentence, confirmed by Bahrami's daughter, can be appealed, but Bahrami also faces trial on charges of mohareb (war anti God).

Bahrami was arrested on 27 December 2009, the day of the Ashura demonstrations, after she returned to Iran to visit one of her children. Confusion surrounded her status for months, until the Dutch Government confirmed her citizenship in August. (See EA's special feature on the case.)

1405 GMT: Culture Watch. Iranian authorities have banned the publication of the latest book of poet and literary critic Mohammad Ali Sepanlou.

1310 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. An activist reports that agents raided the Shiraz home of the detained student activist Majid Tavakoli, destroying property and confiscating books and computers.

Tavakoli's brother Ali was summoned to the intelligence office for interrogation and has not been heard from since.

1300 GMT: Larijani Joins the Diplomatic Front. Hmm, looks like Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has company in Iraq today....

Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani, meeting former Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, said Iraq has disappointed its enemies, including the occupiers of the country, through “vigilance and solidarity".

That may sound familiar to EA readers, since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared in his speech yesterday that Iran has disappointed its enemies through vigilance and solidarity.

Meanwhile, at his press conference with Iraqi counterpart Hoshyar Zebari, Salehi assured, "One of the basic principles of our foreign policy is non-interference in the affairs of other countries....Iran wants nothing but well-being of the Iraqi nation."

1015 GMT: Diplomatic Front. The Government's international setpiece today will be the visit of Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi to Iraq.

Salehi put the public face on the trip with this comment on arrival in Baghdad, “Iran provides the Iraqi government and nation with all-out support. Iran endorses strengthening sustainable security in Iraq and the country's independence and national sovereignty."

0735 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The Governor of Tehran Province, Morteza Tamaddon, claimed on Tuesday that Christian missionaries have been detained and promised to seize more of them.

The human rights website HRANA said more than 60 Christians had been arrested.

Tamaddon claimed,"Just like the Taliban... who have inserted themselves into Islam like a parasite, [the missionaries] have crafted a movement with Britain's backing in the name of Christianity. But their conspiracy was unveiled quickly and the first blows were delivered to them."

0725 GMT: Shah's Son Found Dead. The youngest son of the last Shah of Iran was found dead Tuesday in his Boston apartment.

Prince Alireza Pahlavi had struggled for years with depression. 

0710 GMT: We start today with the dramatic and the far-too-routine with Iran's post-election detentions.

The dramatic is the case of scientist Shahram Amiri, who "un-defected" from the US when he returned to Iran in July, but whose story --- if not himself --- has re-surfaced this week with the headline that he is in solitary confinement and under investigation. We take a close look at the claim in a separate entry.

The far-too-routine are the hundreds who do not get the attention that suddenly comes to a sensational tale like Amiri's. On Tuesday, documentarist Ali Shirzad was summoned to Evin Prison to serve his sentence. He joins the filmmaker Mohammad Reza Nourizad in detention; others like Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasouluf are under threat of summoning each day.