The Latest from Iran (28 November): The Bank Fraud Expands

The celebration that led to lengthy suspension for two members of Iran's national football team (see 0835 GMT)

---

2148 GMT: Explosion Watch. An EA correspondent does some checking on the claimed location of today's blast in Isfahan (see 2020 GMT). Not only is it near the Military Academy, but it is just to the east of Darvazeh Shiraz (Shiraz city gate) is the Sepah Badr airbase.

Fars resurfaces, after dropping its original story to report --- from ISNA --- that the head of Isfahan's judiciary heard the sound of an explosion but got no information from officials.

And Tabnak has the latest rationale from Deputy Governor Mohammadi Mehdi Esmaili: "Perhaps a water boiler exploded."

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (31 July): So This is Freedom of the Press....

2010 GMT: Clerical Intervention. Grand Ayatollah Sane'i, challenging the Government's portrayal of "security" in Iran, has asked, "Is it safe?" when figures like Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi are kept under prolonged house arrest.

2000 GMT: You Gotta Laugh. President Ahmadinejad was in northwest Iran today, celebrating the inclusion of the Tabriz Grand Bazaar on the list of World Heritage Sites. However, it was this episode earlier in the week that made us smile:

In a meeting of the cabinet with provincial governors and other senior government officials around the country, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said sarcastically, "Anybody who sits next to us is arrested." He made the statement after asking Hamid Baghaei, his vice president for executive affairs, to sit next to him. Over the last few months there have been persistent rumors that Baghaei's arrest is imminent.

Ahmadinejad will want to hold on to that sense of humour. Reformist MP Dariush Ghanbari, who has struck out at the Government this week, continued his criticism in Parliament today with the declaration that the people of Iran have become "debtors or unemployed" under Ahmadinejad's leadership. He sent the message to the President, "Rather than oil money reaching Iranian households, [people] are receiving court orders to repay their debts or report to jail, because your administration has mishandled the restructuring of subsidies."

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (12 July): Arresting the "Deviant Current"

1700 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Detained journalist Isa Saharkhiz has written to Ahmad Shaheed, the UN Human Rights Rapporteur on Iran, "What is happening now in the Islamic Republic prisons is a crime against humanity and has nothing less than Stalin’s inhumane treatment of prisoners in the forced labour camps of Siberia."

Referring to the death of two political prisoners, Hoda Saber and Mohsen Dokmehchi, Saharkhiz wrote, "They are deliberately trying to destroy us and have prepared a silent death for us because they fear our survival even behind bars."

Hoda Saber, a political activist and journalist died 10 days into his hunger strike, while Mohsen Dokmehchi, a businessman arrested in the post-election protests of 2009 and sentenced to 10 years in prison, died last March from pancreatic cancer.

Saharkhiz, arrested in July 2009 and sentenced to three years in prison for "insulting the Supreme Leader and the regime", urged Shaheed to act immediately to inform the public of the prisoners’ plight, stressing that any delay will only result in more deaths.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (28 March): Politics Resumes

1800 GMT: Economy Watch. Prominent economist Saeed Leylaz has declared that the main problem of the Iranian economy is domestic mismanagement rather than foreign sanctions, adding that smuggling is $20 billion per year.

1755 GMT: Labour Front. Claimed video of a strike on 19 March at the Bandar Imam Petrochemical Complex in Mahshahr in southwestern Iran:

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (27 March): A Regime Party

1525 GMT: Back to the Regime Party. Iranian media have released pictures of regional Presidents being treated by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad at Nowruz festivities. Not sure it's a 100% success, however --- Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai appears to be sleeping through the entertainment.

Better news for Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammadov --- Ahmadinejad gave him a two-seater LSA airplane worth $130,000.

Last week, Berdimuhammadov sent a thousand tons of flour to Iran for Nowruz.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (11 February): The Regime's Big Show?

2205 GMT: Claim of the Night. An opposition website asserts, "The word 'Bahman' has been filtered in Iran Farsi Google search."

2145 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mohammad Housein Mehyimni, the son of the former Governor of Golestan Province, has been arrested.

2130 GMT: A New Role. What better way to end 22 Bahman than with a feel-good story?

The Basij militia are providing the dowries of needy brides.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (1 January): And Today's Threat Is....

>1900 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Labour activist Mansour Osanloo has suddenly been transferred to solitary confinement. Osanloo has reportedly been punished for participating in a commemoration of Ali Saremi, the Kurdish detainee executed on Tuesday.

Osanloo has been in prison since 2007 and is serving a five-year sentence in Evin Prison.

1730 GMT: Execution Watch. The son of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the woman condemned to death for adultery and complicity in murder, has been released on $40,000 bail and has given a press conference in Tabriz.

Sajad Ghaderzadeh told reporters, "In my opinion my mother is also guilty but since we have lost our father we do not want to lose our mother too. Consequently, we ask for a commutation of the penalty. The stoning sentence is on the file but it may not be carried out. At least this is what we are hoping."

Ghaderzadeh was detained in early October, along with Ashtiani's lawyer, as they gave an interview to two German reporters. The German journalists and attorney Houton Kian are still in prison.

Click to read more ...

Iran Video and Transcript: Revisiting The Opposition Case for an Illegitimate Election (21 June 2009)

During the Presidential campaign and election of 12 June 2009, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour was the head of the Committee to Protect the Vote. On 21 June, two days after the Supreme Leader had reaffirmed at Friday Prayers that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won the election, Mohtashamipour made a lengthy public statement in which he set out the case for a flawed ballot and set the conditions for a proper review.

Mohtashamipour's basic demand --- for an independent committee to enquire into the vote, as the Guardian Council, the Islamic Republic's body overseeing political matters, had been compromised by support of its members for President Ahmadinejad --- was quickly rejected. The Council conducted a limited recount of ballots and issued a report in July declaring that there was no irregularities in the election.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (30 December): A Year After the Regime's Display

2255 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Fares for taxis have risen up to 15% today. No one seems to have addressed the economic question, though: how does this cover a tripling or quadrupling of fuel prices?

2250 GMT: Economy Watch. The price of gold and gold coins are rising, and the toman has fallen to 1080 per US dollar.

1840 GMT: Taxing the Nobel Prize Winner. Shirin Ebadi's property has been seized for alleged non-payment of taxes, and the Nobel Prize laureate has been banned from leaving the country.

Ebadi is currently outside Iran, and her lawyer Nasrine Sotoudeh has been detained since early September.

1835 GMT: Diplomatic Criticism. Former Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Sadegh Kharrazi has asserted that the Foreign Ministry has no strategic perspective on global developments.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (10 October): The Threat of Foreign Mice

1925 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Azeri activist Hossein Nasiri has been sentenced to one year in prison.

1830 GMT: Currency Watch. Iran's problems with foreign exchange appear to be affecting production. Paint producers have been crippled by problems with imports, leading to lack of stock for retailers. Steel producers, who import 40% of their raw material, are having problems with lines of credit and must pay a cash premium for shipping insurance. A similar situation is reported with importers of car parts. Reports continue of lines at foreign exchange markets.

1810 GMT: Academic Corner: Parliament is expressing strong objections to Government moves, in its 5th Budget Plan, to partly privatise Iran's universities.

Click to read more ...