The Latest from Iran (11 January): Remembering Hundreds of Political Prisoners
Tuesday, January 11, 2011 at 5:40
2100 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The son-in-law of detained journalist Emaduddin Baghi, Ali Maghami, has been released on bail.
Maghami was arrested last month. Baghi, detained in December 2009, was sentenced last autumn to seven years in prison.
Eight students of the Islamic Society of Arak University have reportedly been arrested.
2040 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. On Sunday we noted a speech by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, marking the anniversary of a January 1978 protest that helped spur the Islamic Republic. A correspondent commented Rafsanjani made his historical parallel to jab directly at Ahmadinejad aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai and indirectly at the Supreme Leader: "those who build their power on cobwebs". He pointedly referred to the situation then of "fire under the ashes", a possible reference to the state of protest today, and blamed those who practiced "lies and hypocrisy".
Well, the newspaper Kayhan is not impressed.