The Latest from Iran (20 June): Remembering the Protests and the Dead

2000 GMT: Soroush and Khamenei. The website of Abdulkarim Soroush, one of Iran's most prominent intellectuals --- now living in exile --- has published the English translation of Soroush's letter to the Supreme Leader, "Flagging Oratory (and Mind?)".

1950 GMT: Limiting the Remembrance. Pictures and video show a heavy security presence in Tehran's Vanak Square:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6KAX0Oj5oo[/youtube]

NEW Iran Document: Karroubi Takes on the Supreme Leader (20 June)
NEW Iran Special: Legal Analysis of Post-Election Violations of Rights (Shadi Sadr)
NEW Iran Video, One Year On: The “Neda” Documentaries
Iran: Working Together? The Women’s Movement & The Greens (Kakaee)
Iran Analysis: Why the 2009 Election is Not Legitimate (Ansari)
The Latest from Iran (19 June): How Does Mahmoud Respond?

1645 GMT: The Karroubi Statement. We've posted lengthy extracts in a separate entry --- with its apparent challenge to the powers of the Supreme Leader, is this a significant step forward for the cleric?

1620 GMT: The Threat to the Reformists. The Islamic Iran Participation Front, responding to the declaration of the Tehran Prosecutor General that the party would be banned and might be broken up, said  Abbas Jafari Doulatabi's remarks were "private and without legal value".

1610 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has reportedly declared that he would like to retire, but were he to step down from positions such as head of the Expediency Council, there would be "grave political consequences".

1445 GMT: Today's Hijab Discussion. Member of Parliament Reza Akrami has declared that the President "should ask himself why he protests" against enforcement of the law on hijab.

Ahmadinejad spokesman Ali Akbar Javanfekr did a bit of "don't look at us", saying that the Government is not responsible for the crackdown on "bad hijab" because the security forces are not controlled by the Minister of the Interior.

1250 GMT: One Year Ago. Setareh Sabety reminds us of the words she posted, on the morning of 25 Khordaad (20 June) 2009:

I pray, even though an atheist, I pray that today this all important day, courage and justice is triumphant and that there will be no blood shed. I pray that no mother has to hear bad news, no woman is martyred and no young man beaten or arrested. I pray that these people whom I love, who are risking their lives with incredible courage for me and you, are not harmed and that their silent, persistent message of the basic need for freedom and democracy wins the day.

1245 GMT: The Reformist Challenge. The message from member of Parliament Mohammad Reza Tabesh to the Government is  direct and to the point: "Stop these radical behaviours."

1200 GMT: Cyber-Shutdown. Parleman News reports Persianblog, Iranicloob, and Blogfa have now been filtered.

1155 GMT: We've posted a special feature, Shadi Sadr's legal analysis of the post-election violation of rights by Iranian authorities.

1055 GMT: Documenting "Neda". Iranian state television has broadcast the "real" story of the killing of Neda Agha Soltan, "Crossroades". It features Abbas Javid Kargar, the Basij militiaman accused of the murder, who claims he was unarmed on that day and played no role in her death.

So who did it? The documentary implies that the "terrorist" Mujahedin-e-Khalq (MKO) was responsible.

Arash Hejazi, the doctor who tried to save Neda's life, has posted his response to the documentary's claims.

And we've re-posted two other documentaries on "Neda" and post-election events, the BBC/PBS/Tehran Bureau production, "An Iranian Martyr", and HBO's "For Neda".

1045 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Peyke Iran claims that activists and students have been detained in Hormozogan Province.

RAHANA reports that eight students have been arrested in Shiraz on charges of "propaganda against the Prophet".

0925 GMT: Political Prisoners and the Labour Front.

The International Transport Workers Federation has denounced the further arrests of members of Sandikaye Kargarane Sherkate Vahed, the Tehran bus workers’ union in Iran.

Saeed Torabian and Reza Shahbi were arrested in June by Iranian security forces and are being held at an unknown location. They join Mansour Osanloo and Ebrahim Madadi, both in prison since 2007, in detention.

In a letter to President Ahmadinejad, ITWF General Secretary David Cockroft said: “We once again reiterate that the carrying out of normal trade union duties is not an arrestable offence and should never be the grounds for the detention of Saeed Torabian, of Mansour Osanloo, or anyone else. We therefore request that you once again intervene in this process, remedy this situation, and also assure the good health and safety of Mansour Osanloo, who remains unjustly imprisoned.”

Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that workers at the Zhaveh reservoir dam in the Kurdish Kamyaran region have gone on strike over non-payment of seven months of back wages, workers yearly bonuses, overtime wages, and dues.

0810 GMT: The Clerics Fight Back? Ayatollah Bayat Zanjani has said that the distance between religion and revolutionary principles is the reason for the weakness of Iran's judiciary.

The more intriguing report, however, is in Rah-e-Sabz. The website claims that Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, Mohammad Khatami, and Hassan Khomeini have all been on the telephone with Grand Ayatollah Sanei: these attacks were not a rebellion of unorganised people but a planned assault.

0800 GMT: The Battle Within (cont.). The latest jab of Keyhan, the "hard-line" newspaper, at the Government is a query about Ahmadinejad's chief aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai: why did he, in one of his many offices, give money to a rich artist?

0720 GMT: The Battle Within. The opposition's commemorations and the execution of "terrorists" has not entirely taken the headline heat off the President. Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, the spokesman for the Guardian Council, has told Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he cannot interfere in the affairs of other regime institutions.

0630 GMT: Remembering 25 Khordaad. Zahra Rahnavard has issued a statement reflecting on the protests of 20 June 2009:

"Today the Green Movement owes its place to the resistance of women, who along with their spouses and children, and as a group of leaders on the front lines have had a unique presence. The movement should realize that achieving freedom and democracy without the presence of noble women and without considering and implementation of the demands to eliminate discrimination and violence that women have always asked will not be possible.”

0625 GMT: Karroubi on the Vote and the Supreme Leader. Saham News, the website of Mehdi Karroubi, has published the cleric's  latest statement. Karroubi opens:

One year after the 10th Presidential election, considering what they did with your votes and the blood that was shed for regaining your rights, once again firmly and honestly, I declare that I am standing on my promise with you to the end of this path and I am ready to debate with anyone who would represent the ruling powers.
The vote that they stole from you and the right that was brutally denied from you is a shame that cannot be covered in anyway. Such that after one year despite all the pressure and intimidations not only your rightful demands have not been forgotten but also this seek for change has penetrated in various layers of the society based on an extensive social network and this social extent is not something that can be eliminated by repressions, intimidations, arrests and staged trials.

This declaration of defiance from 12 June 2009 to the present is followed by thoughts about the recent pro-regime attacks on senior clerics, used by Karroubi to consider "the powers of the Supreme Leader". In other words --- if I'm reading this right --- if Ayatollah Khameni is the ultimate defender of the Islamic Republic, why is he not defending its leading religious figures and its people?

0600 GMT: Today is likely to be dominated by remembrance of last year's mass demonstration, eight days after the Presidential election and a day after the Supreme Leader tried to close off debate, and those who died.

For many, Neda Agha Soltan, the 26-year-0ld woman killed by a Basij militia gunshot, became the symbol of tragedy and hope, and outside Iran, her name remains a beacon. (The #4Neda hashtag may be one of the most prominent on Twitter today.)

Inside Iran, however, there will be memorials for all those killed on 20 June and in the days after the election. It is reported that four Tehran universities are holding services, and there is chatter of events across the country.

The Iranian Government, however, has made a late bid to take over the headlines by adding another death: this morning it executed Abdolmalek Rigi, the leader of the Baluch insurgent Jundullah organisation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bi0IMc1uXMY&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

The Latest from Iran (14 June): The 2nd Year Is Underway....

1955 GMT: The Sting in Mousavi's Statement. While making the obvious moves over 22 Khordaad, stressing opposition resilience and the Government's struggle for legitimacy, Mir Hossein Mousavi used Sunday's attacks on the homes of prominent clerics to extend his challenge:

More than ever before, the people in government need to create 'incidents' that enable them to conceal the consequences of the misfortunes they have brought about for the country. Attacking the office of an eminent cleric and an admired student of Imam Khomeini [Grand Ayatollah Sane'i] is entering a new phase in creating such crises.

Have they forgotten that it was attack against the house of Imam Khomeini which paved the way for liquidating the roots of tyranny on 6 June 1963 and laid the foundation for [the revolution of] February 1979?

Have they still not learned their lesson?

NEW Iran: The Attack on Montazeri, Sane’i, Karroubi
Iran Analysis: The Regime’s Next Push Against “Nothing Special”
Iran Document: Karroubi “Greens Stronger & More Mature Than Last Year” (12 June)
Iran Special: EA Gets Highest Award from Tehran Government!
Iran: The US State Department’s Comment on the Election Anniversary
Iran Result: The 22 Khordaad Cup “Greens 1, Darks 0″ (Lucas)
The Latest from Iran (13 June): And So It Goes On….

1810 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Mohammad Reza Jalaiepour of the Third Wave Movement has been re-arrested.

Jalaiepour was detained in June and held for 88 days.

1745 GMT: Mousavi Speaks. In a brief statement, Mir Hossein Mousavi has praised the fortitude of the Iranian people and the Green Movement o on the anniversary of the election and asserted that the unprecedented security deployment shows how the regime has failed to convince the public of its legitimacy.

Mousavi has promised a statement tomorrow outlining the objectives and strategies of the Green Movement.

1740 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Behzad Heidari, a student activist from Amir Kabir University, was arrested on 12 June during a protest near Enghelab Square.


1735 GMT: No, I Didn't. Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi has denied that he issued an order blocking detainees' visits with their families (see separate analysis).

1720 GMT: Human rights and women's rights activist Saba Vasefi has regained consciousness after being in a coma for two weeks. Vasefi was struck by a motorcyclist who fled, hitting her head on the curbside.

1550 GMT: The Attack on the Clerics. Reformist member of Parliament Darius Ghanbari has demanded that the security forces who carried out the attack on Grand Ayatollah Sane'i's house be held accountable.

1445 GMT: The Attack on the Clerics. We've published the most concise account we've seen so far --- from Saham News --- of Sunday's attack by a pro-regime crowd on Grand Ayatollah Sane'i, the family of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, and Mehdi Karroubi in Qom.

1255 GMT: The Attack on Ayatollah Sane'i. The Facebook site supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi has posted 33 photographs of the damage caused by the crowd that surrounded the house of Ayatollah Sane'i on Sunday.

1225 GMT: Assessing 22 Khordaad. There is still a siege of ill-informed pieces on Saturday's events in the Western media, as well as high-brow discussions of the "Green Movement" which ignored the latest developments.

In this context, the report of Michael Theodoulou --- who has excellent sources in Iran --- takes on added importance:

Thousands of Iranians, defying regime threats, staged a silent and peaceful anti-government protest in Tehran on yesterday’s anniversary of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election a year ago, witnesses told The National.

“There were many women, some veiled in black, and many men, people of all ages,” one Tehran resident said....

One witness, who has proven consistently reliable in the past, said that there were at least 100,000 protestors....“There was little chanting but once in a while you could hear ‘down with the dictator’,” he said. Security forces beat some with batons to break up gatherings....

“This can well be considered a success for the opposition,” said an analyst in Tehran who spoke on condition of anonymity. “They [the protestors] managed to make the government admit its fear and weakness by bringing so many forces to the streets,” he said. “And by remaining silent, most of the time, they managed to suffer the least beatings and arrests – so far.”

NEW Iran: The Attack on Montazeri, Sane’i, Karroubi
Iran Analysis: The Regime’s Next Push Against “Nothing Special”
Iran Document: Karroubi “Greens Stronger & More Mature Than Last Year” (12 June)
Iran Special: EA Gets Highest Award from Tehran Government!
Iran: The US State Department’s Comment on the Election Anniversary
Iran Result: The 22 Khordaad Cup “Greens 1, Darks 0″ (Lucas)
The Latest from Iran (13 June): And So It Goes On….

1205 GMT: Iranian Embassy in London "Hosts" Protest Film. HomyLafayette reports on how demonstrators projected a short film, documenting the post-election unrest and crackdown, onto the facade of the Iranian Embassy in London on Saturday night.

1200 GMT: Another Attack on a Cleric. Khabar Online reports that an "unknown person or persons" attacked the home of Ayatollah Nouri-Hamedani last night, breaking windows.

0725 GMT: Ahmadinejad on the Election. The President did mark the anniversary of the Presidential vote in his interview on national television about "the manifestation of the united and grand human will of 40 million people in a 100 percent free" vote. He claimed, "Those who opposed [the election] were governments of injustice who interfered in [our] internal affairs. Even the American president, who was new to the scene, joined them. But the Iranian nation defeated them."

0720 GMT: The Attack on the Clerics. Ahmad Montazeri, the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, has issued a statement about the attack on the Montazeri offices:

The interesting point...is the presence and silence of the police and special security forces and the complete coordination between them and the plain clothes militia! In this attack all the items of the office were damaged and the photos of late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri were torn up and insulted. They broke office’s windows, chairs and even the television set, torn down the curtains and by hanging from the ceiling fan and treading down the vacuum cleaner damaged them.

Following these attacks on the morning of Monday, 14 June 2010, about 12 individuals from intelligence forces with a court order from the Special Court for the Clergy in Qom came to the office of the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri and searched the office, confiscated the damaged items, and shut down and sealed the office; and by this action approved all the destructive actions of those who attacked. While one would expect from the security forces to control the plain clothes individuals and bring security to the area, unfortunately not even one of the thugs was arrested.

0650 GMT: The Battle Within. An important signal of a possible anti-Ahmadinejad coalition, sanctioned by the Supreme Leader, and a boost to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani: Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, has warned the President that he cannot interfere in the responsibilities and authorities of other officials of the regime: "Some people are trying to take advantage of the situation and take on responsibilities for which they lack the necessary competence.”

Janati writes that the Guardian Council is the only point of reference for determining the legality of Parliament’s legislations and other officials and government bodies “have no duty other than executing and heeding those laws” once they are approved by the Guardian Council.

A less dramatic sign of challenge comes from Fereydoun Hemmati of the Supreme Audit Council, who claims the Government's budget declaration is "full of attacks and lies".

And Gholamreza Mesbahi Moghaddam of Parliament's Economic Commission has reiterated that "the government cannot refuse to implement laws".
0645 GMT: The 4 June Fall-Out. Add Ayatollah Javadi Amoli to the long list of senior figures denouncing the regime's mis-handling of the ceremony for Ayatollah Khomeini, criticising the shout-down of his grandson, Seyed Hassan Khomeini: "The events were an obvious injustice to the Imam and his beyt descendants."

0615 GMT: The 22 Khordaad Arrests. Daneshjoo News claims, from "informed sources", that about 400 people detained on Saturday have been moved to Evin Prison.

0610 GMT: More on Tomorrow's Statement (see 0540 GMT). The advance notice of the statement for Tuesday claims that "Mir Hossein Mousavi [has] proposed a charter for the Green Movement which includes objectives, strategies and definition for [its] identity...and offered it as a proposed platform to the movement to be reviewed and judged by the public and the experts."

0600 GMT: ??????. I am at a loss to evaluate this statement made yesterday on national television on Sunday by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. It is either the height of hypocrisy or a relevation of a President who is not in command. From Agence France Presse:

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that he was "strongly" opposed to a police crackdown against women deemed to be in un-Islamic dress and on the behaviour of youths in public.
"I am strongly against such actions. It is impossible for such actions to be successful," Ahmadinejad said in an interview on state television when asked about the crackdown which has intensified in past weeks....

"I prefer to work in a cultural way. Any punishment must be given after a judge's decision," said Ahmadinejad, adding that his government had no role in the crackdown.

"The government is not interfering in this. We consider it is insulting to ask a boy and girl about their relationship. Nobody has the right to ask people such a question," he said.

"I hope such things will not happen in our country and that such actions are stopped before I have to give serious warnings," he added.

0540 GMT: Now to the Next Anniversary. Kalemeh, the website of Mir Hossein Mousavi, has announced that Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi will issue a statement tomorrow, the anniversary of the first mass protest against the Presidential election.

Meanwhile, Green Voice of Freedom has posted an English-language summary of the Mousavi-Karroubi press conference that was held several days before the 12 June demonstration but mysterious disappeared.

0530 GMT: We begin this morning with an analysis of "The Regime's Next Push" against an opposition that refused to go away on 22 Khordaad, the anniversary of the 2009 election.

One of the incidents this weekend pointing to continued tension was the gathering of protesters outside the home of Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Sane'i, who was meeting Mehdi Karroubi, in Qom. Another video of the gathering has emerged:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qim9MkopK5Q&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Iran Analysis: The Regime's Next Push Against "Nothing Special"

Having failed to shut down all public signs of opposition this weekend, the Iranian Government seems to be making yet one more push to get rid of pesky dissent.

On the one hand, authorities are playing down the demonstrations of 22 Khordaad (12 June). Tehran police chief Hossein Sajedinia claimed, “Throughout yesterday nothing particular happened in the capital and a limited number of people, about 91 suspects, were arrested by the police and delivered to the judiciary.” (Opposition reports of detentions range from 200 in Tehran to more than 900 across Iran.)

Deputy Commander Ahmadreza Radan asserted that only a few people, "deceived by anti- Revolutionary television and internet networks”, were detained. He added, "Nothing special happened."



Given that"nothing special" happened, the Government sure did appear jumpy yesterday. There are reports that all blogs based on WordPress --- EA is one (though, in case anyone in Tehran is not, it will not be from this summer) --- have been filtered.

After a period in which he tried to use contact with political prisoners to get them to "repent", Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi also appears to be taking a tougher line. Kalemeh reports that his office has slapped on tough restrictions on detainees' meetings with their families.

But perhaps the most ominous sign that the supposed non-events of 22 Khordaad will be met with renewed aggression came beyond the Government with claims of Basiji intimidation of senior clerics and opposition figures. Sunday was "distinguished" by reports, accompanied by video, of plainclothes protesters harassing Saeed Montazeri, the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Montazeri, Grand Ayatollah Yusuf Sane'i, and Mehdi Karroubi. That challenge, with an apparent declaration, "We want to make it such that these guys can never insult Islam or the revolution again", follows the humiliation of Seyed Hassan Khomeini, the Ayatollah's grandson, on 4 June.

But here the paradox of the Government's supposed legitimacy arises. With each loud turn of the screw, not just against the opposition but against those who are supposedly part of the Iranian system, President Ahmadinejad and Co. provoke more dissent from within. While 22 Khordaad temporarily overtook last week's challenge to the Government from conservative/principlist figures like Ali Motahari, expect that challenge to re-emerge this week.

(Over the weekend, Mohammad Nabi Habibi, the Secretary General of the Motalefeh Party, gave an extensive interview to Khabar Online in which he said, "We are no longer criticising but protesting against" the President's chief aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai for his deviation from Islam, writing six letters to Ahmadinejad. , wrote AN about 6 letters.

Habibi added the complaint that the President was not kind to parties other than those that he considered "good smelling" --- rayehe khosh khedmat.)

"Nothing special" sure does feel a bit tense this morning.

The Latest from Iran (6 June): The Fallout from Friday

2150 GMT: More on That Rumour. We've checked with correspondents, who assess that the claim that Seyed Hassan Khomeini hit Minister of Interior, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, should be treated as "flimsy". They can find no corroborating evidence for the story from Javan.

(We should have noted in the post below that Javan is connected to the Revolutionary Guard, and it could be in its interest to portray the opposition --- and Hassan Khomeini --- as violent and irrational. My apologies for the omission, and my thanks to readers for pointing this out.)

1955 GMT: And Now The Rumour of the Day. Javan reports that the Interior Minister, Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, is currently in hospital after being hit by Seyed Hassan Khomeini, the  grandson of Ayatollah Khomeini, during Friday's ceremony.

According to "multiple sources", Hassan was upset that in a TV interview last week, Najjar referred to him as "Seyed Hassan Mostafavi" --- a "secondary" surname of the Khomeini clan --- to minimise his ties with his grandfather. (Javan also refers to Hassan as "Hassan Mostafavi".)

Najjar already had stitches on his face when he arrived at the Khomeini shrine on Friday, due to surgery for sinusitis. His face was bloody again after being hit by Hassan.

NEW Iran Document: Mehdi Karroubi on Khomeini, the Rule of Law, and Protest in 2010 (4 June)
NEW Iran Document: The Supreme Leader’s Speech (4 June)
Iran Special: The Regime Disappoints, So It’s Over to the Opposition
Iran Document: Detained Filmmaker Nourizad Writes the Supreme Leader
The Latest from Iran (5 June): Is That All There Is?

1625 GMT: Friday Fall-Out. Mehdi Karroubi has written Seyed Hassan Khomeini, “You know very well that the account of these few trained and organized individuals [who shouted down Khomeini during his Friday speech] is separate from the account of the massive number of the devotees of Imam [Khomeini], his children and relatives, and especially you.”


1545 GMT: Reports are coming in that high-profile member of Parliament Ali Motahari has been summoned by his "principlist" party for his criticism of President Ahmadinejad over Friday's events.

1540 GMT: More Fall-Out. Ayatollah Sane'i has phoned Seyed Hassan Khomeini to express his regret over Friday's incident, directing his criticism at authorities: "If they were not politically insane, they would have not prevented the freedom of speech and people’s right to hear the speech in front of hundreds of national and international reporters and while this event was broadcast live. This act is a sign of their weakness and is the sign that the will and desire of God is that their plans would be ruined.”

Sane'i added: “Those how plan these incidents be it those who order it or who execute it or who provoke it are incapable of solving country’s social, economic, political and foreign problems and therefore commit such acts to divert the public mind".

1305 GMT: Friday Fall-Out. Ayatollah Mousavi Ardebili has added his voice to the chorus condemning the sabotage of Seyed Hassan Khomeini's speech at the commemoration ceremony for the death of his grandfather.

1300 GMT: Karroubi Watch. The US magazine Newsweek has published the text of an interview by e-mail with Mehdi Karroubi, which follows the line of the discussion with Masih Alinejad that we posted on EA on 27 May: "My family and myself, we are all ready to pay any price for our struggle for the people of Iran."

1243 GMT: The Executed. The families of Farzad Kamangar,Farhad Vakili, and Ali Heydarian,,three of five Iranians executed on 9 May, have met with the Governor of Kurdestan Province to ask for help in getting the return of their bodies.

The Governor told the families that their children were buried at a place that cannot be disclosed for "security reasons".

1239 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Labor activist Alireza Akhavan has been arrested by security forces. Farhad Fathi, the director of the Reformist Organization of Qazvin's International University, has also been detained.

Human Rights Activists News Agency claims Reza Malek, former deputy of Research and Investigation in the Intelligence Ministry, has been severely beaten by prison guards.

1228 GMT: Economy Watch. Iran is 94th out of 104 countries on the 2009 Legatum Prosperity Index, between Cambodia and Kenya.

1224 GMT: We Don't Need No Women's Studies. Hossein Naderi-Manesh, the Deputy Minister of Science and Higher Education, has allegedly said that it is "no problem to eliminate women's studies from universities as the Quran is full of subjects about them".

1220 GMT: Mousavi Challenges Regime on "Foreign Threat". In a statement on Kalemeh, Mir Hossein Mousavi has thrown the allegation of subversion by foreigners and "terrorists" back at the Iranian regime: "It should be asked who has presented a golden opportunity to the US, Israel, the hypocrites, and the monarchists with all these destructive, non-transparent and misleading policies. Is it those who seek freedom and justice or dubious cults which have devastated the lives of laborers, teachers and farmers?"

1119 GMT: Friday Follow-Up. The denunciations of the treatment of Ayatollah Khomeini's grandson, Seyed Hassan Khomeini, are piling up. The reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front, joining politicians from Mir Hossein Mousavi to conservative MP Ali Motahari, has written an open letter to clerics in Qom declaring that Friday's hecklers are against an independent clergy.

1115 GMT: 22 Khordaad. Daneshjoo News carries a call by Green Movement students for demonstrations across Iran on 12 June, the anniversary of the Presidential election.

1045 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. There is still uncertainty over the supposed 81 pardons handed out by the Supreme Leader. Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi said that "a series of prisoners" have already been released, with repentance as a requirement for amnesty. Still, there are no names of those who have supposedly been freed.

0620 GMT: We are in Warwick this morning, so the latest news from Iran will be posted around midday British time.

0610 GMT: Some inside and outside Iran are pondering what they claim is a relatively low turnout for the regime's ceremonies and speeches.

Could one possible reason be a lack of faith in Government? Fazel Mousavi, a member of Parliament's Article 90 Commission, has declared, "In our country, no party in the real meaning of the world, is active."

Reformist Mohammad Reza Khabbaz adds that, in the last year, 122 Government declarations contravened Majlis legislation, "a new record".

0555 GMT: Friday's Controversies. The political thunder rumbles on over the speeches at the ceremony for Ayatollah Khomeini's death. Rah-e-Sabz claims that, by citing Imam Ali, the Supreme Leader has compared himself to Shia's first Imam.

Regime supporter Hojatoleslam Hossein Sobhani-Nia has given indirect approval of the shout-down of the Imam's grandson, Khomeini: "People are alert, when someone deviates from Imam's path."

Meanwhile, some Iranian sites are taking aim at former President Mohammad Khatami, claiming he went to the Caspian Sea for "fun and vacation" while millions were mourning for Ayatollah Khomeini.

0525 GMT: We have posted two documents: there is a key extract from the Supreme Leader's speech on Friday and Mehdi Karroubi's lengthy consideration of "Khomeini, the Rule of Law, and Protest".

Iran Document: Detained Filmmaker Nourizad Writes the Supreme Leader

Last week filmmaker and journalist Mohammad Nourizad was jailed for 3 1/2 years, in part because of four letters had written to the Supreme Leader. This week he wrote a fifth letter to Ayatollah Khamenei. Translation by Pedestrian:

They take me every which way, while I am blindfolded. When I enter the room, I see a 40-something year old man sitting across a long table. He shows me the other end of the table and I sit down. After the usual greetings …

He says: Mr. Nourizad, I really didn’t want to see you here. Why do you have to be here?

I say: This is my home. I believe I’m a landlord here, not a lunatic felon who is here to be disciplined and punished.



He says: You’re causing quite a mess these days. The guard has written me and has complained that you’ve punched him and ripped his shirt!

I say: the difference between that guard and I is that his letter reaches you in two days, but a letter I wrote to the prosecutor general more than a month ago, has yet to reach him.

The man who is sitting opposite me raises his amputated arm and tries to scratch his face. This is when I know that the person sitting opposite me, who seems to have the nerves of steel, is no one other than Tehran’s Prosecutor General, Jafari Dowlat Abadi. I’d heard before that the prosecutor general had lost one of his arms up to his wrist, in the war.

I say: you must be Mr. Jafari.

He says: yes.

I say: they took me out of my prison cell for a walk and then raided my cell while I was gone, taking my personal belongings.

He goes through some notes he has in front of him. Then he says: why must you write “we are alive and so we shall live” on your t-shirt?

I say: what part of our intelligence and security services will this simple sentence of mine affect?

He says: this reminds me of Descartes who said: “I protest therefore I am!”

I say: your friends took two of my writings from my personal belongings. You have my permission to read them and get them to those they were intended for. The first is called "The Secret of the Donkey’s 'Hee-Haw'” and the second piece is called "A Letter to Members of Parliament". I don’t care much about the first piece which is directed at the Intelligence Ministry, but give my second letter to Mr. [Ali] Larijani, the head of parliament, so he can distribute it and read it for other MPs.

He says: I have nothing to do with Parliament. But why don’t you write a letter to the father [Khamenei]? If you write it, we will get it to the father really fast, through Mr. [Sadegh] Larijani of the judiciary. If you ask for a pardon in the letter, it will be even better.

I say: I will not ask for a pardon, because I believe I have done nothing wrong. The problem with my letters is that nobody sees that I write them out of concern. Like today, it’s been three days now that I’ve been on a hunger strike, why? Because I can’t find any legal authority who actually respects the law.

He laughs. The word “hunger strike” makes him laugh.

He says sincerely: no, Mr. Nourizad, do not go on a hunger strike.

I say: They’ve transferred me from ward 240, from a prison cell with a bath and a toilet, to ward 209. A cell which has no facilities, in scalding heat. I insist that I want to see the guardian of the ward, but they pay no attention. When I hit on the cell door out of protest, the door opens, the guard gets violent, he calls on others and the five of them pick me up from the ground and throw me back hard. My head gives a thud sound. My shoulders are injured. My eyesight is worse and I have a terrible headache.

I say: and this is how headaches turn into nausea.

He accepts my words, but insists that I stop my strike.

I say: Mr. Jafari, I am determined to continue my hunger strike. It’s been three days now and I had to drag myself here with much difficulty. I have not even had a cup of water or sugar. They’ve taken x-rays of my shoulders at the prison. There might not be anything in the x-rays, but I’m on this strike because of the lawlessness of your friends. You will drag my body out of the prison cell in a few days.

He says: it’s not right for you to kill yourself with your own two hands.

I say: why did Imam Hussein [3rd Shia Imam, who according to Shi'a history, was murdered by the tyrant caliphate Yazid] do it then?

He says: Because he was confronting Yazid.

I say: Wherever there is lawlessness, there is a Yazid. Like our legal system which I’m sure has nothing to do with Islam. You take “P” and send him to prison, but you leave free all those he has exposed. You arrest Shahram Jazayeri [an Iranian businessman jailed for corruption], and give [someone] who has become a multi-millionaire through laundering government funds, a ministerial position.

I say: This system is so dysfunctional and decrepit that someone like XXX is easily used by others and, through his driver and mother, commits the most atrocious injustices.

He says: this very clever men have given 200 Million Tomans [about $200,000] to his mosque.

I say: I’ve heard too. But I’ve also heard that they’ve given a villa to his driver, and they’ve asked him to sign many things. As a prosecutor general, you have no courage to protest? Why? Because you are too needy of this high table and your high rank.

He says: that’s not true. I’m just a war veteran.

I say: so what? High ranks are coveted by everyone, war veteran or not. Why don’t you protest? This system is rife with incompetent, unjust judges.

He says: It is, but not around me.

I say: Why don’t you resign?

He says: I remain here so I might be able to do some good.

I say: everyone tries to justify their own wrong deeds using that excuse.

I say: most of our system is stained with bribery and smuggling. Most disregard the law. But you’ve thrown me in jail for telling the truth, and you’ve allowed ignorant interrogators to beat me and threaten my family. But those who are misusing government funds are free. And you don’t even have the courage to arrest them.

I say: justice in our legal system is only a big joke. I’m in prison for criticizing this justice which has fallen ill. And those who are responsible for the illness of our legal, financial and security systems are free and are even given support.

The prosecutor general listens to my words calmly, and reiterates his request that I write a letter to the leader.

I say: I will write, but only the way I want to.

He says: just write.

They bring me a pen and paper, and while I am struggling after 3 days of a hunger strike, I write:

“If someone visits a holy city and sees that city being overpowered by the stench of garbage, do they have no right to complain? Must they arrest him and throw him in prison for complaining? This is what has happened to me. I don’t see this much ugliness befitting of the revolution. A revolution which took all that effort. In prison, I have been subject to the brutal beating of ignorant interrogators. Interrogators who use the most vile ways to force prisoners to confess. Interrogators who use the dirtiest ways, and the most despicable language. I really wish that I could come to you and tell you of the second Kahrizak [a linking of Evin Prison to the closed Kahrizak Prison, where post-election detainees were abused and killed] and to tell you of the despicable behavior shown by those who claim to be the soldiers of Islam …”

I do not fold the letter, and I give it to the prosecutor. In a separate letter I write to him: “"When my verdict hasn’t been announced yet, why am I being kept in a maximum security prison?” And I ask him to be transferred to the general ward.

Now that I write this, I am in the general ward. In section 7, hall 5.

Mohammad Nourizad