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Entries in Iran Elections 2009 (82)

Sunday
Sep132009

Iran: English Translation of Judiciary Report on Karroubi Allegations

Iran: The Karroubi Letter to The Iranian People, Part 1 (14 September)
The Latest from Iran (14 September): Countdown to Friday

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KARROUBI3We reported yesterday on the damning response of the three-member panel (Deputy Head of Judiciary Ebrahim Raeesi, Attorney General Gholam-Hosein Mohsen Ejeie, and President of the Presidential Body of the Judiciary Ali Khalaf) to the allegations of detainee abuse brought by Mehdi Karroubi. Evan Siegel of Iran Rises has translated and posted the report.

The conclusion? "Not only is there no evidence indicating the rape, as claimed by Mr. Karoubi, and the claims raised are without documentation and empty of truth, but the claims and documents presented are all forgeries and assembled to deceive public opinion."

His Eminence Ayatollah Larijani (May his lengthy grandeur increase!)
Honorable President of the Judiciary

Greetings.

In the aftermath of Mr. Mehdi Karoubi’s sending a letter to Your Excellency alleging the persecution and rape of some persons arrested during the riots of the recent months and the forwarding of this letter to the Tribunal for earnest pursuit and it hereby announces its findings:

After the arrival of Karoubi’s letter, he was immediately summoned to come before the Attorney General to be present at the Tribunal to present explanations and submit documents concerning the claims.

Mr. Karoubi was present at the appointed time at the Tribunal at the Attorney General and then he answered the question of the whereabouts of his claims and documents concerning the rape of some persons arrested in the recent riots as follows:

I have heard matters in this regard and as a result of pressure and psychological discomfort, wrote a letter to Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani. After ten days, I posted it on a website and published it.

In response to the question, “Who were the people whom you had in mind and how did you pursue this issue?” he replied:
1. Taraneh Mousavi

I have not seen Taraneh Mousavi or the members of her family, but have heard from people connected with Mr. Mir Hosein Mousavi and the members of a committee that Mr. Mousavi and I had formed,2 and I had no certainty but went purely by what I had heard, and have no documentation in this regard.

2. A Sh

At first, I had heard from members of our party, the National Trust Party, that this individual had said that three people had put me in a car and took me to another neighborhood. There, there were other people who blindfolded me so I could not see anyone and recognize anyone, and subject to repeated beatings. I was raped as I stood with my hands tied behind my backs and hung from the ceiling so that my feet barely touched the ground. I called this person and heard his statement and then one of the members of the National Trust Party put his statement on a CD, a copy of which I turned over to you.

Mr. Karoubi was then asked, “On what day and in which riot was A Sh arrested?”

Mr. Karoubi replied, “I do not know. I did not ask. But he was not arrested during a demonstration or a clash.” He said that she was alone on Jordan Street and three people put him in a car and carried him off.

* A third person who did not claim that she was raped. “I did not see her and have only heard about her from people connected with the National Trust Party and Mr. Mir Hosein Mousavi. This individual, for her part, was not in a demonstration or a clash, but said that several people had arrested her and subjected her to such severe beatings that her head and face and many of her limbs were l wounded. Her family photographed her and all her limbs and I [Karoubi] have presented a copy of these pictures to you.”

* Ms. M A

This lady was introduced to me by members of the NTP and I spoke to her. She made no claim to having been raped, but said that from the first day of her arrest, they carried her off to the Intelligence [?] Administration and there, subject to beatings and insults and when she responded, they tore off her clothes and put their hands on her body.

* Someone else, named S[aideh] P[uraqayi]

This lady was the son of a martyr and several members of her family had been martyred and were supporters [presumably referring to the family] of Mr. Mousavi who would call out “Allahu akbar” at night with her mother. They came and arrested her in her home and then subjected her to a beating and, after several days, secretly buried her, while the lower part of her body was burned with acid. Some of Mr. Mir Hosein’s people went to her home and I have heard that Mr. Mir Hosein Mousavi participated in the funeral ceremony, and it was agreed that I would go to their home, but did not have the opportunity, but my son searched for them.

Read rest of report...
Sunday
Sep132009

The Latest from Iran (13 September): Lull --- Storm?

NEW Iran: English Translation of Judiciary Report on Karroubi Allegations
NEW Iran: The Soroush Letter to the Supreme Leader
Transcript: Israel and Its (Lack of) Options on Iran
The Latest from Iran (12 September): Reassessing
Iran: Is the Supreme Leader Killing Off the Opposition?

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RAHNAVARD QODS DAY1820 GMT: The Norooz newssite, as well as the main site (see 1550 GMT), is down. Mowj-e-Sabz is up again.

1800 GMT: Will He or Won't He? Rumours and chatter throughout the day on whether Hashemi Rafsanjani will lead this Friday's prayers on Qods Day. Entekhab News is one example of the line that Rafsanjani has not withdrawn.

1608 GMT: President Ahmadinejad has appointed Mohammad Reza Rahimi, a vice president during his first four-year term, as his First Vice President.

1600 GMT: Rafsanjani Breaks Cover? If this story is true, this could be an indication that the former President is still allied with the Green movement in the challenge to the Government: the Karroubi website Etemade Melli reports that Hashemi Rafsanjani will resign all his positions, which include head of the Expediency Council and of the Assembly of Experts, if Mehdi Karroubi is detained.

1550 GMT: Both the Green movement website Mowj-e-Sabz and the reformist site Norooz, which reported it was under heavy cyber-attack from the Iranian authorities, appear to be down. Etemade Melli (Saham News) is still up.

1330 GMT: Beheshti Freed. The Kalameh website of Mir Hossein Mousavi broke the news that Mousavi's chief advisor, Alireza Beheshti, has benn freed after five days in detention. Other reports indicate that members of Imam Khomeini's family met Beheshti soon after his release.

1210 GMT: Threats Everywhere. In addition to the warnings being thrown at Mehdi Karroubi, Fars reports that the President's office will sue Grand Ayatollah Yusef Sane'i for allegedly insulting Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: “Following an insulting speech made in a ceremony by Mr Sanei against the president, the president’s legal office has prepared a complaint against him. The complaint will be submitted to the Special Court for Clergy."1200 GMT: Trials Resume. Agence France Presse reports, from the Islamic Republic News Agency, that the fifth Tehran trial of post-election detainees will be held Monday morning. Some Iranian reporters will be allowed into the court, but foreign media will be barred.

IRNA is also headlining the opinion of "a group of activists, politicians, and MPs" that, as no one has judicial immunity, Mehdi Karroubi should be tried for false claims of detainee abuses.

1100 GMT: A report from an Iranian activist via Twitter that Dr. Ebrahim Amini, a board member of Mehdi Karroubi's Etemade Melli party, has been arrested in Shiraz. If true, the regime has now arrested three members of the Reform Committee that was investigating detainee abuse.

1050 GMT: Controlling the Enquiry? An interesting article in Etemad, summarised in Reuters, points both to the regime's efforts to show it is doing something about claims of detainee abuse and to keep the initiative out of the hands of Mehdi Karroubi.

Mohammad-Kazem Bahrami, head of the Armed Forces' Judicial Organization, said that 90 people had filed complaints of mistreatment at the Kahrizak detention centre.
He added that there had been further arrests, although he gave no details on the identities or positions of the suspects: "Until Wednesday, seven people who were accused of being involved in the case have been detained."

There was no mention in the article of Karroubi, who has been pressing the cases of abused detainees.

1025 GMT: Apologies for the glitch (my error, rather than technical, I'm afraid) which took this page down for an hour.

0910 GMT: We've followed up on a story earlier this week by posting a summary of the open letter from Iranian political philosopher Abdolkarim Soroush to the Supreme Leader.

0830 GMT: A late start for us this morning, as we recover from a week of tension. Very little emerging from Iran this morning, with the best of the Western media such as The New York Times focusing on yesterday's rejection by the three-member judiciary panel --- for "lack of evidence" --- of Mehdi Karroubi's allegations of detainee abuse.

One piece of breaking news: Mamosta Borhan Ali, the Sunni Friday Prayer leader in Sanandaj in Kurdestan Province was assassinated on Saturday night.
Saturday
Sep122009

Latest Iran Video: The Rooftop Chants Continue (11 September)

The Latest from Iran (12 September): Reassessing

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The nightly rooftop chants of "Allahu Akhbar" (God is Great) have not stopped since June, but after the drama of yesterday, they were renewed in intensity:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIYXZjHIWR0[/youtube]
Saturday
Sep122009

The Latest from Iran (12 September): Reassessing

NEW Latest Iran Video: The Rooftop Chants Continue (11 September)
NEW Iran: Is the Supreme Leader Killing Off the Opposition?
NEW Transcript/Snap Analysis: Washington’s Welcome to Iran
Iran: The Complete Translation of the Supreme Leader’s Friday Prayer Address
Iran: Josh Shahryar’s Snap Analysis of the Supreme Leader’s Speech
The Latest from Iran (11 September): Prayers and Politics


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RAHNAVARD QODS DAY2010 GMT: The Facebook page of Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of Mir Hossein Mousavi features a new poster (left) with this message: "Following a new wave of censorship, our main focus will be on Green Qods Day. This will be a day to protest the assault against us, show our presence, and support Green leaders like Karoubi who have always supported us."

1955 GMT: An EA correspondent offers a reminder of the significance of whether or not Hashemi Rafsanjani shows up to lead this Friday's prayers on Qods Day: "Rafsanjani has led the Friday prayers on Qods Day for the past few years. It would be yet another change in tradition --- as well as yet another ominous proof of the "change" that has befallen on Iran after the elections --- should he miss this year's sermon. I guess the Rafsanjani dance will kick off tomorrow or Monday, with the usual whirlwind of rumors that will be quashed, one way or the other, on Tuesday or Wednesday."

1920 GMT: The Imam Khomeini Institute, which has been under recent pressure from the Government including the cancellation of Ramadan ceremonies, has tried to fight back. It has filed a legal complaint against the pro-Government newspaper Kayhan for slander and defamation.

1910 GMT: Karroubi Stays Visible. One of the main points of our morning analysis was that Mehdi Karroubi now occupied a vital position at a key period for the opposition movement. The cleric has not hesitated, despite the hard line of the Government. In an interview with the Italian newspaper La Stampa, he said, "If the Imam Khomeini was alive, he would have annulled these elections (and) condemned the violence and murders. What happened immediately after the elections, the arrests of thousands of members of the opposition, the murder of dozens of people and the acts of violence ... constituted a veritable coup d'etat."

1510 GMT: Kayhan Kalhor, the composer and violinist, was arrested at Imam Khomenei Airport on Friday and was released from detention on Saturday.

1410 GMT: Repeating --- Rafsanjani's Stand? Raja News claims confirmation that the former President will not be leading prayers this Friday on Qods Day. However, Ayande News reports that Rafsanjani's office has denied the withdrawal.

1405 GMT: The CNN website still hasn't noticed that the Supreme Leader led Friday prayers.

1400 GMT: Rafsanjani Makes His Stand? If Hashemi Rafsanjani does not lead prayers this Friday on Qods Day, his opportunity for a political move may come four days later. The Assembly of Experts will convene for its regular meeting on 22 September.

1330 GMT: The Green movement's Mowj-e-Sabz is claiming that the National Security Council has banned newspapers from reporting on "Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi, Presidential Election".

1325 GMT: Reports that reformist activist Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour has been released from detention on $200,000 bail.

1305 GMT: The Day's First Major Development? The three-member judiciary panel investigating Mehdi Karroubi's claims of abuse of detainees has declared that they are false. In a letter to the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, they have also raised the possibility that Karroubi could be subject to charges of libel and slander.

1245 GMT: A bit of news on the slowest day since 12 June (what more than one outlet has called "the lull before the storm"). Hayedeh Tabesh, a member of the 1 million signatures campaign, was summoned to the Ministry of Intelligence for questioning. More than 50 members of the campaign have been arrested and/or put on trial.

0900 GMT: Playing catch-up during a slow period, we've noted an interesting turn of events (given the Western media's representation of the latest Iran proposals on its nuclear programme), "Washington’s Welcome to Iran".

0830 GMT: Although we're on limited service today (celebrations with relatives from the US), the lack of updates is more to do with no news coming out of Iran after yesterday's dramatic developments. We have posted an analysis of the Supreme Leader's steps, including his Friday prayers address and the reported arrest order for Mehdi Karroubi, as well as the opposition's possible response, in a separate entry.
Saturday
Sep122009

Iran: Is the Supreme Leader Killing Off the Opposition?

The Latest from Iran (12 September): Reassessing
Iran: The Complete Translation of the Supreme Leader’s Friday Prayer Address
Iran: Josh Shahryar’s Snap Analysis of the Supreme Leader’s Speech
The Latest from Iran (11 September): Prayers and Politics


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KHAMENEIKARROUBI2Last night's report, first appearing on the Iranian website Rah-e-Sabz and then extended in The New York Times, carried a double blow. First, the Supreme Leader had issued an order (reportedly two weeks ago) for the arrest of Mehdi Karroubi. Second, Hashemi Rafsanjani, after a conversation with Ayatollah Khamenei, had told aides that he was retreating from front-line politics because of the current dominance of the military

The news was so dramatic that it still has not been fully taken in. The reaction of many, inevitably, was whether that this was the defining setback for the Green movement and Rafsanjani. Will Karroubi be cowed into submission and seclusion? Is Rafsanjani saying that he will not appear at next Friday's Qods Day ceremonies? Is there no prospect of a mass response around those ceremonies?

To be honest, while those questions are vital, they're the easy ones to handle this morning. For we simply don't know. Even before the breaking news, we were watching for the reactions of the Green opposition and Rafsanjani to the Supreme Leader's address, and we're still on that watch.

If the report is true, the more immediate profitable analysis is on the relations within the Establishment. Take the assertion that the order for Karroubi's arrest was issued two weeks ago. That would put it at the end of August, before Khamenei's statement denying that the post-election conflict was a foreign-led "velvet revolution) which distanced him from the position of the Revolutionary Guard and the President and his limited but still clear criticisms of the post-election detentions.

So, if Supreme Leader issued the order for Karroubi's arrest as part of his political approach, then the questions emerge over his relationship with Ahmadinejad and the IRGC: 1) was Khamenei attempting to take the lead by showing his tough side? 2) was he now just following the hard line set by others? 3) was he doing a balancing act, setting out threats while also displaying the possibility of limited concessions as Ahmadinejad's Cabinet was being presented to Parliament?

All of this in turn presumes that the order was carefully considered before it was issued. There is always the possibility that Khamenei, who like his opponents has been under pressure and strain throughout this crisis, had a "Thomas a Becket" moment, declaring, "Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" The best observers yesterday (those who listened or saw Khamenei's speech, rather than those who lifted their accounts from the Reuters summary) indicated that the Supreme Leaders seemed nervous and even a bit fraught, crying at one point in the first part of the sermon.

For now, therefore, considering the report in connection with the Supreme Leader's Friday Prayers address, two thoughts:

1. It appears, in line with our recent analyses, that Khamenei is scrambling for position, not against the opposition but against his President and his military. Add to that the significant factor that the Supreme Leader is taking fire from senior clerics in Qom, which Josh Shahryar noted yesterday. So, while trying to secure his "leadership", he also has to be aware that if he is too ham- and heavy-fisted with the opposition, his religious position will be under further tension.

2. If one has to pick out a symbolic figure for the opposition, it is now Mehdi Karroubi. Rafsanjani's reported withdrawal from an immediate public battle (a development I take more seriously than the claim of the arrest order, as it came --- as fact or public-relations spin --- from a Rafsanjani aide) puts him to the side for the moment. Mir Hossein Mousavi is trying to mark with statements but appears to be able to do little beyond that.

Karroubi is the one opposition leader with a significant communications network --- significant enough that the Government tried to knock it out with their raids this week, significant enough to survive that attack. He is the leader carrying the documents about the most symbolic and "real" political issue within the Establishment, the alleged abuse of detainees. He is still working within the system, with his negotiations with the judiciary, as well as appealing to those outside it.

So the arrest order, if it was issued, was a sword of Damocles suspended over Karroubi's head. Misbehave and we take you out. And even if that order doesn't exist, then the Supreme Leader's closing statement in yesterday's speech does: don't make a fuss at Qods Day.

Yes, yesterday was dramatic. Yes, it was tense. But, no, it is not a resolution.

On to next Friday.