For eight months now, there has been a steady stream of footage showing security forces beating up protesters. What sets apart the footage from the night of 24-25 Khordad 88 (14-15 June 09), shown by BBC Persian and disseminated by YouTube, is the cameraman. Almost all other videos have been taken by ordinary people on their cameraphones. (A few clips were taken by professional camera crews in the first days of the post-election protests in June, before they were expelled by the authorities.) This footage was taken by one of the attackers using a professional camera.
Much of the amateur footage of the protests has shown security and intelligence agents filming the protestors. For the first time in eight months we are actually seeing one of these videos. In that sense, this is the first “official” footage confirming the brutality of the Islamic Republic’s security forces.
2115 GMT: We’ve posted video, originally shown on BBC Persian, of the attack on Tehran University halls of resident on 15 June, three days after the Presidential election.
2100 GMT: Sanctions Follow-up. Earlier today (1555 GMT) I got a bit wound up about an editorial in The Wall Street Journal pushing — I thought dishonestly — for sanctions. Matt Duss follows up by taking apart the editorial’s claim “prominent Iranian dissidents [have] moved from adamant opposition to severe sanctions to hesitant acceptance of the idea”.
2050 GMT: Back to “Dirt and Dust”. Ruhollah Hosseinian, the head of Islamic Revolution party in the Iranian Parliament (Majlis) and a fervent supporter of President Ahmadinejad, has choice words for the opposition in an interview with Khabar Online: “The opponents received a firm response from the people….Before February 11, I have said that on its way, the raging flood of people on the anniversary of Islamic revolution victory will remove any dirt and dust.”
“”Dirt and dust” was Ahmadinejad’s infamous description of his opponents in his “victory” speech the day after the 12 June Presidential election.
2220 GMT: Student activist Majid Tavakoli returned to Revolutionary Court today, 2 1/2 months after his detention on 7 December. There are no details of the hearing.
2105 GMT: On the Academic Front. Dr Mohammad Sattarifar has been expelled from his post at Allameh Tabatabei University.
2055 GMT: What Are Mahmoud (and Ali) Doing Today? Trying to out-do each other in the bashing of the West, it seems.
Ahmadinejad used a meeting with the speaker of Azerbaijan’s Parliament to declare, “The so-called powerful countries are merely after their own interests. They are willing go so far as to sacrifice other countries and nations for their interests….The weakening of the so-called powerful countries will completely change the state of affairs on the regional and international scale.”
Larijani’s audience was the Parliament, as he warned President Obama about following the polices of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and declared that the 22 Bahman rallies had thwarted the US-Iran “plot” against Iran.
2010 GMT: Drawing a line. Peyke Iran claims that Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has convinced lawmaker Mostafa Kavakebian not to press his plan for further examination of detention centres.
2240 GMT: Confirmation that Ebrahim Amini, of the Etemade Melli party and a close relative of Mehdi Karroubi, has also been released from detention.
2150 GMT: Dr. Ali Tajernia, former MP and senior member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, has been released after 140 days in detention.
2145 GMT: Human Rights Activists in Iran has a Farsi-language update on detainees, including the transfer of 95 people arrested on 13 Aban from detention centres to Evin Prison.
2130 GMT: Confirming indications we had received from EA sources in recent weeks, the Supreme Leader has reinstated Ezatullah Zarghami as head of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting for five years.
Zarghami had been considered vulnerable because of regime dissatisfaction with IRIB’s output before and after the Presidential election, but a suitable replacement could not be arranged. Khamenei indicated this with a call for Zarghami to “take advantage of successful or unsuccessful experiences of the past five years to help this medium reach a better quality”.
2125 GMT: Iran’s Internal Nuclear Dispute. Press TV’s website is now featuring the anti-talks line taken by high-profile MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi (see 0845 GMT).
1820 GMT: EA correspondent Mr Johnson gives us some guidance on the change of Tehran chief prosecutor:
Regardless of Dowlatabadi’s political affiliations, the replacement of Mortazavi is a sign that the establishment considers him to be a liability and perhaps dispensable as a potential scapegoat.
The main issue is whether this change is merely cosmetic or whether the establishment take a proactive approach, namely, scuttle the trials (which can be easily done because all the indictments are so flimsy that none of them can bear any legal scrutiny), and somehow solve the very public and very embarrasing and inflammatory issue of prison tortures and unmarked graves, thereby regaining some semblence of legality and law. The next few days will be extremely inportant.
1755 GMT: A reader strikes back immediately at the security force denials of involvement in post-election raids: “You can’t fake live video feed. We’ve got evidence on several videos that basij attacked dorms in Tehran University,” and offers this:
1740 GMT: This is now looking like a concerted campaign between the President and security force commanders to deny any post-election misdeeds. After Tehran’s police chief denied any detainee was killed in Kahrizak prison (0845 GMT), the Revolutionary Guard commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari has said the post-election death toll is 20 Basiji militia and only 9 “opponents and outlaws”. Jafari denied that the Basiji were involved in the raids on university dormitories days after the election.
1715 GMT: EA’s Iran analyst Mr Smith drops by to take issue with the portrayal by Tehran Bureau of an “isolated, weak, and delusional” Ahmadinejad (1310 GMT):
This lacks sources on just about all the allegations it makes and then essentially parrots the reformist line: Ahmadinejad is weak, is in trouble, is a lame duck already, etc.
While of course all of us wish that this was the case, the reality appears quite different, as we have seen no real thrust to wrestle him out of office. The Supreme Leader has only rebuked him frontally during the [former First Vice President] Mashai affair and he still has the rather remarkable opportunity of talking from official platforms such as Friday Prayers, saying things quite different from what the SL says, and still walking out relatively unscathed.
Granted, he has the same amount, or more, difficulties than any executive leader in the world would have for forming a government, but I would be very cautious in calling Ahmadinejad a has-been and that days may be counted down to his demise. Sadly, I doubt this scenario will happen anytime soon.
We shouldn’t forget that the Supreme Leader, conservative critics of AN like the Larijanis, Ahmad Tavakoli (who happens to be the Larijanis’ cousin), and more have essentially agreed to accept the outcome of the Presidential election as announced by the Interior ministry. Hence, they are simply jostling for political kudoes and power within the Government, more than mounting a challenge that is really geared towards removing Ahmadinejad from power.
1700 GMT: Back from an afternoon break for a wedding.
After a couple of weeks of indecision, Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi has been replaced by Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, head of judiciary in the southern province of Khuzestan.
The Los Angeles Times is framing Dowlatabadi as “a relatively moderate newcomer” and portraying Mortazavi’s “firing” as a signal against the trials of political detainees that he oversaw. We’re not sure of that interpretation — any comments would be welcome.
1340 GMT: Our question (0445 GMT): “Does Mehdi Karroubi make another intervention on detentions and abuses?” Karroubi’s answer: an open letter to the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, offering to provide documentation and detainees who have suffered abuse.
1323 GMT: The principlist member of Parliament Ali Motahari, who has been highly critical of the Government in recent weeks, has said Ahmadinejad’s remarks contest and challenge the Supreme Leader and the President must be held responsible for his deeds and words, particularly on the issue of detentions.
1315 GMT: The reformist party Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution, some of whose members are among the political detainees, have strongly condemned the 4th “show trial” and called it a reminder of the medieval inquisition courts and Stalin-era tribunals. The party emphasised that the staged “trials” and false “confessions” are conspiracies to suspend the reformist parties.
1310 GMT: And, on the same theme, Muhammad Sahimi at Tehran Bureaupays great attention to the “glaring fissures [which] have emerged within the conservative and reactionary camp”, albeit with the dramatic presentation of an “isolated, weak, and delusional” Ahmadinejad.
1300 GMT: It’s not just Enduring America that is raising questions about the divide between the Supreme Leader and the President in light of their differing speeches on Wednesday and yesterday. The reformist website Rah-e-Sabz has noted the divergences over foreign-inspired revolution and, in particular, Ahmadinejad’s denial of any security force responsibility for abuses less than 48 hours after Ayatollah Khamenei promised that anyone guilty of such abuses would be published.
1040 GMT: In an interview with Etemad newspaper, Mohammad Hashemi, the brother of Hashemi Rafsanjani, said that Rafsanjani is not planning to quit leading Friday Prayers He also described how security forces beat Rafsanjani’s daughter-in-law while arresting her during one of the post-election protests.
0905 GMT: Pretty slow day after yesterday’s excitement. No answers to any of our questions at 0445 GMT. Internet chatter is on the call by Human Rights Watch on the new head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, to “tackle rights abuses”.
0845 GMT: Nothing Happened Here. More signs of an Ahmadinejad Fightback. After the President’s claims yesterday that incidents at detention centres were the fault of the protest movement, rather than the security forces, the Tehran police chief, Azizollah Rajabzadeh, has explained that “no defendants were transferred to the Kahrizak detention centre without a judicial warrant and no defendant was killed” in the prison.
Oh. Well, following on the week’s theme — the Supreme Leader and the President on different pages of the script — someone might want to tell Ayatollah Khamenei, who has admitted mistakes at Kahrizak and ordered its closure.
0515 GMT: A Follow-Up on “Velvet Revolution”. After our analysis yesterday, “How the Regime Constructed the Velvet Revolution”, an EA correspondent points to an interview by Ayande News with Hamid Reza Moghadam-Far, the Managing Director of Fars News Agency, and a Mr. Gharebaghi, whom Ayande claim are two of the authors of the Tehran trial indictments. Their views of the “velvet revolution” are posted in an update of the analysis.
0445 GMT: At the risk of being overdramatic, Friday was a day of two statements, that of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to and beyond the audience at Tehran’s prayers and that of Mohammad Khatami to and beyond reformist leaders.
The founding assertion of each statement was that the current President/former President was ready to take the post-election crisis to a political and legal showdown with the ultimate public punishment. In Ahmadinejad’s case, he was ready to press until the opposition leaders were imprisoned for a long, long time; in Khatami’s, he was ready to see the “traitors” ejected from power and positions of responsibility.
What we now await, in an always-shifting conflict but one which continues to be about legitimacy, is the response of others. With respect, the protest movement is mainly an observer, with the next mass demonstration proposed for 18 September, so attention turns to political and religious leaders. Does Hashemi Rafsanjani and his allies break cover, after their recent skirmish over the Tehran trial, and give any support to Khatami? Does Mehdi Karroubi make another intervention on detentions and abuses, and thus those responsibile for them, or wait for a Parliamentary response to his claims? Where is Mir Hossein Mousavi?
And, just to repeat our thought from yesterday, what does the Supreme Leader do now?
1650 GMT: Release the Prisoners! I am just going to re-print this from Fars News Agency and await confirmation that 25 percent of Iran’s prison population will soon be freed:
17,000 prisoners were freed after amnesty and commutation of punishment term of a number of prisoners by the Supreme Leader,” State Prisons Organization’s Deputy Director for Management and Resource Development Mohammad Ali Zanjirehi told FNA on Friday.
“40 percent of the country’s inmates, who account for around 68,000 people, were liable to the amnesty,” Zanjirei said, adding that 17,000 out of the 68,000 inmates have been freed and the rest have enjoyed commutation of their terms or will be granted leaves in final months of their incarceration.
The decree, originally proposed by Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Seyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, was issued by the Leader on the occasion of the feast of Mab’ath, marking assignment of Prophet Mohammad (PBUH) to prophethood.
1555 GMT: Don’t Forget That Foreign Threat. Iran’s Foreign Minister, Manouchehr Mottaki, who has been gone unnoticed since the 12 June election, popped up today to appear at Friday prayers in Tehran and then try his hand with the “foreign agents” speech:
Western and European countries, with their overt and covert capabilities, interfered in Iran’s election… the worst among them being Britain. The countries who interfered through their television networks by telling how to instigate riots, build explosives and other tension creating activities are accomplices in all the committed crimes, murders and are held responsible.
1540 GMT: Some, However, Are Not Ready for Compromise. Defying calls for concilation, the Ministry of Intelligence has threatened the Freedom Movement of Iran (the party of nationalist Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in the 1950s) with dire consequences if they do not stop holding political meetings inside their headquarters. The Party has lodged an official complaint with the head of Iran’s judiciary.
1535 GMT: Look Past Jannati. The trend in clerical statements in the last 24 hours, apart from Friday prayers in Tehran, has been a call for compromise and action on detainees (see 1510 and 1520 GMT). That fits a report from Salaam News that Grand Ayatollahs have been discussing vital “issues”, and most except Ayatollah Noori-Hamedani (an ardent Ahmadinejad supporter) “have taken a similar stance against the attacks of fundamentalism”. Read the rest of this entry »
Mr Verde writes for EA:
2240 GMT: Confirmation that Ebrahim Amini, of the Etemade Melli party and a close relative of Mehdi Karroubi, 
1820 GMT: EA correspondent Mr Johnson gives us some guidance on the change of Tehran chief prosecutor:
1650 GMT: Release the Prisoners! I am just going to re-print this 
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