2240 GMT: Balatarin Lives (for Real). An update and possible correction on our earlier story (1914 GMT) about the fate of Balatarin, the Iranian news portal. The site is back up, and some Iranian activists are saying that the supposed “successor” Agah Tarin was actually a regime attempt at imitation.
2000 GMT: An Iranian activist reports that journalist Nasrin Vaziri has been released after 23 days in prison.
1950 GMT: Rah-e-Sabz reports that Ali Reza Beheshti, Mir Hossein Mousavi’s chief advisor, has suffered a heart attack in detention. It adds, however, that Beheshti has contacted his family and said that he is now better.
1914 GMT: Balatarin Lives. Balatarin, an Iranian website similar to the Digg or NewsVine portals, has been an important news source during the post-election crisis but was knocked off-line recently. Now a successor, Agah Tarin, has appeared.
1910 GMT: Mohsen Safai Farahani, recently sentenced to six years in prison, will be released today on bail of $700.000 $ for five days during the appeal against the verdict.
1900 GMT: The Battle Against Ahmadinejad. For all of our attention to the manoeuvres around the Supreme Leader’s speech, this may be the most important news on the in-fighting in the establishment. An unnamed influential member of the hardliners who supports the Government declares that Ahmadinejad Chief of Staff Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai “is out”.
As protesters draw breath during a relatively long pause between major demonstrations, the question may not be how the regime reacts to these statements — my reading, set out yesterday, is that the Iranian Government’s immediate concern is challenges within the establishment than with the pressure beyond it — but how the Green movement(s) respond.
While Karroubi and Khatami were clear in their criticisms of the regime, both also emphasised that their approach rested on non-violence on all sides and that their resolutions were within the system, adhering to the Constitution. What, however, does adherence to the Constitution entail? Would this just be a question of apologies, compensation, and the punishment of some officials? Or would the demands reach to the removal of President Ahmadinejad for his responsibility in the failures and abuses? Do they include a change in the position of the Supreme Leader? Read the rest of this entry »
1915 GMT: Tonight’s Arrests. A group had gathered at the house of Shahabbedin Tabatabei, a detained member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front to pray for his release. Security forces entered the home. They asked 4 everyone’s cell phone and filmed them, handcuffed the men, and took away several people.
Among those detained were Tabatabei’s wife, Mohammad-Reza Jalaiepour, who was detained earlier in the post-election crisis, Mehrak Mirabzadeh, Faezeh Abtahi, and Saeed Nourmohammadi. Mirabzadeh and Abtahi were later released.
1800 GMT: Iranian activists on Twitter are reporting that a number of high-ranking Islamic Iran Participant Front members have been arrested, and in some cases re-arrested after previous post-election detentions, this evening.
1655 GMT: The reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front of the Islamic Revolution has condemned the sentences against political activists. It has God’s promise that no Government or country can survive with such acts; as Prophet Mohammad said, “A state can survive with infidelity but not with tyranny and oppression.”
The IIPF added that the coup forces have shown that their only use of religion is to justify despotic and authoritarian actions, issuing unjust sentences against some of the most loyal children of the revolution and the country. (English summary via Mousavi Facebook page)
2035 GMT: Bad Cop, Good Cop on Detentions. “Principlist” Member of Parliament Ali Motahari presses the head of Iran’s judiciary to give up the name of the killer of detainee Mohsen Roosul Amini (1945 GMT). President candidate Mohsen Rezaei, whose campaign manager was the father of Roosul Amini, praises the head of the judiciary: “I would like to express my gratitude toward Your Excellency for setting a one-week deadline for the determination of the fate of the prisoners of the unrest.”
“I hope that judiciary officials will carry out your orders as soon as possible and relieve the concerns of the families of the detainees.”
2005 GMT: Oops, Another Crack in the Cabinet. Associated Press has published the news we reported yesterday: an appeals court upheld the fraud conviction of Minister of Industry Ali Akbar Mehrabian, a close ally of the President. Researcher Farzan Salimi claimed Mehrabian had stolen his idea for an “earthquake saferoom” in homes. The court ordered the registration of the design to be taken from Mehrabian and an associate and given to Salimi, but did not otherwise assign punishment. Salimi confirmed the ruling to The Associated Press.
So, since Ahmadinejad has just fired one Minister, will the conviction of another leave his Government vulnerable to a Parliamentary vote of confidence? Apparently not. Mohsen Koohkan, a prominent legislator, said Parliament will consider Mehrabian’s conviction, but in the context of the next Government after Ahmadinejad’s 5 August inauguration rather than the current one.
And there’s some good news for the President. His name was also on the 2005 book that published the design for the “earthquake saferoom”, but he escaped being named as a defendant.
1945 GMT: Calling the Bluff on Detainees. “Principlist” Member of Parliament Ali Motahari, an increasingly vocal critic of the Government, has demanded that the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Sharoudi, release the name of the interrogator that killed Mohsen Roohul Amini.
The declaration is not only a test of the Government’s willingness to deal with the issue of detainee rights. It is an indication that the regime has been damaged amongst its own supporters by the case of Ruhol Amini, who was the son of a prominent “conservative” political activist. Read the rest of this entry »
2240 GMT: Balatarin Lives (for Real). An update and possible correction on our earlier story (1914 GMT) about the fate of Balatarin, the Iranian news portal. The site is back up, and some Iranian activists are saying that the supposed “successor” Agah Tarin was actually a regime attempt at imitation.
2020 GMT: Rah-e-Sabz has named 
2035 GMT: Bad Cop, Good Cop on Detentions. “Principlist” Member of Parliament Ali Motahari presses the head of Iran’s judiciary to give up the name of the killer of detainee Mohsen Roosul Amini (1945 GMT). President candidate Mohsen Rezaei, whose campaign manager was the father of Roosul Amini, 
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