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).
UPDATE 14 October 0655 GMT: According to Peykeiran, a fifth death sentence over post-election conflict and “subversion” has been handed out to a “Davoud Mir Ardebili”. The report claims that Ardebili is not a monarchist, the allegation made against three other condemned men, but merely called a radio station to report union protests.
For several days, post-election news and rumours have swirled around the death penalties being handed out to detainees. There are now four sentenced to hang: three alleged “monarchists” (Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani, Arash Pour-Rahmani, and Hamed Rouhinejad) and one alleged member of the Mujahedin-e-Khalq.
Replying to an Italian journalist on Sunday, I suggested:
A blunt description for a rather blunt move by the regime: as with the Tehran trials from early August and the raids on opposition offices in Sept., this is a flexing of muscle by the President’s office, the Revolutionary Guard, and their allies in the judiciary which says, “If you challenge us, we can crush you.”
2030 GMT: An Artistic Clash for the Supreme Leader? A colleague writes with an essential correction of our first item today (0710 GMT) on Ayatollah Khamenei’s meeting yesterday with “”artists, directors, screenwriters, poets, and writers”:
“The English version of Khamenei’s speech to the artists actually doesn’t reflect what the meeting was about. It wasn’t for him to give them any guidance but rather, as Fars News fascinating account of it reveals, it was meant for the various artists to speak ‘frankly’ with Khamenei. While Fars New tries to whitewash some of the conversations that the artists had with Khamenei, it is clear even by their own censored account that it was a raucous meeting and that at least a couple of the artists, including Majid Majidi (who accoring to Fars News breaks down into tears) conveyed some kind of oppositional sentiment. One filmmaker when asked to speak says he doesn’t feel well and sits down. Another when told there is no time for him to speak, after he had prepared a talk complains, ‘You keep contacting me for a couple of days asking me to come and speak my mind and now you tell me there’s no time?’”
1855 GMT: Really? According to Peykeiran, the Supreme Leader’s representative with the Revolutionary Guard has warned that the arrest of Mir Hossein Mousavi or Mehdi Karroubi would turn them into martyrs for the Green opposition.
Given that the Supreme Leader supposedly signed the order for Karroubi’s arrest two weeks ago, this is a bit confusing. Then again, as our readers are debating in their comments, Ayatollah Khamenei’s position may be far from secure.
1800 GMT: Easy Does It. In a measured, even careful, interview with Tabnak, Hashemi Rafsanjani has downplayed his absence from leading Friday Prayers on Qods Day for the first time in a quarter-century: “It is not necessary after 30 years that I should lead the prayers.”
2240 GMT: Confirmation that Ebrahim Amini, of the Etemade Melli party and a close relative of Mehdi Karroubi, has also been released from detention.
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