Week 36/37
Door: Prof. Drs. G.B.J. VanFrikschoten
Dit is de voortzetting van de nieuwsdraad, welke ooit op www.joostniemöller.com begon, over het verzet van de groene beweging in Iran. Tevens worden hier links, video's en nieuwsberichten gepost over ontwikkelingen rond de nucleaire ambities van dit land. De draad wordt per 2 weken vernieuwd. Een chronologisch overzicht kunt u vinden in de categorie "Ondertussen in Iran".
Geplaatst door: Prof. Drs. G.B.J. VanFrikschoten
op 5 sep 2010. Gearchiveerd onder Ondertussen in Iran.
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Reacties en pingen zijn gesloten.
een video van Batavian (zie DDL)
Christian prisoners in poor conditions in prison Mashhad
The revolutionary court of Mashhad while threatening the families of Christian detainees, has told them in the event these individuals do not adhere back to Islam they will be sentenced for “apostasy”.
According to HRANA reporters, On Sunday, during a meeting with the families of the detainees that have been held since July 7th 2010 for adhering to Christianity the judge for branch 901 of revolutionary court of Mashhad announced that in spite of the fact that the authorities have spent 50 days, nevertheless these individuals have not given any guarantees to recant from their Christianity. After these statements while threatening the families of the detainees, the court authorities and intelligence officers asked them in a meeting that they will arrange with the detainees, they have to request their loved ones to recant from their Christian beliefs and return to Islam.
http://www.en-hrana.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=227:christi...
Ayatollah Boroujerdi is not being given medical attention in Evin prison
Bij kritiek op het regime zul je rotten in je cel, dat is ondertussen wel duidelijk.
Tekenend voor totalitaire regimes.
Despite the fact that the vision of Ayatollah Kazemaini Boroujerdi is in serious danger, the authorities prevent him from being transferred to a hospital.
According to HRANA reports , as a result of mistreatment and having been kept in contaminated environment for the past four years, Ayatollah Boroujerdi is severely suffering from illness in his right eye.
According to a physician from Evin prison who examined Boroujerdi last week, he confirmed due to detachment of retina he has lost 80% of his vision .
The physician warned that the detachment of retina will not get cured by itself or by medicines and that the only effective solution is through surgery. Therefore, in accordance to ophthalmology, this is a case of urgency and that he has to be hospitalized in an equipped hospital.
http://www.en-hrana.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=226:borouje...
Castro Criticizes Iranian President Over Anti-Semitism
Former Cuban revolutionary and President Fidel Castro has been quoted as criticizing Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for espousing anti-Semitic attitudes and denying the Holocaust.
Castro is quoted as making the comments during meetings with Jeffrey Goldberg, a writer for the U.S. magazine “The Atlantic,” who recently visited Cuba and spent portions of three days meeting with the communist leader.
Writing about the meetings on his blog, Goldberg said Castro, who has been a tough critic of Israel over the years, “repeatedly returned to his excoriation of anti-Semitism” and “criticized Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust” in World War II, when 6 million European Jews were systematically killed by Nazi German authorities.
http://www.rferl.org/content/Castro_Criticizes_Iranian_President_Over_AntiSemiti...
Iran’s Khamenei vows to circumvent nuclear sanctions
Zou hij niet weten dat men in de wereld het regime niet vertrouwd op hun woord of gelooft die gek nou zelf zijn eigen woorden.
Iran will circumvent international sanctions aimed at halting its controversial nuclear programme, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed on Tuesday.
“The enemies of the nation seek to frustrate the people with economic pressures so the people blame the government for them and ties are cut between the government and the people,” Khamenei said.
“But the nation and officials will undoubtedly circumvent the sanctions and render them ineffective just as (they have) in the past three decades,” state media quoted him as saying in a speech.
Khamenei, who has the final say on all key policy issues, called for the creation of a “really resistant economy” in the face of international pressure, state television said.
Iran’s economy is heavily dependent on oil revenues
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5i0EIEsK95_uFXfF4mvYuXAGFxElA
The Containment Conundrum. How Dangerous Is a Nuclear Iran?
In “After Iran Gets the Bomb” (March/ April 2010), James Lindsay and Ray Takeyh offer a carefully reasoned and persuasive argument that in the likely event that Iran gains a nuclear or near-nuclear capability, the U.S. government should adopt a policy of containment and deterrence. They outline the negative scenarios that might ensue if instead of pursuing such an effort, Washington simply let regional politics take their course. Although much of their analysis is correct, it has some peculiar qualities and offers some inconsistent advice.
The strangest aspect of the article is its alarmist and martial tone, which is at odds with its specific prescriptions. The authors grimly predict all the possible leverage that Iran would glean from having or almost having nuclear weapons and the negative consequences that the United States would suffer from its failure to stop Iran from obtaining such weapons. But the possible consequences of an Iranian nuclear capability are largely conjectural (save for one: nobody would think of invading Iran anymore). And oddly, Lindsay and Takeyh follow their warnings of dire outcomes with persuasive arguments about why they are unlikely to occur.
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/66744/barry-r-posen-barry-rubin-and-james...
Iran nuclear report raises new fears. The latest report from UN weapons inspectors has raised new fears that Iran could be building the capability to make nuclear weapons.
Until now, most experts believed that there were certain clear “red lines” that Iran would need to cross in order to make a bomb. Most importantly, it would need to block UN monitoring, in order to divert uranium from the existing programme to make it suitable for a nuclear warhead.
But it seems from the latest UN report that Iran is trying to stretch or blur those “red lines”, enabling it to move closer to the ability to make a bomb without a major confrontation with the UN or the West.
Iran has continued to allow access to the UN inspectors – any attempt by Iran to end that would trigger a major international crisis.
But the latest International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report shows Iran is playing a delicate game, co-operating, but at the same time limiting the UN’s access to key plants and information.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11223683
US sanctions German bank accused of helping Iran
The US Treasury Department has placed sanctions on a German bank accused of supporting Iran’s nuclear program. The Hamburg-based bank has been called “a key financial lifeline for Iran.”
The US Treasury Department on Tuesday slapped sanctions on a German bank accused of helping Iran evade international sanctions and supporting its nuclear and missile activities.
Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank (EIH), based in Hamburg, has handled billions of dollars in transactions on behalf of the Iranian government and entities involved in its nuclear and missile programs, according to the Treasury Department.
The bank is also said to have previously done business with other Iranian banks already under sanctions.
“As one of Iran’s few remaining access points to the European financial system, EIH has facilitated a tremendous volume of transactions for Iranian banks previously designated for proliferation,” said Stuart Levey, Treasury undersecretary.
Levey called the bank “a key financial lifeline for Iran,” adding that it had provided financial services to Iranian proliferators of weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5983379,00.html
Iranian reformist party wants IRGC held responsible.
Ik vraag me af hoe het door en door corrupte Regime hier mee om wil gaan.
Iranian reformist organization, Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution, issued a statement in support of the seven plaintiffs who have filed a lawsuit against Commander Moshfeq of the Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Reformist websites report that Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution issued their statement today, a month after seven prominent reformist figures filed their lawsuit against Commander Moshfeq.
The reformist organization states: “The confessions of Commander Moshfeq are a testimony to the planned and widespread violations that have led to a transformation in the nature of the elections.”
They maintain that the confessions confirm the “widespread fraud in the elections that led to a change in the outcome of the votes in the tenth presidential elections” in June 2009.
http://www.zamaaneh.com/enzam/2010/09/iranian-reformist-party-w.html
It’s time for Obama to support a UN rights monitor on Iran
Over the past year, the Obama Administration has missed successive opportunities to bring real international pressure on the Iranian government to address the severe human rights crisis gripping the country. Instead, it has focused its political muscle on the singular objective of convincing Iran’s leadership to stop nuclear enrichment. The result has been an almost cruel disregard for the plight of the Iranian people and their urgent need for international attention to their human rights situation.
Since joining the UN Human Rights Council in June 2009, the United States has worked to address crises in places as diverse as Haiti, Honduras, Burma, Sudan, Guinea, Kyrgysztan, Somalia, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Yet, since the Green uprising started last summer, not a single resolution has been presented by the United States or European states on the brutal repression taking place in Iran.
By November 2009, five thousand Iranians were in prison, hundreds tortured and raped, and dozens put on show trials and sentenced to death or long prison terms solely for their peaceful demands for free and fair elections. Iran’s leading human rights defenders, including Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi, and over a hundred human rights organizations from each corner of the world, called urgently for the UN to increase its attention on the human rights situation in Iran.
These fervent pleas went unheeded as the United States focused solely on securing nuclear concessions through its new engagement policy with Tehran. The idea of including human rights as an additional issue on the P5+1 agenda was also rejected for fear of compromising the negotiations. The lack of a strong international response served as a green light to Iran’s leaders that there would be no serious consequences for more brutality against its population.
The Iranian people made two more attempts to show the world that they were ready to fight for their rights — in December during the Ashoura protests and in February during the anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. They were met with deafening silence abroad and more repression at home. More calls for a UN special session were disregarded despite more deaths, detentions and executions of political prisoners. This time, Iran’s imprisoned youth were told they should wait for the outcome of the Universal Periodic Review, a new UN mechanism designed to examine the records of all states on a four-year cycle, but not equipped to deal with human rights emergencies.
At its review in February, the head of Iran’s delegation, Mohammad Larijani, told the Human Rights Council that universal human rights standards such as equality under the law were Western concepts not in line with Iranian values and inconsistent with international law. He also stated that torture did not exist in Iran despite the fact that torture victims were sitting in the UN hall.
http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/09/03/its_time_for_obama_to_support_...
In an idyllic Dutch town, a new wave of Iranian activism
DELFT, NETHERLANDS – A dreamy university town in the Netherlands known as the birthplace of 17th-century painter Johannes Vermeer has become a major center for Iranian activists abroad.
More than 1,000 Iranian students, the majority fresh arrivals from Iran’s best universities, are studying applied physics and aerospace engineering at the Delft University of Technology, and meeting during evenings in cafes that line the city’s canals.
The university hosts one of the largest communities of visiting Iranian scholars in Europe, and many are involved with the Iranian opposition movement.
For many, Delft’s Iranian student community represents the emergence of a new breed of Iranian opposition activists abroad that is more individual, shuns ideology and promotes debate over conflict. Many here say they want an Iran that is connected to the world, but they also support nationalist causes such as Iran’s right to nuclear energy.
“This place has become a think tank on the future of Iran,” said Sohrab, who is pursuing a master’s degree in engineering and arrived here less than a year ago. Like many others here, he said he was rejected by U.S. universities in part because of sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear program. Sohran spoke on the condition that his last name not be used.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/06/AR2010090603599….
A Bahá’í’s shop front defaced with anti Bahá’í slogans
Yesterday some seemingly anonymous individuals wrote insulting slogans on the store front of Bahá’í citizen Soroosh Garshasbi in Tankabon.
According to RAHANA reporter, these slogans included such verbiage as “Death to the Israeli Bahai”. It is noteworthy that Soroosh Garshasbi has already spend some time in prison.
http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6645
EXCLUSIVE: El Baradei said to have received $7 Million from Iranian regime
En die moest dus als onafhankelijk onderzoeker kijken naar het Iraanse atoomprogramma.
Als het niet zo in en in triest en gevaarlijk was voor de wereldvrede zou je je te barsten lachen.
The Egyptian Newspaper Al Youm Al Sabeh reports: In a communication to the Attorney General of Egypt, Dr. Yasser Najib Abdel Mabboud, has accused Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei, former Director General of International Atomic Energy Agency and a candidate in the Egyptian presidential elections, of receiving funds exceeding $7 million (US) from Iran’s leadership as support for ‘political reform in Egypt’.
Abdul Mabboud , a candidate of the National Party and who like El Baradei is also running for the Egyptian Presidential election, was informed of the Iranian leadership’s willingness to support ElBaradei financially via an Arab businessman living in Europe. The check in the amount of $ 7 million is said to be meant to cover the financial costs of the election campaign and the activities of the Front for Change.
http://planet-iran.com/index.php/news/23291
Feared Iranian Prosecutor Falls From Grace
Saeed Mortazavi’s long career as prosecutor of dissidents founders amid mounting anger at mistreatment of post-election protesters.
The fall of one of Iran’s top prosecutors is the latest move in a prison abuse case that has caused shock waves through the system. While the suspension of Deputy Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi has gratified those who accuse him of sanctioning arbitrary imprisonment and abuse, it is unlikely to herald a new commitment to human rights.
Deputy Prosecutor-General Saeed Mortazavi and two judges were suspended from office late August after a judicial investigation into the death of three men detained on his orders following the controversial June 2009 presidential election.
The suspension means Mortazavi, like his two colleagues, is stripped of his immunity as a member of the judiciary, and this could open the way for the legal proceedings which many lawyers want to bring against him
A statement by 216 of the 290 members of Iran’s parliament welcomed the move and praised the judiciary for its courageous decision to suspend the officials.
It remains to be seen whether Mortazavi will go to trial and if so, whether he will face any kind of punishment. There are also concerns that even if he is found responsible for the deaths of the three detainees, he will make a convenient scapegoat for wider abuses sanctioned by top government officials, which will go unaddressed.
http://www.payvand.com/news/10/sep/1051.html
Iran opposition to expose secret nuclear site
A previously-undisclosed Iranian nuclear site will be unveiled on Thursday, potentially causing further embarrassment to Tehran which on Tuesday ticked the UN atomic watchdog for a report critical of its lack of cooperation with international inspectors.
The information, coming from the main Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mojahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI/MEK), will be announced at a press conference in Washington DC organised by the Iran Policy Committee.
“The information will include precise information on the location and details, progress-to-date, as well as experts, military commanders, and companies involved in building this site”, the IPC said in a statement, adding that the source of the new information had also provided the previous intelligence on the Natanz uranium enrichment facility and the Arak heavy-water plant in 2002 and other more recent disclosures by the PMOI.
http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21651:i...
Boy in Ninth Grade Arrested, Beaten, and Murdered by Iranian Regime Agents
On the morning of September 7, 2010, a teenage Sunni boy was killed instantly after being shot in the head by police. The teenager was a resident of Qeshm Island.
According to HRANA reporters, Sadeq Doolabi, a resident of Doolab village of Qeshm, was on his way to the sea to go fishing when he was arrested by the police. He was then shot in the head in front of several local witnesses and died instantly.
The boy, a student in ninth grade, had to work to provide for his family and went to the sea for fishing on daily basis. He was arrested by the Police Naval Patrol and taken to the beach. Upon witnessing the arrest, several residents approached the police to inquire about the situation and save the life of the teenager. However, they were faced with shootings by the police and thus had to turn back. After beating Sadeq Doolabi, the agents shot him in the head and he died instantly.
http://persian2english.com/?p=13991
“Tortured Confessions” Detailed from Inside Evin Prison
Opmerkelijk is dit deel van het Artikel.
Interrogators said that they were in fact the ones who issued court rulings. Perhaps it is important to note that the judge in charge of my case (Judge Salavati) had explained to me that ‘if the interrogators are satisfied with you, we will free you.’ This statement in and of itself reflects the level of independence enjoyed by judges and court officials.”
“ It is a fact that these false confessions are then used by the court system and judges, as a basis for the issuance of verdicts and sentences. This cooperation between the court and interrogators takes place despite the fact that on many occasions I personally witnessed how interrogators insulted and cursed the judges and prosecutors. The interrogators believe that the judge and prosecutors play no roles in the issuance of sentences and their opinions do not count. Interrogators believe that they are the ones who decide for the judicial system and for the regime as a whole.”
———————————————————————————————————————————————–
Abdollah Momeni, a prominent Iranian activist jailed since June 2009, has described being severely tortured, forced to make false confessions, and subjected to a “show trial” in a letter to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Momeni is serving a four years and eleven months prison sentence in Ward 350 of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
The letter is being published for the first time by the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. Momeni wrote the letter to Khamenei after learning of Khamenei’s remarks at a prayer sermon saying, “Whatever accused persons say about themselves in court is credible.”
“Momeni’s letter is addressed to the Supreme Leader, and if Ayatollah Khamenei does not respond by launching a credible and independent investigation aimed at holding violators accountable, then there is ample evidence that these systematic and inhumane methods for extracting false confessions are sanctioned by him,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson.
http://www.iranhumanrights.org/2010/09/tortured-confessions-detailed-from-inside...
The Hojjatieh society and World War 3
Als deze fanaten hun macht binnen het Iraanse Regime nog wat meer uit weten te breiden ziet het er echt slecht uit voor de wereldvrede.
Helaas zouden zij de totale macht in Iran kunnen krijgen en ze zouden op een 3 de wereldoorlog aan sturen zal het westen verplicht zijn om Iran te bestoken met atoomwapens met het gevolg dat de Iraanse bevolking geslachtoffert word terwille van een sprookje waar deze gekken in geloven.
The Hojjatieh society has been described as “an underground messianic sect … which hopes to quicken the coming of the apocalypse” in order to hasten the return of the Mahdi, the prophesied future redeemer of Islam. However, according to legal scholar Noah Feldman, the idea those supporters “want to bring back the imam by violence, rather than … wait piously and prepare for the imam’s eventual return on his own schedule,” is a misinterpretation of the society’s position common “outside Iran”. In fact, the “Hojjatieh Society was banned and persecuted by Khomeini’s government in part for its quiescent view that the Mahdi’s arrival could not be hastened.”
The current president of Iran Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is also rumored to be an advocate of Hojjatieh through the influence of Ayatollah Yazdi, who was his mentor. Asia Times reports that Ahmad Tavassoli, a former chief of staff of Khomeini, claimed in 2005 that “the executive branch of the Iranian government as well as the crack troops of the Revolutionary Guards have been hijacked by the Hojjatieh, which, he implied, now also controls Ahmadinejad.” According to the report.
http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-463353
Iran has handed down TWO THOUSAND death sentences in 2010
A. whereas Iran continues to hold the sad record of being the country in the world which executes the most juvenile offenders, and whereas in 2010 alone some 2000 death sentences have been handed down,
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2010-0...
Iran to release 1 of 3 American hikers held as alleged spies
One of the three American hikers jailed in Iran for more than a year on spying allegations will be released Saturday, at the end of the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, Iranian culture ministry authorities said Thursday.
Reporters were told by an official with the Ministry of Islamic Guidance and Culture to gather in a northern Tehran hotel on Saturday for a meeting. The hikers’ lawyer, Masoud Shafii, said it is widely expected that Sarah Shourd, the only woman among the three, will be released.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/09/AR2010090903043….
U.S. seeks to support Iran democratic forces – Clinton
Toen de werkelijke support nodig was hebben we Mevrouw Clinton niet gehoord.
Lijkt een kwestie van Too little too late
The United States tries to support democratic forces in Iran but in a way that does not undermine or endanger them, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Wednesday.
Speaking to foreign policy experts, Clinton also said she believed the Iranian people eventually will respond to what called a “sad confluence of events” in the oil-exporting nation, including its slide towards what she called a military dictatorship.
Iranian authorities quelled massive anti-government demonstrations in the weeks and months after last year’s disputed presidential voting that re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. There have been no major rallies since December, when eight people died in clashes with security forces.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that Iran is morphing into a military dictatorship with a … sort of religious-ideological veneer,” Clinton said in response to questions at the Council on Foreign Relations, echoing a phrase she first used in public in February.
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE6874ZR20100908
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/I/IRAN_US_HIKERS?SITE=NDBIS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
Lijkt het maar zo of zijn er steeds meer mensen in Iran die zich verzetten tegen of ontsnappen aan het systeem dat ze eerst dienden?
http://enduringamerica.com/2010/09/12/the-latest-from-iran-12-september-which-way-to-unity/
Playing Russian Roulette in Tehran
“It reminds me of Egypt under Nasser,” a friend commented the other day as we watched television footage of crowds in Tehran shouting the usual slogans.
Crowds always resemble each other. It is individuals that are different.
In this particular case, however, the resemblance went beyond the crowds. Like Egypt in the 1960s, the Islamic Republic appears to be determined to provoke a war without being prepared for it.
Some commentators believe that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s public statements do not reflect the “deep down” position of the Islamic Republic. After all, he is one player among many in Tehran, they argue.
Nevertheless, whether or not Ahmadinejad speaks for the ‘real leaders’ of the Khomeinist regime is beside the point. There is no doubt that the president’s statements, and behaviour, have contributed to raising the tension in the region and increasing the threat of war.
Judging by his public statements, Ahmadinejad seems to believe that only two countries might take military action against the Islamic Republic: Israel and the United States.
He further believes that neither nation would take such action for fear of defeat. “If Israel takes action against us, it will be wiped off the map,” Ahmadinejad said in Doha, Qatar, the other day as a smiling emir watched.
http://aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=2&id=22261
Iranian Diplomat Resigns In Finland, Joins Opposition
De zoveelste in de rij.
A senior diplomat at the Iranian Embassy in Finland has resigned, saying he quit to join the political opposition against President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.
Reuters quoted Hossein Alizadeh, who said he was second in command at Iran’s embassy in Helsinki, as on September 12 saying “I have resigned definitively in protest — I am no longer an Iranian diplomat.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/Iranian_Diplomat_Resigns_In_Finland_Joins_Oppositio...
Iran Delays Release Of American Woman
Iran has postponed a reported plan to release an American woman held along with two compatriots on charges that they illegally entered the country and are spies.
Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, said today’s previously announced intention to release Sarah Shourd had been delayed because “judicial procedures have not been done.”
http://www.onlydemocracy4iran.com/cgi-bin/forum/YaBB.pl?board=12;action=post;tit...
New wave of attacks on Baha’is of Semnan
September 10th, 2010 — 16 Shahrivar, 1389
Semnan, Iran
HRANA News – Following provocative speeches against Baha’is which recently took place in some mosques in Semnan, a new wave of attacks and pressure against the Baha’is of Semnan has started.
As reported by HRANA reporters, on the morning of Friday the twelfth of Shahrivar [6 Sept] a number of hooligans attacked the home of a Baha’i named Yahya Hedayati, then ran away after breaking the windows in his home.
http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6685#more-6685
Baha’i leaders under pressure in the new prison.
Both Human Rights and Democracy Activists in Iran (http://hrdai.blogspot.com/2010/08/4-6.html) and Iran Press News (http://www.iranpressnews.com/source/081070.htm) are reporting on the arrival of the former Yaran at their new Raja’i Prison facility in the Gohardasht district [see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gohardasht of Karaj.
According to these reports, on Tuesday, August 10, 2010, four (4) of the Yaran were transferred to room 17 in Section 6 of this notorious prison. One of the four has been identified as Mr. Behrouz Tavakkoli.
Based on these reports, in order to humiliate the Baha’is and put them under further psychological pressure, the Mafia-like gangs incarcerated in the same facility have began to refer to the Yaran as “infidels”. They have also tried to pressure other prisoners to insult and belittle the newly-arrived Baha’is, but it appears that most other prisoners have so far refused to comply with this suggestion. In fact, it is reported that most other prisoners are showing considerable respect to the Baha’is and try to be hospitable.
http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6671
German gas giant Linde will pull out of Iran
FRANKFURT — The German industrial gas giant Linde said Friday that it would soon halt business operations in Iran owing to economic sanctions against the country.
“We had already decided a few months ago not to launch any new activities in Iran,” a Linde spokesman told AFP.
“In light of the political developments, we have decided to soon halt our activities” in the country, he added.
Iran represents only a tiny part of the German group’s activities, roughly 39 million euros (50 million dollars) or 0.3 percent of its global sales in 2009, the spokesman noted.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jDEs5QZA6wl8Z_9s8JyBfLxwgivA
French rally to show support for Iran stoning mother
PARIS, September 12, 2010 (AFP) – Around 1,000 people rallied in Paris on Sunday to show support for Iranian mother-of-two Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani who is facing execution by stoning, an AFP correspondent reported.
Celebrities such as singer Jane Birkin and philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy as well as political leaders attended the rally on the central Place de la Republique.
“Other women are at risk of stoning, but Sakineh has become a symbol despite herself,” Levy told the crowd.
“If we save this innocent person, we will help to save all the other women who are waiting in the corridors of death, and we will avenge those who have been stoned to death or burned alive.”
http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21676:f...
Kleine vraag aan de lezers
Het is sinds 3 september voor mij onmogelijk om iets nieuws van Rooz te krijgen.
Het kan zijn dat het aan mij hier ligt of mijn Laptop zelfs eventueel de Link die invalid kan zijn.
Anderzijds is het ook mogelijk dat Rooz weer platgegooid is door de Iraanse cyberarmy.
AUB willen de lezers helpen het probleem op te sporen en hier even posten wat het probleem is.
@Henk
Het laatste artikel is inderdaad van 3 september: “Democracy and Human Rights Have No Place in Islamic Theology” http://www.roozonline.com/english/news/newsitem/article/2010/september/03//democracy-and-human-rights-have-no-place-in-islamic-theology.html
Ik kom echter wel op roozonline.com
Via Facebook:
Journalist and human rights defender Shiva Nazar Ahari has been released from prison, today September 12, 2010!
(Article in Farsi): http://bit.ly/9G9oQp
Iraanse diplomaat zoekt asiel in Finland
HELSINKI – De tweede man van de Iraanse ambassade in Finland heeft politiek asiel aangevraagd. Hossein Alizadeh had afgelopen weekeinde ontslag genomen om zich aan te sluiten bij de oppositie in Iran. Dat meldden Finse media maandag.
De belangrijkste reden voor Alizadeh om op te stappen, waren de Iraanse presidentsverkiezingen van vorig jaar, liet hij weten op een persconferentie in de Finse hoofdstad Helsinki.
http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/7638125/__Diplomaat_Iran_zoekt_asiel_in_Finland__.html?sn=binnenland,buitenland
#36 is het ook bekend waarom? is ze eengeklaagd of ergens van vrijgesproken?
@Neree
Reden van detentie:
“attempts to deface the Islamic government”, “assembely with intention of conspiring against the Islamic government”, “disturbing the public peace of mind” and moharebeh or “waging war against God”.
Reden van vrijlating: Een borg van meer dan $ 500.000
toe maar. het oorlogvoeren tegen god… De heer der Heerscharen, de schepper van hemel en aarde. De almachtige, alwetende en alomvattende god… je moet maar durven.
Absurde middeleeuwse aanklachten.
35.Prof. Drs. G.B.J. VanFrikschoten september 12th, 2010 22:59 .
Werkt gelukkig weer.
Gelukkig omdat het een betrouwbare nieuwsbron is.
Er was alleen een hiaat vanaf 3 september maar dat is nu opgelost gelukkig
DG zelfs Ahmadinejad wist te verklaren dat hij een halo droeg op een meeting van wereldleiders.
Elke machtswellusteling voelt zich daar een Halve of hele Allah.
Die zijn totaal van de pot gerukt
En weer een diplomaat die overloopt naar de oppositie:
http://www.elsevier.nl/web/Nieuws/Buitenland/275763/Iraanse-diplomaat-vraagt-asiel-aan-in-Noorwegen.htm
Haystack stops tests of Iran anti-censor software amid security concerns
Een flinke domper voor de Iraanse straatjournalisten Verdorie.
Haystack, a company that has created software designed to circumvent Iranian government censors, has stopped testing its program amid criticism of faulty security.
Haystack founder Austin Heap said in an interview Monday that concerns about how his much-touted software program works and whether it is secure are “valid.”
“For the time being, we are going to stop human testing and rely instead on machine testing,” Heap said.
He said in a blog Monday that the software is being reviewed by a third party and testing will resume if it passes muster.
The move comes after Foreign Policy (a division of The Washington Post Co.) technology writer Evgeny Morozov and engineers said that lax security in the Haystack program could hurt users in Iran by exposing them to government authorities.
http://www.iranfocus.com/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=21697:h...
U.S. Woman Freed by Iran to Be Reunited With Mother After Leaving Country
U.S. citizen Sarah Shourd, released today after more than a year in detention in Iran on spying charges, was in good spirits and planning to be reunited with her mother outside the country, Shourd’s lawyer said.
“She was smiling and said that she was going to meet her mother,” the lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, said in a telephone interview from Tehran. Shourd soon left for Oman, Agence France- Presse said, citing the Swiss ambassador to Iran, whose embassy in the capital handles U.S. interests.
Prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi said Sept. 12 that Iran was ready to free Shourd on bail of $500,000. Shafiei said he saw a document stating that the bail had been paid by Shourd’s family, and that he was unable to give further details.
Shourd was arrested on July 31, 2009, along with Americans Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, for illegally crossing into Iran from Iraqi Kurdistan. The U.S. government has said the three mistakenly wandered across the border during a hiking trip. Bauer and Fattal remain in jail, Shafiei said, adding that he will follow up on their cases.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-14/u-s-citizen-shourd-plans-to-reunite-wit...
Attache Farzad Farhangian urges Iran to ‘overthrow’ the regime
AN Iranian diplomat has called for an uprising against his government after he became the third of his colleagues to defect this year.
“I want (the regime) to be overthrown,” press attache at the Iranian embassy in Brussels Farzad Farhangian, 47, told a press conference in Oslo yesterday, before seeking asylum in Norway.
He fled Brussels at the weekend after his decision to quit triggered threats of reprisals against him and his teenage son.
Mr Farhangian, a diplomat for 23 years, wanted to “take a stand in support of the Iranian people and the (opposition) movement”.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/attache-farzad-farhangian-urges-iran-...
US accuses Iran of intimidating nuclear inspectors
The United States accused Iran on Wednesday of intimidating U.N. inspectors investigating its nuclear program in an effort to influence their findings — a move an American diplomat suggested allowed the International Atomic Energy Agency to consider “appropriate action.”
Glyn Davies, the chief U.S. delegate to the nuclear agency, did not go into details in comments to the agency’s 35-nation board. But he referred to the phrase “appropriate action” as part of the authority given the board if the agency’s inspectors are hampered in carrying out their duties by the nation under inspection.
If the country is found to have violated commitments on how and what the International Atomic Energy Agency is allowed to inspect, the board could then formally report the breach to the U.N. Security Council in a resolution — a move that would add to the international pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear activities.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iRqjZV1Meppj40hTs8IBOv4DdsQwD9...
Tehran prosecutor threatens opposition leaders
En alles in de hoop dat de oppositie hun mond dicht zal houden.
Tehran prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi once more threatened the opposition leaders with prosecution and warned that the Islamic Republic will not allow the “seditious movement” to gain momentum again.
ISNA reports that Tehran’s prosecutor said the “leaders of sedition have not been punished” and added that their prosecution is a “public demand which we will approach justly and firmly.”
The disputing candidates of the 2009 presidential elections, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have been referred to as “leaders of sedition” by Islamic Republic authorities for refusing to accept the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s victory in the elections.
The prosecution of these opposition leaders have so far remained a verbal threat which has not turned into concrete action.
http://www.payvand.com/news/10/sep/1140.html
Iran’s Former President Says Sanctions Are No ‘Joke’
Iran’s former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is urging the country’s leadership not to dismiss international sanctions against Tehran as a “joke.”
Iran’s ILNA news agency quotes the cleric as saying Iran has experienced a war and military threats over the past three decades, but has never been the object of such “global arrogance.”
Mr. Rafsanjani spoke Tuesday at a session of Iran’s Assembly of Experts, a powerful body he leads that supervises the work of the country’s Supreme Leader. He said government officials should take the sanctions seriously, not ridicule them.
The former president said the international sanctions are “a calculated assault” on Iran, but that the nation has the capacity to overcome them.
The U.N. Security Council imposed a fourth set of sanctions on Iran in June for its refusal to stop enriching uranium, and the United States, European Union and other countries have imposed additional punitive measures.
Iran’s current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has dismissed the U.N. sanctions, comparing them to a “used handkerchief” that should be discarded.
Separately, Iran’s nuclear chief says the International Atomic Energy Agency’s credibility has been damaged by remarks its director made criticizing Tehran for rejecting two U.N. inspectors.
Ali Akbar Salehi said Tuesday that comments by IAEA chief Yukiya Amano were dangerous and a big mistake.
http://www.payvand.com/news/10/sep/1132.html
http://www.depers.nl/buitenland/510030/Iraanse-Death-Row-zit-vol-met-kinderen.html
“‘In geen enkel land ter wereld wachten zoveel minderjarigen op de doodstraf als in Iran. We kennen de namen van 160 kinderen, maar misschien zijn het er veel meer. Urgent is de situatie voor twaalf kinderen waarvan het doodvonnis ieder moment kan worden voltrokken’, “
Agenten Iran vallen kantoor Mousavi binnen
Iraanse veiligheidsagenten zijn het kantoor van oppositieleider Mir Hossein Mousavi binnengevallen. Ze doorzochten woensdagavond het pand en namen onder meer enkele computers in beslag. Dat heeft de website van Mousavi, Kalame.com, donderdag gemeld.
http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/7673939/__Inval_in__kantoor_Mousavi__.html?sn...
Hope For Jailed Iranian Baha’is After Sentences ‘Reduced’
A Baha’i International Community representative says she hopes seven jailed Iranian Baha’i leaders will now get a proper appeal hearing after their sentences were reportedly halved, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
The New York-based community said on September 16 it had learned that the 20-year sentences against the five men and two women had been reduced.
“The only oral news which I have received from Iran is that the lawyers representing the seven Baha’i leaders were informed orally on September 15 that the 20-year jail terms have now been reduced to 10 years,” Diane Ala’i, the community’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, told Radio Farda.
http://www.rferl.org/content/Hope_For_Jailed_Iranian_Bahais_After_Sentences_Redu...
Hope For Jailed Iranian Baha’is After Sentences ‘Reduced’
Het begint er langzaam op te lijken dat de wereldopinie zich gaat bemoeien met het lot van de Baha’i
Support for Iran’s seven imprisoned Baha’i leaders spreads worldwide
The call to release seven Iranian Baha’i leaders – whose prison sentences have reportedly been reduced to 10-years each – is spreading around the world.
Prominent figures in India, medical professionals in Austria, a Muslim leader in El Salvador and human rights activists in Germany have added their voices to the concern already expressed by numerous governments and non-governmental organizations who have publicly condemned the sentences.
In an open letter, 31 leading figures from India’s religious communities, judiciary, civil society organizations and academia, wrote that the “only crime that these seven individuals – two women and five men, the oldest among them being 77 years old – have committed is that they are Baha’is. They are peace-loving and obedient to the law of their land and have worked for the betterment of Iranian society.”
The letter, dated 31 August, was sent by Maja Daruwala, the Director of the Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative, to the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to India.
http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6774#more-6774
Needles in a Haystack
Jammer dat het niet gelukt is en dat de Iraanse cyberarmy onbeperkte mogelijkheden heeft gekregen.
Het zag er bij aanvang in ieder geval bijzonder goed uit.
For Austin Heap, there was nothing particularly remarkable about June 14, 2009. The 25-year-old computer programmer was home in his San Francisco apartment, spending his evening the same way he spent much of his free time: playing videogames. “I was sitting at my computer, as I usually do, playing Warcraft,” recalls Heap. “My boyfriend asked if I was following what was going on in Iran, and I said no. I was busy killing dragons.”
Later that night, Heap logged on to his Twitter account. He read about the growing number of Iranians claiming that their votes had been stolen in the presidential election, and he saw people complaining that the government was censoring their cries of fraud and election rigging. For Heap—who says, “I am for human rights, the Internet, and I check out from there”—something clicked. At that moment, he decided to become involved in a battle more than 7,000 miles away in a country he admits he knew next to nothing about. “I remember literally saying, ‘OK, game on.’”
http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/06/needles-in-a-haystack.html
Cleric tells Iranians to expect economic hardship
Iranians will face economic hardship when the government slashes food and fuel subsidies, a senior cleric said on Friday, contradicting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s line that his policy will be painless.
The subsidy reform that Ahmadinejad has called “the biggest economic plan in the past 50 years” aims to phase out the $100 billion the state pays every year to keep down the price of essential goods. It is due to be launched in the coming weeks.
Political analysts say the expected surge in household bills and prices for gasoline and food could reignite unrest which flared after Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election last year.
Poorer Iranians will receive direct payments to help them cope with price rises and Ahmadinejad has said the policy will reduce rather than increase poverty, asserting that “people’s lives will improve from the very beginning.”
But the cleric leading Friday prayers in Tehran — a staunch ally of the president — said people should prepare to tighten their belts in the Islamic Republic.
“We will have a semi-abstemious period ahead of us,” Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati told worshippers. “The government should be careful to minimize the tensions and negative effects on poor people.”
The subsidy phase-out — already delayed for six months due to disagreements between Ahmadinejad and parliament — was due to start in the second half of the Iranian year, which begins on September 23. But the government has been vague on exactly when and where the cuts would be made.
A senior official said this week that gasoline subsidies would remain in place for at least another month, a delay that some analysts said could mean the government was getting cold feet
http://au.news.yahoo.com/a/-/world/7967895/cleric-tells-iranians-to-expect-econo...
Iran threatens to keep artefact
It was not an easy decision for the British Museum to lend one of its most treasured artefacts to a country with which Britain has a notoriously prickly relationship.
So curators in London are paying close attention to an Iranian threat not to return the famous Cyrus Cylinder – now embroiled in political intrigue in the Islamic republic.
The 6th century BC Babylonian object, sometimes described as the world’s first human rights charter, arrived in Iran at the weekend and is due to be displayed for four months at the national museum.
In a ceremony on Sunday the President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, draped a Palestinian-style keffiyeh scarf over the shoulders of a bowing actor dressed as the ancient Persian king Cyrus.
http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/world/iran-threatens-to-keep-artefact-20100916-1...
Mr. Abnolfazl Abedini was severely beaten up.
Natuurlijk moet iemand over een geweldige moed beschikken om iemand die geboeid en gekluisterd is op deze manier te mishandelen.
In the evening of September 16th 2010 Mr. Abolfazl Abedini Nasr, the journalist and human rights activist was beaten up in the worst form in Karoon jail of Ahwaz city.
According to the report by HRANA, in this incident an individual named “Ghalandari” the jail staff member, attacked Mr. Abolfazl Abedini and severely harmed him physically. While awaiting in the yard of section 6 of the jail in order to use the bath-room, Mr. Abolfazl Abedini was attacked by the said individual without any excuse. While having tied up his hands and legs with handcuff and chains to a rod in the yard of section 6, Mr. Abolfazl Abedini was beaten up for hours with a green rod. Due to the severity of the blows, Mr. Abedini’s hands and legs are blued and blacked. None of the authorities of Karoon jail take responsibility in answering for the incident.
http://www.en-hrana.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=230:mr-abno...
Iran sanctions working – U.S. and French defence chiefs
Sanctions against Iran may be working better than originally expected, U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Thursday, as his French counterpart urged allies to show no weakness going forward.
The comments by Gates came just days after a veteran Iranian politician criticized President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for failing to counter the impact of the economic sanctions, and said the Islamic Republic was under unprecedented global pressure.
Gates, emerging from talks with France’s Herve Morin, said the U.N. sanctions approved in June had provided a crucial legal platform for individual nations to enact additional measures.
The sanctions are aimed at pressuring Tehran to curb its nuclear program, which the West fears might be aimed at making a bomb. Iran says its atomic ambitions are peaceful.
“I think our discussion (on Iran) today was really about the fact that the sanctions have ended up being more effective and more severe than perhaps we might have expected before the U.N. resolution was passed,” Gates said.
http://af.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idAFTRE68F59J20100916
Persecuting Baha’is on the basis of the “Cult Scenario”
Het lijkt erop dat het Iraanse regime zijn eigen Wannseeconferentie al gehad heeft.
The Cult scenario is a new trick by anti-Baha’i theoreticians of the Islamic Republic in Iran, intended to justify the past 32 years of atrocities against Baha’is and to create a legal rationale for future atrocities. For example, in passing 20-year sentences against the seven [former] leaders of the Baha’i community [editor's note: now commuted to 10 years], instead of acknowledging that they were prisoners of faith, they were branded by baseless accusations of “cult” activities against national security, spying and opposition to Islam, in order to justify the regime’s own atrocity.
http://www.iranpresswatch.org/post/6783
Ahmadinejad says Bruni insult a ‘crime’
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has condemned as a “crime” attacks against France’s first lady Carla Bruni by a leading hardline newspaper which called her a “prostitute”.
In an interview published on Sunday in the government newspaper Iran, Ahmadinejad said the attacks by the daily Kayhan, whose chief editor is appointed by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were also against Islam.
“Certain things happen in our media which I do not believe in at all. For example, can a publication attribute a trait to the wife of a European president?” he was quoted as saying in a clear reference to Bruni.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/ahmadinejad-says-bruni-insult-a-crime...
STOP THE EXECUTIONS | 62 Year Old Ashura Protester Faces Death Any Day
Following the rejection of his appeal by Iran’s Supreme Court, Mohammad Ali Haj Aghayari had to prepare for imminent execution.
According to Rooz Online, 62 year old Mohammad Ali Haj Aghayari was arrested during the Ashura demonstrations last year and was sentenced to death. Following the confirmation of his death sentence by the Appeals Court, Mehdi Hojjati, the lawyer for Haj Aghayari, asked for clemency, but on September 14th, he was informed by the Supreme Court that this request has also been rejected.
Mehdi Hojjati explained, “Unfortunately, there is nothing else we can do as judicial lawyers. A request for clemency was our last attempt and it was denied. There are no legal avenues left to explore to prevent his execution.”
Mohammad Ali Haj Aghayari who holds a previous political conviction record from the *1980’s has been accused by branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court of Moharebeh (enemy of God) and association with the Mujahedin-e Khalgh Organization. His sentence was confirmed by branch 36 of the Revolutionary Court. He and Jafar Kazemi, another Iranian citizen who is sentenced to execution under the charge of Moharebeh, now face imminent execution.
http://persian2english.com/?p=14389
Appeals Court Upholds 8 1/2 Years Sentence for Majid Tavakoli
Doet mij denken aan het Regime van Josef Stalin die hield er eenzelfde manier op na.
Beschreven in de boeken van Alexander Solzjenitsyn De Goelach Archipel
Branch 54 of Tehran’s Appeals Court upheld the 8 and half years sentence for Majid Tavakoli issued by branch15 of the Revolutionary Court.
According to Daneshjoo News, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, Majid Tavakoli’s lawyer, was notified by phone about the confirmation of the initial sentence of 8 years and 6 months imprisonment of his client.
Majid Tavakoli, a Marine Technology and Ship Engineering Student at Amirkabir (Polytechnic University) of Tehran, was a member of the Islamic Student Union of this university. He was detained December 7, 2009 on Student Day in Iran after giving a speech in a student gathering.
After a two-sessions trial on January 3rd and 11th, 2010, Judge Salavati issued a sentence within a very short time. He announced the following verdict:
•5 years prison term for association and collusion with the intent to act against national security (section 610 of the Islmaic Penal code)
•1 year in prison for propaganda activities against the regime (section 500 of the Islamic Penal Code)
•2 years in prison for insulting the supreme leader (section 514 of the Islamic Penal Code)
•6 months in prison for insulting the president (section 609 of the Islamic Penal Code)
In addition, Majid Tavakoli was sentenced to a 5-year ban of political activities and a 5-year ban on leaving the country (based on section 19 of the Islamic penal code) was imposed on him.
http://persian2english.com/?p=14494