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Iran’s Ahmadinejad could face 74 lashes over election ‘violation’

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Iran’s Ahmadinejad could face 74 lashes over election ‘violation’

After accompanying his former chief of staff to register for June’s presidential vote, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may face punishment if charged with breaking electoral rules.

On Sunday, the country’s electoral watchdog attracted worldwide media attention after pointing out Ahmadinejad may face a punishment of “74 lashes” for accompanying and appearing to endorse election entrant Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie.

Iranian electoral law bans individuals from supporting candidates in an official capacity, while the use of state resources on behalf of or against any candidate is also banned.

A conviction could bring a maximum punishment of six months in jail or 74 lashes, according to Iranian press reports.

But analysts have brushed off “hyped” claims that Ahmadinejad would be penalized, and even if he were to be lashed or imprisoned, it may not be anytime soon.

“There will be no lashing; the news is hyped and ridiculous,” Dr. Alireza Nourizadeh, the director of the Centre for Arab & Iranian Studies in London, told Al Arabiya English on Monday.

“Yes, there would be a punishment if this were in a country that runs by law and order, with a strong judiciary that ensures laws and punishments are followed through.

“But in Iran, most people break the rules, from the Ayatollah to the man on the street,” Nourizadeh said.

The president had accompanied Mashaie on Saturday to register at the Interior Ministry. Photographs in the Iranian media showed them making peace signs.

Mashaie said the president had accompanied him on “a day off” from work; a claim Nourizadeh says would be Ahmadinejad’s “innocent response” if ever he were questioned as to why he went.

But a report by Iranian online news site, Khabar, on Monday stated the president had “introduced an individual [Mashaie] as an election candidate.”

A spokesman for the Guardian Council, Abbas Ali Kadkhodai, said the council’s supervisory board unanimously agreed “the…actions of the president in introducing an individual as an election candidate constituted a violation and were criminal,” according to Khabar.

“We reported the facts to the judiciary,” Kadkhodai said.

The Guardian Council, a body of clerics and jurists, vets all candidates for elections.

“If President Ahmadinejad had trespassed the electoral process, it’s up to judiciary to decide and not the Guardian Council,” Iranian political analyst and writer Camelia Entekhabifard told Al Arabiya English.

A warning to Ahmadinejad

However, the move by the Guardian Council could be a tactic to ward off the president from future interference in the elections.
Ahmadinejad cannot run for a third term on constitutional grounds in the June 14 presidential polls.

“Even if he is officially charged [over an electoral violation], he cannot be convicted before a trial. In this case, I think the Guardian Council wants to prevent the president from further interfering in the election in favor of his friend Mashaei,” Entekhabifard added.

Kadkhodai said election violations could affect the Guardian Council’s vetting process, suggesting Mashaie’s candidacy could be under threat.

Iran’s ruling conservatives believe Ahmadinejad is trying to maintain influence through Mashaie assuming office, accusing him of pushing towards a more nationalistic doctrine and sidelining clerical powers in the country.

“The only mistake Ahmadinejad made [while accompanying Mashaie] was raising Mashaie’s birth certificate in front of a reporter, implying not only that he is the president’s choice, but also that they are one – the same ‘type,’” Nourizadeh said.

Although this may not lead to a “lashing” as such, Ahmadinejad may be forced to publicly back away from Mashaie, so as to not put his candidacy in jeopardy, added Nourizadeh.

Source: Alarabiya

IRGC Mandated Grieving Families to Watch Forced Confessions

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IRGC Mandated Grieving Families to Watch Forced Confessions

The Kurdistan Province IRGC Intelligence Unit has twice summoned the family members of slain members of Kurdish political parties in the past few months, a local source told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. During the meetings, the families have had to watch videotapes of confessions of Kurdish political prisoners.

According to the local human rights activist, forces from the IRGC Intelligence Unit went to the homes of several Kurdish families in different Kurdistan towns, asking them to attend a meeting organized by the IRGC at the IRGC Officers’ Club in Sanandaj on Tuesday, April 20. The invitees were informed that parents’ attendance was mandatory. Dozens of families gathered at the IRGC Officers’ Club on April 20, in which local IRGC officials spoke about Kurdish political parties, calling them “arms of the international arrogance” that have created insecurity in Kurdish regions by deceiving their children. During the meeting, videotapes of the forced confessions of several Kurdish political prisoners arrested on charges of “membership in Kurdish political parties” were shown.

The human rights activist added that several families demanded IRGC officials to show them the burial location of their children who were killed during confrontations with the IRGC forces, but the IRGC officials claimed lack of knowledge and asked them to contact the Intelligence Office Information Unit in order to make their inquiries.

In the fall of 2012, according to the source, several of these family members were made to participate in another meeting organized by the IRGC. The IRGC Intelligence Unit has held similar meetings for families in other cities, including Orumiyeh, Mahabad, Maku, and Salmas.
During the past several years, dozens of members of Kurdish political groups, particularly the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), have been killed in confrontations with military and security forces, but none of the bodies have been returned to the families. The families have also been under pressure not to hold public memorial services for their loved ones in mosques, and have been forced into holding secret private memorial services for their children inside their homes.

Source: Iranhumanrights

Wave of Arrests Following the International Labor Day

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Wave of Arrests Following the International Labor Day

Following the arrests of workers that followed the international Labor Day activities, news reports and human rights announcements indicate a rise in the arrest of labor activists and workers. Speaking to Rooz, Mahmoud Salehi, a labor rights activist, described the recent confrontations with workers and said the pressure on the labor force this year was significantly greater than what they witnessed in previous years.

Most of the arrests this year took place in Tehran, Karaj and the Kurdish city of Sanandaj.

The website of the Human Rights Reporters announced the arrest of Mohammad Ehyai, a labor activist with one of the automobile manufacturers near Tehran on Nay 5thand wrote that this worker was summoned to return to the plant’s office as he was leaving the workplace where he was asked questions and then arrested by plain-clothes officers.

Ehyai along with a number of other worker activists had been protesting the non-payment of the wages of workers and the transfer of factories to specific state agencies and intended to go on strike over these, for which they were confronted at the plant and stopped.

The group also reported that Mohammad Ghasemkhani and Bahram Saeedi, two other labor activists were arrested on May 3rd, a day after their sit in in front of the Majlis. They were employees of the Iran Khodrow auto manufacturing plant, who were arrested as they entered their workplace.

In recent weeks, the following labor activists, Aram Zandi, Fardin Ghaderi, Shahpour Hosseini, Jalil Mohammadi, Hamed Mahmudinejad, Nastaran Mohammadi and Bakhtiar Chantani were arrested in the Kurdish town of Sanandaj.

The committee for helping create labor unions issued a statement condemning the arrests. It also announced that among those who were detained Nastaran Mohammadi, Bakhtiar Chantani and Aram Zandi had been released, each on a 50 million Toman bond (the market exchange rate stands at about 38,450 Rials to a US Dollar). Salehi told Rooz that the arrest of Mohammadi and Mahmudinejad was not related to the independent Labor Day events in Sanandaj. Mahmudinejad  who had been recently released from prison after serving his term, and Mohammadi were arrested by security officials as they were going about their normal daily routines, and taken to the ministry of intelligence offices in Sanandaj.

The international Labor Day was celebrated in Iran on May 1, as it was in other parts of the world. This was the sixth year when the annual labor march was banned in Tehran which forced workers to gather at a sports complex in southern Tehran in the presence of government officials when they also announced their demands.

At this meeting, Alireza Mahjoob, the secretary general of the state-run Khane Kargar, a labor group, declared controlling inflation and raising the daily wage to be the leading demands of the workers in the country.

At the same time, a small group of workers gathered in front of Iran’s parliament, the Majlis who called on officials to investigate their unpaid wage situation and inflation.

Other towns in Iran, such as those in Kurdistan, also witnessed independent labor gatherings of their own on the occasion of the international labor day.

While saying that security measures had increased this year, Salehi also indicated that two plain-clothes agents were present at the street where he lived and monitored his whereabouts through binoculars.

Source: Roozonline

Arrest of labor activists Mohammad Ghasem Khani and Bahram Saeedi

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Arrest of labor activists Mohammad Ghasem Khani and Bahram Saeedi

The wave of arrests of labor activists continued as Mohammad Ghasem Khani and Bahram Saeedi were detained on Thursday, May 2nd, one day after engaging in a sit-in protest in front of the Parliament of the Islamic Council.

According to CHRR, Mohammad Ghasem Khani, a labor activist form Iran Khodro Factory, was accosted by plain clothes officers equipped with wireless devices as he was entering the factory at the start of his workday. He attempted to resist but was forcibly taken to the security area of the factory and transferred to a police vehicle. The same day officials raided the home of Mohammad Ghasem Khani in Tehran, and after conducting a search the agents confiscated various personal items.

Bahram Saeedi, another labor activist and factory worker had also taken part in the sit-in protest in font of the Parliament building on May 1st commemorating International Workers’ Day. The following day on May 2nd, Saeedi was summoned to the factory’s office when he arrived to begin his workday and was subsequently detained by plainclothes officials. Agents also conducted a search of Bahram Saeedi’s home in Karaj after his arrest.

According to obtained reports, there is no information on the situation or whereabouts of the detained labor activists.

After the ruling establishment refused to grant permits for commemorating International Workers’ Day (May 1st), a number of labor and union activists and workers demonstrated in various areas in protest of the current working conditions. One of the groups staged the sit-in in front of the Parliament building on Wednesday, May 1st, but they were immediately dispersed by security forces and the Parliament building guards.

Human rights groups have reported the arrest of 4 labor activists in the past few days in Sanandaj; Aran Zandi, Fardin Ghaderi, Shahpour Hosseini and Jalil Mohammadi.

Source: CHRR

Security groups press reformist candidates to drop out

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Security groups press reformist candidates to drop out

Reformist candidates in the municipal elections are being threatened against running, an opposition website reports.

The Kaleme website writes that reformist candidates are being summoned by security bodies to be dissuaded from running in the elections.

“While numerous reformists, critics, and progressive former leaders of the country are participating in the city council elections and have officially registered their names, these days they are being contacted and told not to engage in elections activities,” Kaleme writes.

Kaleme claims that the establishment is planning to simply disqualify all opposition forces from candidacy and “eliminate their reformist rivals without any accountability or transparency in the city council elections.”

The municipal elections are to take place on June 14 at the same time as the presidential election.

Source: Radiozamaneh

Iran intensifies crackdown on media in leadup to election

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Iran intensifies crackdown on media in leadup to election

Iranian authorities have intensified their crackdown on independent media ahead of the country’s presidential election in June, says the New-York based rights group the Committee to Protect Journalists.

CPJ said that at least forty Iranian journalists were behind bars on 15 April 2013, making Iran the second leading jailer of journalists worldwide.

The organisation’s Middle East and North Africa Coordinator Sherif Mansour said that Iranian officials were “determined to silence independent coverage of public affairs” in anticipation of the upcoming election.

“This offensive on the press is choking the flow of information, allowing the government to hold elections behind closed doors in the midst of a crippled economy and international tensions.”

The CPJ report claimed that Iran’s censorship apparatus resorted to various tactics, including “mass imprisonments, poor prison conditions, torture, denial of due process, harassment, Internet censorship, and routine banning of publications, to silence critical voices”.

It said that authorities had maintained a revolving-door policy in imprisoning journalists, releasing some while rounding up others. The group said the growing crackdown on free speech had resulted “in record numbers” of journalists fleeing the country. At least 68 journalists have fled into exile over the past five years, according to the analysis.

Shortly after the mass arrest of journalists in January, Iran’s intelligence ministry accused the Green Voice of Freedom and a number of other Persian-language media outlets of being part of network set up by British intelligence.

Later the Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi claimed the Iranian security forces had dealt a heavy blow to a network of 600 journalists operating against the regime.

Source: Irangreenvoice

Regime wants to isolate Iran, hold elections behind closed doors

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Regime wants to isolate Iran, hold elections behind closed doors

Reporters Without Borders condemns the reinforcement of Iran’s system of Internet filtering and blocking. Use of the leading VPN censorship circumvention tools such as Kerio and OpenVPN has been blocked since 4 May, making it very difficult for Iranians to access an unfiltered Internet.

The blocking is being compounded by arrests of netizens such as Ali Ghazali, the editor of the Baztab Emrooz news website, who has been held for the past three days.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran has signed many international conventions, belongs to the International Telecommunication , UNESCO and the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, and is one of the most active countries in the World Summit on the Information Society, which will hold its next international forum in Geneva from 13 to 17 May,” Reporters Without Borders said.

“Like all other parties to these conventions, Iran is supposed to respect its international obligations, which include allowing unrestricted Internet access. Iran’s leaders should match their actions to their words, instead of imposing a digital apartheid on the Iranian people while giving the international community undertakings to respect the free flow of information.

“On the eve of candidate registration for the 14 June presidential elections, the regime is no longer content to just exercise constant control over all of the country’s newspapers, jam the TV stations that broadcast by satellite to Iran and block thousands of websites.

“It henceforth intends to disconnect the Internet and thereby deprive Iranians of a vital source of news and information. The media isolation in which the regime wants to plunge Iran falls far short of providing the conditions for free and democratic elections.”

Baztab Emrooz (www.baztab.net/), a website critical of the Ahmadinejad administration that had already been blocked four times in the past three years, has been inaccessible again since 29 April, the day after it published an article claiming that President Ahmadinejad had an explosive secret recording.

The article said: “Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reportedly possesses a recording in which a senior regime official announces to him, the day after the 22 June 2009 election, that the results were rigged so as to increase the number of votes for him from 16 to 24 million.”

The website added: “If this recording really exists, the president is in a position to threaten [Supreme Leader) Ali Khamenei’s faction and to put pressure on the Council of Guardians of the Constitution so that the candidacy of his preferred successor, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, is accepted.”

The president’s website reacted to the article by issuing a denial and calling for legal proceedings against Baztab Emrooz. Ghazali was arrested on the Tehran prosecutor’s orders on 4 May on a charge of “publishing false information with a view to upsetting public opinion,” and is being held in Tehran’s Evin prison.

Reporters Without Borders also condemns grave violations of the rights of prisoners of conscience. Ten of the inmates of Evin prison’s Section 350, including the journalistsSaid Madani, Siamak Ghadery and Abolfazal Abedini Nasar, were stripped of all their rights and were placed in isolation cells in Security Section 240 on 21 April.

They were accused of protesting against deputy prison director Javad Momeni’s interference in their internal management of the dormitories. Momeni, who has a reputation for mistreating prisoners, wanted to force inmates to replace Madani as their delegate.

Madani has repeatedly criticized the high price and poor quality of goods sold to Evin’s inmates, and the complicity of prison officials in the trafficking that goes on inside Evin.

Source: Inside of Iran

3 Kurdish citizens are arrested

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3 Kurdish citizens are arrested

3 arrested Kurdish citizens in Ravansar have been transferred to the security prison of Kermanshah revolutionary guard.

According to a report by the Kurd Pa news agency, these 3 Kurdish citizens have been arrested last Wednesday and were transferred to the security prison of Kermanshah revolutionary guard afterwards.

These 3 arrested citizens are: Adel Moradi, 27 years old, Edris Karimi, 30 years old, Naaman Manuchehri.

Although their families have followed to get any information but there is no reason told bu authorities for this arrest.

Source: HRANA

45 years of prison for 5 political activists

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45 years of prison for 5 political activists

Each of 5 Azerbaijani political activists have been sentenced to 9 years of prison.

According to a report, Pour Bagher the judge of the branch third of the revolutionary court of Tabriz has sentenced each one of the arrested activists, Latif Hassani, Mahmoud Fazli, Shahram Radmehr, Ayat Mehr Ali Bayglu and Behboud Gholi Zade to 9 years of prison on charge of forming illegal group and propaganda against the government.

The intelligence of East Azerbaijan province and the prosecutor of Tabriz have asked for the highest punishment for them.

“These political activists had been arrested last February by the intelligence of Tabriz and were under integration and torture in Tabriz intelligence. They were transferred to Tabriz prison afterwards and are there since now.” Said one of their relatives to HRANA

Their sentence has been sent to one of their lawyers, Mrs. Fateme Sattari. Each of them is sentenced to 8 years of prison charged with forming illegal group and 1 year of prison on charge of propaganda against the government.

Source: HRANA

Kenya Jails Two Iranians For Life On Terror-Related Charges

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Kenya Jails Two Iranians For Life On Terror-Related Charges

A Kenyan court on Monday sentenced two Iranian nationals convicted of plotting attacks against Western targets to life in prison.

Ahmad Abolfathi Mohammad and Sayed Mansour Mousavi were arrested in June 2012 and led officials to a 15-kilogram (33-pound) stash of the explosive RDX. Officials in Kenya say the two suspects may have been planning attacks on Israeli, American, British or Saudi Arabian interests in Kenya.

Magistrate Kiarie Waweru Kiarie sentenced the two to life in prison for committing acts intended to cause grievous harm. The two were sentenced to additional prison sentences of 15 and 10 years on lesser charges. The sentences will be served simultaneously, Kiarie said.

Kiarie said an expert for the prosecution, who testified that the cache of RDX explosives was capable of bringing down a tall building, influenced his sentencing decision. “I shudder to imagine the amount of life and property that would have been forever destroyed,” the magistrate said.

“Even as I hear the accused persons mitigating and crying for mercy, there is yet a louder cry by the blood of the previous victims of terrorist attacks, the orphan, the widow and widower due to such heinous attacks. All are crying for justice,” Kiarie said.

Mohammad and Mousavi displayed little outward reaction when the sentences were read. Mohammad smiled before media cameras.

Defense lawyers said they would appeal.

“The decision is outrageous. It’s wrong. It’s illegal. It’s a nullity. The magistrate has totally misconceived the law,” David Kirimi who represented Mousavi, said.

Defence lawyer Wandugi Karathe, representing Mohammad, earlier urged the magistrate to give his client a non-custodial sentence, arguing that Mohammad “is remorseful of the circumstances that brought him to the court” and is a sole breadwinner for six children in Iran.

Karathe also argued that nobody had been harmed as a result of what his client was being accused of and asked the magistrate to consider Mohammad’s health. He said Mohammad had undergone heart surgery and needs constant medication and that prison conditions will make his health “life threatening.”

Mohammad’s wife, Fatma Rhahimid, said through a translator that both men are innocent and their trial was heavily influenced by “extrajudicial forces.”

Iranian agents are suspected in attacks or thwarted attacks around the globe in recent years, including in Azerbaijan, Thailand and India. Most of the plots had connections to Israeli targets. Kenyan anti-terror officials said the two Iranians are members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force, an elite and secretive unit.

Police Sgt. Erick Opagal, an investigator with Kenya’s Anti-Terrorism Police Unit, asked the court last year to deny bail to the two because more than 85 kilograms (187 pounds) of the explosives that authorities say was shipped into Kenya has not been found.

The two Iranians arrived in Kenya on June 12, 2012, and traveled to coastal city of Mombasa on the same day to receive the explosives, Opagal’s affidavit said. They traveled back to Nairobi after receiving the explosives from an accomplice who is still at large, it said.

Several resorts on Kenya’s coast are Israeli-owned. Militants in 2002 bombed an Israeli-owned luxury hotel near Mombasa, killing 13 people. The militants also tried to shoot down an Israeli airliner at the same time. An al-Qaida operative was linked to those attacks.

Investigators believe that if the Iranian plot had been successful, suspicion would have naturally fallen not on Iran but instead on the Somali militant group al-Shabab. Al-Shabab has threatened to bring Nairobi’s skyscrapers to the ground following Kenya’s military push into Somalia in October 2011.

Source: Inside of Iran

 

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