Ahmad Shah Rezaei was arrested again after having been summoned to revolutionary court. Shahrezaei, a political activist who was recently released from prison, was summoned to the revolutionary court and arrested again for continued interrogation and sent to Evin Prison. No information has been made available about his condition or the reason for his rearrest.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
The United Nations nuclear agency says Iran is poised to double its output of higher enriched uranium that can be turned easily into the core of a nuclear warhead.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) finding is contained in a new report it circulated on November 16 among the agency’s board.
The report says Iran is technically ready within days to ramp up its production of 20 percent-enriched uranium at its Fordow underground facility, doubling its present output.
The report also highlighted that Iran was refusing to allow an investigation of alleged nuclear-weapons development projects and sites.
The report says that Iran has shut down its only nuclear power plant, at Bushehr.
The IAEA did not indicate why Iran removed the fuel from the reactor on October 15.
Iran says all its nuclear activities are aimed for peaceful purposes.
Source: rferl
UN human rights rapporteurs have called on the Iranian judiciary to conduct an independent and impartial probe into the death of Sattar Beheshti, the Iranian blogger who died while in the custody of cyber police.
In a statement published on November 15 on the United Nations Human Rights webiste, the UN experts urge Iran to investigate allegation of torture in prisons.
Sattar Beheshti, a 35-year-old blogger, was arrested on October 30 by cyber police and a week later his remains were returned to his family.
His cellmates have testified that they saw evident signs of torture on his body.
Beheshti’s death has triggered widespread outrage in both domestic and international media, forcing Parliament and the judiciary to initiate probes into the case.
Ahmad Shaheed, UN Special rapporteur on human rights in Iran, says: “There should be zero-tolerance for torture. It is imperative that people who are potentially involved in committing such gruesome crimes are investigated and brought to justice, as failure to do so, promotes a culture of impunity.”
Christof Heyns, the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, says: “When an individual dies as a consequence of injuries sustained while in State custody, there is a presumption of State responsibility.”
The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, Frank La Rue, further commented on the situation of human rights in Iran, saying: “Harsh prison sentences handed down to journalists and bloggers, following trials in which defendants’ rights to due process and a fair trial are not guaranteed, exemplify broader conditions of severe restrictions on freedom of expression and opinion.”
Source: Radiozamaneh
Ali Moezi, a political prisoner, was imprisoned in solitary confinement for refusing to appear before the revolutionary tribunal. Although no longer in solitary confinement, he is still barred from conducting meetings. This is the third time he has refused to appear before the court, claiming that the Iranian court is illegal and unjust. It should be noted that he has cancer, and his arrest interrupted his treatment. He was temporarily detained for seven months on charges of supporting the opposition organization, Mujahidin Khalq.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
Nazanin Kamdar
The militia arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, the Basij, has joined the ranks of those groups and institutions in Iran that have their own “news agency”. As announced, the news channel aims to have “an active” presence in cyberspace with the purpose of “confronting the soft war of the enemy” and at the same time “maintain a direct communications channel with revered Basijis (militiamen) across the country and even lovers of the regime in other countries to exchange views, positions and criticism.
The announcement of the launching of the Basij news agency was made by Fars news agency, which further declared, “The launching of Basij News Agency (Khabargozarie Basij) was announced during the ninth Basij and the Media seminar by the head of the Basij organization. On the sidelines of the seminar which was held at the 13 Aban complex, general Mohammad-Reza Naghdi inaugurated the new Basij news channel.”
In its About section, the new news group presents its goal to be, “The establishment of communications between the Basij” and writes, “The Basij has been present in the scientific, cultural, artistic, economic, social, political and other spheres and has repeatedly demonstrated its loyalty to the velayat (i.e., the supremacy of the clerics in the Islamic regime) to its enemies but its efforts have unfortunately remained hidden from the public because of lack of resources and the inability of some centers affiliated to the Basij to have access to news resources, to the effect that the public views the group merely as a military force. Therefore, the Basij deputy for public relations and propaganda took the step of creating a journalists club of the Basij and following that the launching of the Basij news agency so that perhaps this tool can present some aspects of the activities of this very active community.”
The Basij, which played a key role in the violent suppression of public demonstrations and protests across Iran in 2009 following the rigged presidential elections, presents itself as “deprived” and “lacking resources” even though as of last year 0.5 percent of the gross oil income of Iran was allocated for its budget.”
In the Goals section of the site, the channel lists four specific aims: 1-active and effective presence of the Basij in cyberspace to confront the soft war of the enemy; 2-direct communication with Basijis across the country and even lovers of the regime in other countries for the purpose of exchanging views; 3-present news regarding the activities and programs of the Basij at the highest and lowest level of the organization, i.e., grass root resistance units and groups, and; 4-the presentation of the political, social, religious, cultural etc news and events of the country and other countries for the purpose of informing the Basij community and other sections of society.”
In its News section, the agency of this paramilitary groups breaks down its activities into several sections: Revolution and Holy Defense; Basij and the Guards; Social News; Cultural and Art News; Religious News; Sport News; Medical News; Political News, Provincial News; and News Related to the Body of Basij.”
In addition, the news agency also has sections for teachers Basij, mobilization (basij) of women, mobilization of the medical society, lawyers Basij, students Basij, religious chaplains Basij, high school students Basij, government workers, ethnic groups, sportsmen, artists, leaders, workers, engineers, academicians, businesses, religious students, reconstruction Basij, the national radio and television, mosques, Rahiane Noor Basij, and the organization to protect the documents of the holy defense effort. Basij in Persian means mobilization.
The most recent article that the news site has posted in the political section of site relates to the remarks made by cleric Mahdavinia in which he talks about the position of the velayate faghih (the supremacy of the clerics). He contends that the faghih – religious leader such as the supreme leader of the regime – acquires his authority from the Prophet and other Imams.
In the articles section, the site presents some material on velayate and the Ghadir event in Islamic history. It also presents aspects of the soft war including a computer online game called Takavare Libi (the Libyan combatant).
During the launching of the news agency, cleric Mohammad-Reza Tosarkani, the representative of the supreme leader in the Basij force said, “The media are divine messengers and their most important mission is to convey the message of god, something that is not seen much today.”
He added that there were 150,000 training circles across the country that regularly received training. “We do not have the network to connect the views to the body of the organization. This is not something that is exclusive to the Basij. The Basij is so effective that any country that creates it in fact insures itself. That Bashar Assad of Syria’s front is successful is because of their use of the Iranian Basij model: 30 countries are threatening Assad’s regime but his front is successful. The Basij must be defended as no other agency has as many enemies as the Basij.”
Source: Rooz Online
A source close to the family of Sattar Beheshti, a blogger whose family was informed of his death in custody on November 6, told the International Campaign that “If we know that we are supported by an organization and that our lives are safe and that they will not take us like Sattar to beat, abuse, and torture psychologically and physically…we would file a lawsuit against those who caused this incident.”
The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has been informed that during the days following the announcement of Sattar Beheshti’s death in detention, security forces have refrained from offering any explanations about why he lost his life. Furthermore, his family has been repeatedly threatened with grave consequences, should they talk to the media. Additionally, during the time his family appeared at the Medical Examiner’s morgue to identify his body, forces tried the cut their viewing time to a minimum. Even so, the family and the Medical Examiner staff observed the presence of blood and several bruises on his body, as well as a dent in his head.
Security forces even interfered in the funeral and carried the body on their own shoulders, were present during the funeral, and strove to rush the burial through. “We have fear in our hearts, because Sattar’s death has sent tremors into our hearts. His sudden death is really painful. Sattar’s mother has refused her food and medicine for days and has cried so much, she has no more tears.”
Beheshti, a 35 year old blogger, was arrested on October 30 at his home in Robat Karim near Tehran. On November 6 authorities contacted his family, informing them of his death in custody without further explanation.
“We request of the Parliament Members in whom we believe, to pursue this murder. We ask the MP from Robat Karim to pursue this murder. We ask the state officials to seek justice for Sattar’s spilled blood. They took a healthy Sattar, and they delivered his corpse. He was his mother’s companion and the family’s breadwinner, and was not affiliated with any groups. He talked for his own heart and his people. If we know that we are supported, we will definitely file a lawsuit,” he said about the wishes of Sattar Beheshti’s family to investigate his murder.
“Sattar had never been prosecuted nor imprisoned before, and he did not have a ruling [against him]. We are sure that Sattar was murdered under severe torture blows. We demand that his innocent blood is not spilled in vein, and that those responsible are punished for their actions. We do not shed tears and have sworn not to cry until the culprits have come to justice. Do not let Sattar’s blood be wasted. He spoke from his and the people’s hearts and he should not have been treated this way, tortured so ruthlessly and murdered like this. All this without any orders, trials, or conviction. All the people who are responsible for Sattar’s death must be punished. From the person who took him handcuffed to the person who stuck Sattar with that last blow. We must ask on what orders? Why? What happened?…Sattar was innocent and pure and spoke from people’s hearts, he was patriotic, he didn’t deserve to receive severe blows under torture,” the source added, stating that Sattar Beheshti’s family believe he lost his life under torture.
“We have bent under the pain of our loved one’s sudden loss, and no one can hear us. We ask all authorities to hear our voices and to seek justice for the innocent blood of our loved one.”
In a November 8 press release, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran asked the Iranian Judiciary to immediately conduct an investigation into the death of the young blogger, Sattar Beheshti, who died during prison interrogations, and to introduce the individuals responsible in this sad incident and to make them accountable.
The Iranian Judiciary Spokesperson Explains Sattar Beheshti’s Cause of Death
At his weekly press conference, the Iranian Judiciary’s Spokesperson and the Prosecutor General Mohseni Ejei, told reporters on Monday that the prison authorities found Beheshti dead when they tried to serve him lunch inside his cell on November 3. Mohseni Ejehi told the reporters that the Medical Examiner has documented five bruises on Beheshti’s body, but no fractured bones, blood clots, or other unusual marks have been observed on the body, and that overall, no “suspicious signs” have been observed in the deceased as a result of the autopsy. “The question arises of whether Sattar Beheshti had a heart condition? This issue must be investigated…” said Mohseni Ejehi.
Mohseni Ejehi further cast doubt on the authenticity of a hand-written letter Sattar Beheshti wrote to prison authorities during his brief stay at Evin Prison’s Ward 350, filing an official grievance against the individuals who had tortured him during his interrogations.
Source: Iran Green Voice
Iran’s air defense chief Gen. Farzad Esmaili boasted Tuesday, Nov. 12, that a new air defense system was successfully tested during a “massive” ongoing military exercise, which he said was “a message and a strong slap to those countries that threaten [us].”
DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the six-day Iranian air defense drill is Tehran’s answer to the joint three-week US-Israeli maneuver – Austere Challenge 2012 – which is drilling defenses against an Iranian or Syrian ballistic missile attack on Israel.
Monday, four US and Israeli Patriot anti-missiles missiles shot down four out of four mock Iranian missiles from the Israeli air base at Palmachim. Tuesday, the Iranians paraded a new air defense system modeled on the US Hawk system. Earlier reports said the new surface-to-air system is named “Mersad,” or Ambush. It was capable of locking on a flying object at a distance of 80 kilometers (50 miles) and able to hit from 45 kilometers (30 miles) away, Iranian state TV said.
The Iranians have apparently upgraded the American Hawk system, say our military sources, but not all its touted specifications are confirmed. Even if they are, Iran’s latest military exercise shows it cannot match missile interceptors on the high order of the US and Israeli Aegis, THAAD and Arrow. These systems are capable of pinpointing ballistic and cruise missiles the moment they are launched by means of the highly sophisticated US X-band radar stations, one of which is located in the Israeli Negev, and shooting them down hundreds of kilometers before they approach their targets.
The anti-missile systems launched from the Israeli coast Monday practiced for the first time US and Israeli ability to intercept Iranian cruise missiles speeding toward the Israeli shore from Iranian warships or merchant vessels cruising in the Mediterranean Sea or launched by Hizballah marines. Specialized Hizballah units have been trained in Iran of late in the handling of short-range cruise missiles launched from large commando speedboats.
American and other Western intelligence agencies have received word that Iran is outfitting with cruise missile launch pads civilian merchant vessels that would sail close to the Israeli coast in a war.
The US and Israeli planners of the joint maneuver are working on the assumption that the Iranian stealth drone which entered Israeli air space from Lebanon on Oct. 6, after spending an hour and twenty minutes over the Mediterranean, was performing a part in an Iranian-Hizballah exercise. This exercise is thought to have tested the use of an Iranian drone for guiding shipboard cruise missiles launched from the sea.
The UAV passed across Israeli skies, our military sources noted, at exactly the same time as a Palestinian Hamas military exercise took place in the Gaza Strip.
Tehran has clearly been building up to the present exercise. A week before the drone operation, Gen. Ferzad Ismaili, head of Iranian air defenses, said, “We may be faced with full-scale and all-out electronic warfare.”
The Iranian military exercise under way now over almost the entire eastern half of the country, with the participation of jet fighters, drones and more than 8,000 troops, is one of the most extensive of its kind to take place in recent months.
Source: Debka
During the night of August 28, 2012 — the day before UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was to arrive in Tehran for a summit of the Nonaligned Movement (NAM) — ailing Iranian journalist Isa Saharkhiz was removed from a hospital and returned to the notorious Evin prison.
Saharkhiz is just one of dozens of journalists and writers being held in Iranian prisons since the crackdown on political dissent that came after the disputed 2009 reelection of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.
He was sentenced to two years in prison in 2009. In August 2011, the authorities added three years to his sentence for allegedly “insulting the leader and carrying out propaganda activities against the regime.”
In a further effort to silence his voice, the 59-year-old Saharkhiz has been barred from journalistic and political activity for five years after he completes his sentence.
PEN Day of the Imprisoned Writer: Jailed Voices That Must Not Be Silenced
In 2011, Saharkhiz wrote an open letter to the UN human rights rapporteur for Iran, Ahmad Shaheed, urging him to inspect Iran’s jails. “What is going on in Iranian prisons is a crime against humanity and is just as bad as Stalin’s inhumane forced labor camps in Siberia.”
As if to underscore Saharkhiz’s words, prominent Iranian blogger Sattar Beheshti died while in police custody earlier this month, with fellow prisoners charging that the 35-year-old had been beaten and hung by his limbs during interrogation. Iranian officials have said he died of “cardiac arrest” and “natural causes.”
Saharkhiz, speaking to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda during the 2009 protests, urged U.S. President Barack Obama to lift economic sanctions against his country, arguing that closer ties with the outside world would prompt Iranians to make more strident demands for human rights and democratic reform.
“He [Obama] should let Iran and Iranians deal with their issues through their development and well being and a better life,” Saharkhiz said. “Such people — who won’t have to worry about day to day life issues — will then more effectively focus on democracy and human rights issues.”
After Saharkhiz was initially arrested in 2009, his son, Mehdi Saharkhiz, commented on events being held around the world in support of his father, who at the time was recovering from broken ribs and had had no access to lawyers.
“These events help people inside and outside Iran, citizens of other countries, become aware of what is happening, and it also helps us get more news and give more coverage,” Saharkhiz said. “This creates hope for the people of Iran. They see that Iranians outside the country are also with them. I think it has a very positive effect. I’ve received e-mails from several groups inside Iran who have said that they have launched hunger strikes to coincide with the hunger strike here. It shows that they all know about this and are supporting it.”
Source: RFERL
Human rights activists report that three Afghan prisoners who gave the lists of Afghans officially executed in Iran to Ahmad Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Iran, were tortured in prison for leaking the names. The report further expresses concern that the following three prisoners might even be executed: Muhammad Norzhi, Abdulwahab Ansari and Maazum Ali Zahi.
Source: Iran Daily Brief
ran’s prosecutor-general says several people have been arrested in connection with the case of blogger Sattar Beheshti, a critic of the Iranian establishment, who died in custody earlier this month.
Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi told reporters on November 13 that the blogger’s case will be sent to the courts for consideration in about 10 days. He did not provide any details about those arrested.
On November 12, however, the news website Shabakeye Iran reported that the three interrogators who were in charge of questioning Beheshti have been taken into custody.
Beheshti, 35, was arrested at his home in Robat Karim, southwest of the Iranian capital, on October 30 by Iran’s cyberpolice for what authorities said were “actions against national security on social networks and Facebook.”
On November 6, authorities told the blogger’s family to collect his body. He reportedly died on November 3.
The unclear circumstances under which Beheshti died have led to international calls for an independent investigation into his death. The case has also renewed concern over the treatment of inmates in Iran’s prisons.
Signs Of Torture
Iran announced that it had launched an investigation following calls by international rights groups and Western countries, including the United States, which called the blogger’s death “murder.”
Forty-one prisoners from Ward 350 of Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where Beheshti was reportedly held for one night, issued a letter last week claiming that signs of torture were visible on the blogger’s body. The prisoners, including such well-known figures as lawyer Abdolfatah Soltani and human rights activist Hassan Assadi Zeydabadi, wrote that Beheshti had been beaten during interrogations and hanged by his limbs from the ceiling.
Beheshti had issued an official letter to the head of the prison on October 31 complaining about torture and beatings during his interrogation.
Judiciary spokesman Gholam Hossein Ejei said on November 12 that the blogger’s body and skull did not show any fractures. He said Beheshti had complained about his heart while in custody but that an examination by the prison’s doctor did not find any problems.
The judiciary, however, has confirmed that five bruises were found on the blogger’s body.
‘Natural Causes’
Meanwhile, several lawmakers have suggested that Beheshti did not die of torture.
Mohammad Hassan Asefri, a member of the parliament’s National Security Committee, said there is no evidence of a “blow” or of “feeding [Beheshti] with anything” that would have led to his death. He claimed the coroner’s office had determined cardiac arrest to be the cause of death.
Lawmaker Mohammad Reza Mohseni Sani said Beheshti is likely to have died from “natural causes.”
Both lawmakers were speaking on November 13 after a meeting with the parliament’s National Security Committee, Tehran’s prosecutor-general, and police officials, including the head of the cyberpolice.
Another lawmaker, Javad Karimi Ghodoussi, was quoted as saying that the “murder” of Beheshti is “suspicious,” but not because of any wrongdoing by the authorities.
Ghodoussi told the hard-line “Bulletin News,” which is said to have ties to security circles, that “the sedition movement” — a term Iranian officials use to refer to the opposition Green Movement — could have been involved in the case.
‘Shut Your Big Mouth’
Along with generating international concern, the case is being closely watched by many Iranians, who are concerned over the persecution of bloggers critical of the government.
A female citizen journalist in Iran uploaded a video of her visit to what she identified as Beheshti’s grave at Robat Karim’s cemetery, which was shared on Facebook by the Campaign on Behalf of Political Prisoners.
WATCH: A visit to Beheshti’s grave
Beheshti had said in a blog post before his death that he had been threatened with death.
“They threatened me yesterday and said, ‘Your mother will soon wear black because you don’t shut your big mouth,'” he wrote a day before his arrest.
Beheshti is believed to be the 18th prisoner to have died in custody in Iran since 2003.
A recent report by the U.S.-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said, “For most of these deaths, no one has yet been held accountable, despite the fact that in all these instances, family members or lawyers of the prisoners have alleged that authorities were responsible for the deaths due to their physical abuse of the inmate or inadequate medical attention.”
Source: rferl
