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Iran claims it can hit ‘any target, any time’

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Iran claims it can hit ‘any target, any time’

 

In a drill that Iran claims shows that it could hit Israel and US bases, the country test-fires a long range shore-to-sea missile called Qader.

Iran claimed today that it had successfully test-fired two long-range missiles during a naval exercise in the Gulf, flexing its military muscle to show it could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the region if attacked.

In response to mounting Western pressure over its nuclear ambitions, Iran started a naval drill in the Gulf last week and warned that it could shut the Strait of Hormuz if sanctions were imposed on its oil exports, the country’s main revenue source.

The 10 days of naval war-games and the warning over the Strait, a narrow Gulf shipping lane through which 40 percent of world oil passes, have rattled oil markets and pushed up crude prices.

Analysts say Iran’s increasingly strident rhetoric is aimed at sending a message to the West that it should think twice about the economic cost of putting further pressure on Tehran.

“The Strait of Hormuz is in our possession. Security of the Strait is in our control, and the Strait is in our total control,” said Iranian commander Habibulah Sayari.

Rights activist sentenced to three years in jail

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Rights activist sentenced to three years in jail

 

The Iranian judiciary has sentenced women’s rights activist Fereshteh Shirazi to three years in prison.

The We-change website reports that the Amol Revolutionary Court sentenced Shirazi for “acting against national security, publishing falsehoods and insulting officials.”

Since last September, she has been held in Amol Prison, which reportedly lacks adequate facilities.

She is a member of the One Million Signatures Campaign against Discrimination, which has activists from across the country raising awareness about inequalities in the justice system.

Shirazi was convicted based on the contents of his personal weblog. She has also been banned from travelling abroad for seven years.

The Arrests of 2009 and Khamenei’s Orders

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The Arrests of 2009 and Khamenei’s Orders

 

Bahram Rafiei

Even though some senior officials of the Islamic republic of Iran had previously implicitly acknowledged that the massive arrests of political and civil activists and street protestors in Tehran after the massively disputed 2009 elections were on orders of the country’s supreme leader ayatollah Khamenei and that he had been involved in most detail aspects of the crackdown, now the advisor to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) commander more expressly confirmed that the arrests and the crackdown of the protestors were carried out from the very first hours after the elections on direct orders of the supreme leader.

Speaking to a group of student Basij militiamen, Mohammad Hossein Safar Herandi spoke about the reason why leaders of what is now known as the Green Movement, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi were not arrested then. “Right in the beginning of the sedition (sedition is the term Iranian officials use for the massive protests against the rigged elections of 2009) some believed that the protests would die with the arrest of a few individuals, which was naïve because it was clear that the events were not largely driven by the statements of these two (Mousavi and Karoubi) and were in fact beyond their control,” he said.

By confirming that the arrests of political and civil activists were on orders of ayatollah Khamenei, Herandi, who at one time was the chief editor of the right-wing Kayhan newspaper and is now the advisor to the IRGC commander, said, “The wise view of the leader was that the leadership of the sedition was outside the country. He believed that the channel that connected the seditionists to the outside world had to be discovered. This led to the arrest of a group of individuals 90 percent of whom were subsequently released with warnings and only 10 percent were interrogated and prosecuted.”

Last year too Herandi had said to members of the Basij that some of the seditionists had been used by foreigners as more than 3000 individuals had been identified whose cases were closed after they were told of their charges.

Herandi who has also been the head of the IRGC’s political office also made a reference to the sham trials of political and civil activists that have been held since 2009 and said that some “100 individuals who were the key organizers of the sedition and criminals had been found and sentenced guilty, thus drying up the roots of the problem.”

Among others who had in the past made references to Khamenei’s role in the arrests is the attorney general and spokesperson of the judiciary cleric Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei. He had said that the leader had played the highest role in identifying what he called “the correct source of the problem” and said that ayatollah Khamenei had been involved in the issue even before the 2009 elections till today.

This former intelligence minister had also revealed earlier that Khamenei continuously gave instructions and detailed advice to intelligence officials about the street protestors since the demonstrations began. “He stressed to the intelligence folks to be attentive to those they arrested, those in the streets, and to those that were being tried. If you go to people’s houses, your behavior with family members of the violators has to be different. In other words, he (supreme leader) repeatedly gave instructions to officials not to cross the divine limits. Such talks were also made in the public but privately they were much more transparent, clear and with greater emphasis,” he said.

Herandi also said that Khamenei knew the details of what had been going on in the Kahrizak prison, which was subsequently ordered to be shut because of criminal activities in it. “Reports had reached the leader that conditions were not right in Kahrizak and he ordered it shut. But this was not the whole issue. Before the leader was informed that conditions there were not right, he had ordered that no more prisoners be sent there. In other words he was the first person to order that nobody should be sent to Karizak. “

In October/November of 2009 a senior intelligence official from the IRGC had also revealed similar involvement by Khamenei. Speaking at  clerical seminar in Mashhad, a General Moshafagh accused “Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami, Mohammad Mousavi Khoeniha, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and reformist groups such as the Association of Combatant Clerics (Majmae Rohaniyoone Mobarez), the Iran Participation Front (Jebhe Mosharekat), the Association of Groups for the Imam’s Path (Majmae Niroohaye Khate Imam), the Organization of the Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution (Sazemane Mojahedin Enghelab Eslami), the Executives of Construction (Kargozaran Sazandeghi) and others of plotting to overthrow the Islamic republic and to topple ayatollah Khamenei’s leadership.” “We discovered this issue and destroyed their (reformists) efforts and prevented them from continuing them,” he added. And like Herandi, he too at the time had said that the protestors were driven and guided by foreigners from outside the country.

But more significantly was the fact that Moshafagh also said in his talk that a group had been formed to identify the seditionists a few months before the actual presidential elections of 2009, indicating that there had been talks and most likely a plan to engineer the elections and then engage in damage control. The Iran Participation Front later used Moshafagh’s remarks in its letter to the head of the judiciary and pointed to it as proof that the elections had been pre-engineered and that an “electoral coup” had taken place by military institutions under the command of the supreme leader.

Following the arrests of members of the Participation Front, among others, in the aftermath of the 2009 elections and protests, the group wrote in its letter that the remarks by the IRGC official made it very clear that the whole crackdown and arrests had been pre-planned well before the June 2009 elections, thus negating the legitimacy of the trials in which the leaders of various groups were sentenced to prison terms. The letter also expressly said that Ahmadinejad had not only rigged the elections but had orchestrated a coup to remain in power.

This letter was not only ignored by the judiciary but soon after its publication, seven leaders of the Front who had at the time been released from prison on bail – which allowed them to write the letter – were summoned back to serve their terms.

Has Iran hastened the war?

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Has Iran hastened the war?

 

Asharq Alawsat – Wars are preceded by talk, and the statements – or the war of words – between Iran and the West and Israel is now wide open. We now see Tehran involving all the regional countries in this war of words, which may quickly develop into a military confrontation, after Iran threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz should there be any international embargo on its oil. The threat to close the Strait of Hormuz is akin to a declaration of war, not just against the Gulf States, but against the entire world, as it represents a threat to the global economy, especially as nearly 40 percent of all sea-borne traded oil passes through the Strait. This does not mean that Iran has hastened the expected war, but rather it has granted this war legitimacy and acceptance in the eyes of the international community. This is because threatening the global economy by targeting oil is more dangerous and hazardous than the targeting of the [twin] towers in New York with regards to the 9/11 terrorist attacks. For should this happen, Israel will find itself at the center of an unprecedented international coalition to break the bones of this reckless regime in Iran.

The Iranian statements threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz does not just mean that the Iranian regime is in a corner, but it also exposes the mentality that is in charge of the situation in Tehran; this is a mentality of extortion and threats, and dealing with the Gulf States as if they are hostages being held by Tehran. If the mullahs of Iran are negotiating with the West – whenever Tehran finds itself facing a difficult situation with regards to the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] or any other international organization – by threatening to set fire to the Arab Gulf and destroy their vital interests there, then how will Iran deal with our regional countries, particularly the Gulf States, should Tehran become a nuclear power? What I mean to say here, simply speaking, is that all the cards in Iran’s hands are destructive or threatening, particularly with regards to the Gulf, so how will Tehran behave if it becomes a nuclear state?

Some are betting that Iran acquiring nuclear arms will guide the country to become more sensible and rational, however this is nothing more than an over-simplification; for if Iran is exploiting religion, and becoming increasingly unbalanced today, how will it act after it has drunk from the cup of nuclear power? The danger represented by a nuclear Iran, is not just in its lack of rationality, but also in its technical and technological weakness. Iran is no Japan or Europe, who themselves stood helpless before the Chernobyl reactor leak, or the Japanese [Fukushima] reactor leak following the recent tsunami. Indeed, we have seen how Iran was unable to even deal with the [Stuxnet] computer worm, which attacked and incapacitated Iran’s nuclear project earlier this year. Therefore, the fear here is not just from the recklessness of Iranian policy [should it acquire nuclear arms], but also its lack of technical and technological capability!

Therefore, Iran’s fiery rhetoric today may hasten the outbreak of a coming war, whilst Tehran threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz will convince the international community of the legitimacy of breaking the bones of the Iranian regime, particularly as Tehran’s hands are interfering in many areas of our region. Indeed Iran is responsible for complicating the entire situation, and threatening the stability of our region as a whole, whether we are talking about the situation in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, or the Gulf. Therefore, the question that must be asked here is: has Tehran hastened this war that has long been talked about?

Anything is possible; however what is strange is the Gulf silence in this regard, whether diplomatically or in the media, particularly as Iran is threatening one of the Gulf’s most important interests, namely oil.

 

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Defiant Iranian Likely to Face Execution for Tossing Shoes at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

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Defiant Iranian Likely to Face Execution for Tossing Shoes at Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

 

Fox News – The man who was arrested for tossing his shoes at Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during a speech earlier this month could face execution for his act of defiance.

Rashid Shahbandi, who has been in custody since his arrest at the time of the incident, has been tortured and is facing heavy punishment with a strong possibility of a death sentence, opposition groups told the Iran Khabar Agency, an independent news service.

The former textile worker, who had recently lost his job at the factory in the city of Sari, was in attendance there when Ahmadinejad was speaking to workers about the great achievements of his government.

Sources say Shahbandi, who is under financial distress due to the high medical cost of his son’s burn injuries, grew angry while listening to the speech and hurled his shoes — considered an ultimate insult across the Middle East — at Ahmadinejad.

Shahbandi has a history of defiance; he has previously insulted Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and thrown eggs at former President Sayyid Mohammad Khatami when he was in office.

It was not immediately clear when and if Shahbandi will have a trial.

At the time of his arrest, Western observers speculated that Shahbandi might have started a movement to ignite public discourse in Iran.

“Iran is an autocratic society. If people start to lose fear of that autocratic regime, then it collapses,” Michael Rubin, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank, told FoxNews.com at the time of the incident.

“He might unfortunately be a little bit of a martyr. But Iranians rally around a martyr, which could make him a hero. The fact that someone doing this in public shows that there is cracks in the regime. Perhaps the Supreme Leader has no clothes.”

 

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Iran raises anti-US threat level. Israel’s C-of-S warns of potential for regional war

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Iran raises anti-US threat level. Israel’s C-of-S warns of potential for regional war

 

Thursday afternoon, Dec. 29, Tehran raised the pitch of its threats to the United States when Dep. Chief of the Revolutionary Guards Gen. Hossein Salami declared: “The United States is in no position to tell Tehran what to do in the Strait of Hormuz,” adding, “Any threat will be responded [to] by threat… We will not relinquish our strategic moves in Iran’s vital interests are undermined by any means.”

The Iranian general spoke after the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier and its strike group passed through the Strait of Hormuz to the Sea of Oman and into the area where the big Iranian naval war game Veleyati 90 is taking place.
At around the same time, Israel’s chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz spoke of “the rising potential for a multi-arena event,” i.e. a comprehensive armed conflict. Facing in several directions as we are “between terrorist organizations and Iran’s progress toward a nuclear weapon… we can’t afford to stay on the defensive and must come up with offensive measures,” he said.

Earlier Thursday, Dec. 29, DEBKAfile reported that an Iranian plan to mine the Strait of Hormuz had put US and NATO forces in the Persian Gulf on the alert.

US and NATO task forces in the Persian Gulf have been placed on alert after US intelligence warned that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards are preparing Iranian marine commandos to sow mines in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.

The new deployment, DEBKAfile’s military sources report, consists of USS Combined Task Force 52 (CTF 52), which is trained and equipped for dismantling marine mines and NATO Maritime Mine Counter measures Group 2 (SNMCMG2). The American group is led by theUSS Arden mine countermeasures ship; NATO’s by the British HMS Pembroke minesweeper. Other vessels in the task forces are the Hunt-class destroyer HMS Middleton and the French mine warfare ships FS Croix du Sud and FS Var.
Also on the ready are several US Expeditionary Combat Readiness units of the US Fifth Fleet Bahrain command. Seventeen of these special marine units are attached to the Fifth Fleet as America’s answer to the Iranian Navy’s fast assault boats and marine units.

US military sources told DEBKAfile Wednesday, Dec. 28, that United States has the countermeasures for sweeping the waterway of mines and making it safe for marine passage after no more than a 24-48 hour interruption.

At the same time, leading military and naval officials in Washington take Tehran’s threats seriously. They don’t buy the proposition advanced by various American pundits and analysts that Iran would never close the Strait of Hormuz, though which one third of the world’s oil passes, because it would then bottle up its own energy exports. Those officials, according to our sources, believe that Tehran hopes the mines in the waterway will blow up passing oil tankers and other shipping. It doesn’t have to be sealed hermetically to endanger international shipping; just a few mines here and there and an explosion would be enough to deter shippers and crews from risking their vessels.

As Adm. Habibollah Sayari commander of the Iranian Navy put it Wednesday, Dec. 28: “Shutting the strait for Iran’s armed forces is really easy – or as we say in Iran, easier than drinking a glass of water.” He went on to say: “But today, we don’t need [to shut] the strait because we have the Sea of Oman under control and can control transit.”

DEBKAfile’s Middle East marine sources said the Iranian admiral’s boast about the Sea of Oman was just hot air.  For the big Iranian Velayati 90 sea exercise which began Saturday, America has deployed in that sea two large air and sea strike groups led by the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier and the USS Bataan aircraft amphibious ship.

And they are highly visible: Thursday morning, Dec. 29, Iranian Navy’s Deputy Commander Rear Adm. Mahmoud Mousavi reported an Iranian Navy aircraft had shot footage and images of a US carrier spotted in an area where the Velayat 90 war games were being conducted – most probably the Stennis. Its presence, he said, demonstrated that Iran’s naval forces were “precisely monitoring all moves by extra-regional powers” in the region.

Clearly, the US navy is very much on the spot in the Sea of Oman and other areas of the Iranian war game.

Middle East sources warn however that the repeated threats to close the Strait of Hormuz coming from Tehran this week and the framework of its naval exercise clearly point to the manner in which Iran intends to hit back for the tough new sanctions which the West plans to approve next month. The new round is expected to shear off 80 percent of the Islamic Republic’s revenues.
The European Union’s 27 member-states meet in January to approve an embargo on Iranian oil, with effect on 25 percent of Iran’s energy exports. Next month, too, President Barack Obama plans to sign into law an amendment authorizing severe penalties for foreign banks trading with Iran’s central bank, CBI, including the loss of links with American banks and financial institutions.

Tehran is expected to strike back hard by sowing mines in Hormuz and in the waters opposite the oil fields and terminals of fellow Persian Gulf oil producers, including Saudi Arabia.

It would not be the first time. In 1987 and 1988, sea mines were sown in the Persian Gulf for which Iran never took responsibility. It was generally seen as Tehran’s payback for US and Gulf Emirates’ backing for Iraq in its long war with the Islamic Republic. A number of oil tankers and American warships were struck by mines, including the USS Samuel B. Roberts. Such disasters can be averted today by means of the sophisticated countermeasures now in US hands.

Khamenei’s Rep Declaration: IRGC Members Should Run for Majlis

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Khamenei’s Rep Declaration: IRGC Members Should Run for Majlis

 

Bahram Rafiei

As the number of former IRGC (Revolutionary Guards) members in the Majlis has been growing since they first entered the body in 2005 and took over key committees, this week the representative of ayatollah Khamenei in the force called on for more members of the force to get into the consultative assembly so that they could, in his words, “take strong and focused positions on important decisions.”

Speaking a day after his press conference on the forthcoming elections in March, Cleric Ali Saeedi said, “There is no legal problem with the presence of members of the armed forces or those in the intelligence agencies, and as provided by law of commanders and other members of the armed forces in the Majlis after their resignations from their positions and membership in the IRGC.”

“In view of the need to have specialists in the Majlis, including areas of defense-security … members of the armed forces that have expertise in military affairs too can become candidates for the assembly,” he said.

Saeedi said that the nature of the work that IRGC members performed was similar to that of Majlis representatives and added, “The Guards and Majlis representatives defend the revolution in different ways. Therefore, defense activities can continue in the Majlis in the same fashion after membership in the IRGC is terminated.”

In explaining his interpretation of work in the IRGC he said that strict military work had no meaning and that members of the force were “revolutionaries” and “enthusiastic” individuals who wanted to impact and defend the revolution and its accomplishments, adding that their mission was different from those in the regular armed forces. “Their participation in the Majlis elections was a form of defense of the fortifications of the revolution.”

Former IRGC commanders already hold some key positions in the Majlis among which are Mohammad Kowsari, Parviz Soroori, Mohammad Karamirad, Gholamreza Karami, seyed Ahmad Avai, and Aziz Akabarian. A significant number of the majority faction of the Majlis – i.e., the Principlists – is also made up individuals affiliated to the IRGC, the Basij official vigilantes and security agencies.

While the deadline that the ministry of the interior set for public figures to resign from their positions if they intended to register to run for the Majlis has already passed, the IRGC public relations office has till today not announced the names of any of its members who may have submitted their resignations for this purpose. Some media closely associated with Ahmadinejad’s administration have however published reports about the resignation of some IRGC members in order to run for the March elections.

The only IRGC official to have officially resigned from his post is cleric Mojtaba Zolnoor who is ayatollah Khamenei is deputy representative in the force. At the time of his resignation he announced that he would be retiring because he intended to run for the Majlis. Soon after that, general Ramezan Sharif, the PR official in the IRGC announced his acceptance of Zolnoor’s resignation.

The participation of IRGC officers in elections and their direct candidacy in the last presidential voting is viewed by many to be contrary to the express views of ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic regime, who had said that “military institutions are barred from engaging in political affairs.” In his political will too he expressly said that members of the armed forces to which he also included the Basij, the police and others, should under no circumstances enter “political games.”

The constitution of the Islamic republic also stresses the same principle. The Penal Code for the Armed Forces of Iran also bars members of the armed forces from engaging in political activity.

But despite such legal provisions and statements, IRGC members have run in various parliamentary and presidential elections. Last summer, IRGC general Yadollah Javani, the former head of the IRGC’s Political Office who had resigned from his post the month before, stressed on ayatollah Khamenei’s satisfaction of the performance of the force in recent years and particularly its involvement in the political affairs of the country and had said, “Some had thought that the Guard are merely a military institution and that it was like the army. Some political groups too had made the same interpretations for their own purpose and had tried to present the force as a purely military one and denounce its activities in other areas. But contrary to this view, the IRGC is a revolutionary institution, as defined and described by the constitution, the charter of the IRGC and the orders and guidance of ayatollah Khomeini, and the remarks of the supreme leader. Its principle mission is the defense of Islam, the Islamic revolution, and its accomplishments. This institution must be able to defend the revolution and its accomplishments ‘under any conditions’ and provide assistance to the direction of the revolution in accomplishing its goals and ideals.”

This former head of the IRGC’s political office had referenced ayatollah Khamenei’s remarks to stress that the work of the force was not limited to military affairs but included political, military, cultural and security domains as well.

In September/October of this year, the commander of the IRGC Mohammad Ali Jaafari too said that the scope of IRGC remained unlimited. “Just as the supreme leader does not define any restrictions on the IRGC to perform its mission in its defense of the Islamic revolution, the force must be ready to defend the revolution and its achievements in all fields,” he said.

He referenced the force as “the arms of the leader” and said that the IRGC was no longer just the military arm of the leader but that it was also his non-military arm. “Defense of the revolution is a fluid phenomenon that is continuously growing which requires the force to be ready in all political, cultural and ideological spheres,” he said.

Activist slapped with additional 3 year jail-term for ‘insulting leader’

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Activist slapped with additional 3 year jail-term for ‘insulting leader’

 

GVF — Imprisoned political activist Abolfazl Ghadyani is to serve an additional three years in jail, according to a ruling handed down by an Iranian court.

A senior member of the pro-reform Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organisation (MIRO), Ghadyani was initially arrested on 28 December 2009, a day after opposition rallies known as the “Ashura” protests.

Following his court trial, the 66-year-old was sentenced to a year in prison for “insulting the president.”

“Ahmadinejad is a liar, a deceiver, a autocrat, a law-breaking and unlawful person and this is his true description. I’ve said these in my defence and in court. I did not insult Ahmadinejad, I [simply] recounted his characteristics and what I said was not an insult, but a critique,” he told Kaleme, a website close to opposition figure Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Ghadyani’s one-year jail term came to an end on 25 November, however following a ruling by Branch 15 of the Revolutionary Court, he received an additional three-year prison sentence for “insulting the leader.” He refused to show up at his trial two months ago, describing the proceedings as “illegal.” “A political trial must be public and with a jury, therefore this court is illegal and its administrator a criminal,” he maintained.

Despite undergoing a heart surgery, the ailing activist was recently returned to Evin prison’s ward 350 shortly after his release from hospital.

Since his arrest, the Ghadyani family have voiced their concern over his physical health under detention. In an interview with Kaleme, Ghadyani’s wife said Iran’s security apparatus might be seeking a repeat of happened to fellow inmate Hoda Saber, who died of a heart attack after spending ten days on hunger strike. Saber’s strike was in protest against the death of another dissident Haleh Sahabi in June 2011. She had died of a heart attack during scuffles with security forces at the funeral of her father, Ezatollah Sahabi, the head of Iran’s Nationalist-Religious Coalition.

Ghadyani also endured years of imprisonment before the 1979 Revolution as a consequences of his activism.

Shutting Down Political Prisoners’ Cell Block in Urmia

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Shutting Down Political Prisoners’ Cell Block in Urmia

 

HRANA News Agency – Following the transfer of six political prisoners to solitary confinement in the Urmia Central Prison, Mehr Ali Farhang who is in charge of political prisoners’ cell block has announced that Ward 12 will be closed down soon.

In recent months, Mehr Ali Farhang has continued to abuse and threaten political prisoners. Lately, he has announced that Ward 12 which houses political prisoners will be closed, and all inmates will be transferred to different cell blocks in the general prison population.

According to threats made by Mehr Ali Farhang, thirty political prisoners locked up in Ward 12 are scheduled to be transferred to other cell blocks where ordinary prisoners convicted of drug related crimes are being kept.

Two political prisoners, Majid Dalaei Milan and Shafagh Dalaei Millan, have already been transferred to a cell block housing drug addicts. Additionally, Azar Jafari after being beaten and battered was movedtogether with another political prisoner to different wards in Urmia Central Prison.

According to another report, Habibullah Galiripour, Ali Ahmad Solaiman and Jahangir Badozadeh were finally returned to political prisoners ward after being locked up in isolation cells since December 6, 2011.

 

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Persecution of victims of crimes against human rights and political activists

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Persecution of victims of crimes against human rights and political activists

 

The authorities in Iran are relentlessly pursuing their suppression of every form of peaceful dissent including protests of families of victims and their supporters as well as moderate political activists. Supporters of the “Mourning Mothers” (see Background Information) as well as moderate political activists are being increasingly targeted.
 Mourning Mothers suppressed for their fight against impunityJila Karamzadeh-Makvandi (f), a supporter of the “Mourning Mothers”, was arrested on 27 December 2011 at the Passport Department in capital Tehran and taken to Evin Prison to serve her two-year prison sentence.
Leila Seyfollahi (f) and Nader Ahsani (m), two other supporters of the Mourning Mothers, are also at risk of arbitrary arrest, as their prison sentences have been upheld. The three were arrested, together with several other supporters of the Mourning Mothers, in February 2010, and spent over a month in solitary detention before being released on bail. They were tried in February 2011 on charges of “assembly and collusion to commit crimes against the national security and propaganda against the state.” The court ruling accused them of involvement in establishment of “an illegal organisation against the national security, namely the Mourning Mothers” and claiming to be “human rights defenders.”The Islamic Revolution Court initially sentenced Jila Karamzadeh-Makvandi and Leila Seyfollahi to four years in prison each and Nader Ahsani to two years imprisonment. It was reported in early November 2011 that the appeals court had sentenced Ms Karamzadeh-Makvandi and Ms Seyfollahi each to two years in prison as well as to two years suspended prison sentence, and had upheld Nader Ahsani’s two-year prison sentence.

Jila Mahdavian, and her daughter Maryam Najafi, two supporters of the Mourning Mothers, were summoned to the Islamic Revolution Court on 25 December 2011 and were notified that they had been sentenced to five years and 6 months in prison, respectively. Maryam Najafi also received an 18-month suspended prison sentence. They have 20 days to appeal their sentences.

The two had been arrested on 9 October 2010 and spent 50 days and 13 days in detention, respectively, before being released on bail. They were tried by the Islamic Revolution Court on 30 November 2011. Charges against Jila Mahdavian included “taking part in disturbances, acting against national security, membership of the Mourning Mothers, testifying in German courts against the Islamic Republic of Iran, and attempting to leave the country illegally.” Maryam Najafi was charged with “acting against the national security and attempting to leave the country illegally.” Ms. Mahdavian’s son Hessam Tarmassi was stabbed with poisonous knife after being released from 11 months of detention in 2009-2010 and is reportedly still ill.

Mansoureh Behkish, another supporter of the Mourning Mothers, stood trial at the Islamic Revolution Court on 25 December 2011 on charges of “propaganda against the system” and “assembly and collusion to undermine national security through establishment of the Mourning Mothers group.” She rejected all the charges. The court decision is pending.

Having lost six members of her family in the secret executions of the 1980s, she has been arrested several times during the past couple of decades. She was arrested on the street on 12 June 2011 and spent a month in solitary confinement before being released on bail.

Political activists prosecuted for exercise of right of association

Moderate and peaceful political parties and groups and their activists have also been increasingly targeted and many of their members are now serving prison terms.
On 27 December 2011, Ebrahim Yazdi, the 80-year-old leader of Freedom Movement of Iran (FMI) and former foreign minister, was reportedly informed of an 8-year prison sentence. Ebrahim Yazdi has been detained three times since the 2009 presidential elections, including a six-month detention from October 2010 to March 2011. He appeared in court on 2 November 2011 on charges of “assembly and collusion against the national security, propaganda against the state, establishment and administration of the FMI.” He described the Islamic Revolution Court unconstitutional, rejected its jurisdiction to try him and refused to offer a defence bill.
Another senior member of the FMI and former mayor of Tehran, Mr Mohammad Tavassoli, and Dr Ali Rashidi, a leading economist, senior member of the “National Front of Iran” and former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Iran, have been in arbitrary detention since 3 November 2011.

Background Information

- Mothers of Park Laleh (Mourning Mothers of Iran) are women whose children have been executed, killed, or disappeared since the early 1980s. They have been organising silent public protests in Tehran’s Laleh Park in the aftermath of the post-election violence in June 2009. They have demanded the State’s acknowledgement of the 1980s mass secret executions in the prisons, the right to know the burial places of their beloved and they stand for abolition of the death penalty, freedom of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, and public trial of all those responsible for the crimes committed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979. They have been increasingly targeted with harassment, arbitrary arrest and detention, and imprisonment.

- Freedom Movement of Iran, a nationalist group, was established in 1961 and its members faced prosecution and suppression under the former Shah’s regime. Its leaders formed the first post-revolution government but resigned later and some of them served prison terms under the present regime.

- National Front of Iran is a secular nationalist organisation that was also suppressed under the Shah and later under the present regime. Its members were ministers in the first post-revolution government.

Karim Lahidji, vice-president of the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH) and president of the Iranian League for the Defence of Human Rights (LDDHI), said today: “The Islamic Republic of Iran has consistently denied the right to freedom of assembly and association and violated Articles 21 and 22 of the ICCPR. Independent organisations of workers, students, teachers, journalists, human rights defenders and even moderate political groups are banned, and even groups of victims such as the Mourning Mothers that seek to make the authorities accountable for their crimes are increasingly targeted and their supporters persecuted. The authorities must urgently heed the ‘Concluding observations of the UN Human Rights Committee’ to ensure that the right to freedom of assembly and association is guaranteed to all individuals without discrimination and release immediately and unconditionally anyone held solely for the peaceful exercise of this right.”

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