MONDAY, 13 JUNE 2011
HRANA News Agency – The Revolutionary Court has sentenced three Sunni Kurds to fifteen years in prison.
According to a report by Mukrian News Agency, Abdullah Khosrow-Zadeh, Hessam Mohammadi and Hayman Mahmoud Takhti have each been sentenced to five years in prison on charges of cooperating with religious organizations. These three prisoners were arrested 20 months ago and have been locked up in Rajai-Shahr Prison since then.
Mon, 06/13/2011
Iranian security forces held up the burial of Reza Hoda Saber this morning, surrounding the family and mourners in anticipation of outbursts of protest against the death of the jailed activist, an opposition website reports.
Kaleme writes that the funeral and burial of Hoda Saber, the jailed journalist and Nationalist-Religious activist, was supposed to be held this morning at 7:30 AM. Instead it was carried out at noon while “family and mourners were completely under siege by security forces.”
Kaleme reports that a large contingent of security forces threatened and verbally abused funeral attendees.
Hoda Saber died on Saturday following a nearly 10-day hunger strike to protest the death of activist Haleh Sahabi at the funeral of her father, Ezzatollah Sahabi, who led the Nationalist-Religious Coalition of Iran.
The Saber family has told the media that Reza began feeling a severe pain around 4PM on Friday, but prison authorities ignored his condition and waited more than two hours before transferring him to hospital.
Family members maintain that the delay was instrumental in causing his death and say they have filed a legal complaint against authorities, both for that delay and for failing to immediately inform the family of his death.
The Coordination Council for the Green Path of Hope issued a statement today condemning the government’s role in bringing about the death of Hoda Saber. It declared that the government’s “negligence” in protecting fundamental civil rights and the rule of law is creating a “new disaster every day” in the Islamic Republic.
Yesterday, Reporters Without Borders issued a statement accusing the Islamic Republic government of causing the death of Hoda Saber by neglecting his medical needs and by arbitrarily arresting him in the first place.
Hoda Saber had been arrested twice before his final arrest on August 2, 2009.
06/13/2011
GVF — In a shocking new revelation, 64 political prisoners held in ward 350 of Iran’s notorious Evin prison have provided a more detailed account how inmate Reza Hoda Saber had been beaten up by state agents before his death on Sunday.
According to opposition website Kaleme, the prisoners were able to get their message across prison bars with the aid of Green Movement sympathisers inside Evin prison.
On Sunday, Kaleme reported that Hoda Saber, who had been arrested after the disputed 2009 presidential election, had died of cardiac complications after being transferred from Evin prison to Tehran’s Modarres hospital. The website had said that Saber’s heart complication had been induced by his hunger strike in prison.
Hoda Saber, along with fellow imprisoned activist Amir Khosro Dalir-Sani, had gone on hunger strike to protest the tragic murder of Iranian activist Haleh Sahabi at the funeral of her father Ezzatollah Sahabi.
The list of signatories to the letter includes the names of many prominent activists, journalist and political figures such as Feizollah Arabsorkhi, Ali Malihi, Arash Sadeghi, Ghorban Behzadian-Nejad, Bahmadn Ahmadi Amooei, Emad Bahavar, Javad Emam, Emadoddin Baghi and Ramin Parchami.
The full text of the letter is as follows:
Political prisoners Reza-Saber was martyred on 12 June 2011 after an indefinite hunger strike and as a result of the authorities’ negligence. As his fellow inmates, we, the signatories to this statement who had been with him throughout the past year, would like to inform the Iranian people and testify that:
On Thursday 2 June 2011 following news of the death of political prisoner Haleh Sahabi who had been on furlough, and while Mr Hoda Saber was still mourning the death of Chief of the Nationalist-Religious Council Ezzatollah Sahabi, he [Saber] and Mr Amir Khosro Dalirsani issued a statement in the courtyard of Evin prison’s ward 350 after noon, and afternoon prayers and declared their intention to begin an indefinite hunger strike to show their protest against this flagrant injustice and violation, while informing the public of the move.
We testify that in addition to his daily reading of books, recitation of the Quran and holding history lessons, Hoda Saber always dedicated significant time to sports and even took part in sporting competitions together with the youth at ward 350.
We testify that throughout the past year, Hoda Saber had ever suffered from any health condition or illness, something that his medical records in the prison medical facility attest to.
We testify that on the eighth day of his hunger strike, Hoda Saber developed chest pains as well as a digestive disorder, and at 4am on Friday 10 June, he was taken to the Evin prison clinic—situated next to ward 350—for the first time. However, two hours later, he was brought back to the ward while curling around himself in pain. His cellmates were awoken due to his cries [of pain] and encircled him. Saber then said “they not only didn’t treat me for my condition, but beat me up and insulted me, ad I was thrown out of the room by agents wearing uniforms of clinic staff.”
We testify that as Hoda Saber was shivering intensely and curling around himself in room 1 of ward 350, he said in a loud voice, “I will sue them.”
At this point and following protests by inmates, a prison guard once more arranged for him to be transferred to the medical facility, but this time, Saber repeated his disapproval of the way he had been treated and the behaviour of agents at the clinic and said “I don’t trust them,” after which the guard promised to make an effort to admit him to a hospital outside Evin [prison].
We testify that at this point, Saber who could not even stand on his own two feet, was taken outside the ward on a stretcher. In his last hour at the ward, his digestive system was in a very critical condition and he said many times that he had severe diarrhoea and nausea.
Dear people of Iran
What’s been said is an account of martyr Hoda Saber’s last hours in Evin’s ward 350. But at a point in time when the regime has responded with crime to a protest against crime, we firmly state that the current [political] establishment is directly responsible for the death of martyr Saber. This heart-breaking incident is not the first of its kind, and as things stand, it will not be the last either.
Even though a thorough examination of the cases of most political prisoners would reveal widespread injustice and disregard for their rights during legal proceedings, Hoda Saber had been held in prison without any legal verdict or sentence, and was imprisoned in a completely unsystematic fashion due to the pressure and force exerted by certain intelligence bodies and with full knowledge of responsible organisations; Yet no one provided answers to why and with what legal justification he was held behind bars. And of course, his indictment had expired long before his recent arrest. The unmethodical and illegal arrest of Saber alone is enough to delegitimise the legal system and to prove their lack of independence and their vulnerability to the intelligence bodies. Under the status quo, citizens outside the confines of prisons, and more than anyone else, prisoners, will not be able to enjoy legal, medical and life security.
We would like to express our deep condolences to the patient family of martyr Hoda Saber, especially Mrs. Farideh Saber and her mourning children Hanif and Sharif.
As a first step, we condemn this inhumane norms within the legal system and this type of treatment of prisoners, and hold the ruling establishment responsible. Henceforth, we shall take further action based on how officials follow-up on the issue [death of Saber] and we will stand till the very end to uphold the people’s rights and [to ensure] the regime respects the law.
Signatories to the letter:
1. Ghorban Behzadian Nejad
2. Mohammad Davari
3. Bahman Ahmadi Amooei
4. Abdollah Momeni
5. Hasan Asadi Zeidabadi
6. Ali Jamali
7. Mohammad Reza Moghiseh
8. Ali Malihi
9. Babak Dashab
10. Hamid Reza Mohammadi
11. Ghasel Sholeh-Sadi
12. Kiarash Kamrani
13. Mohammad Javad Mozaffar
14. Ehsan Mehrabi
15. Emad Bahavar
16. Mojtaba Tehrani
17. Javad Emam
18. Feizollah Arabsorkhi
19. Emadoddin Baghi
20. Abolfazl Ghadyani
21. Mohammad Hossein Khorbak
22. Esmail Sahabeh
23. Amir Khosro Dalirsani
24. Seyed Mohammad Seifzadeh
25. Siamak Ghaderi
26. Sam Mahmoudi Sarabi
27. Akbar Amini Armaki
28. Houshang Farzin
29. Hamed Mirzaei Gorji
30. Arash Segher
31. Ahmad Shah Rezaei
32. Arash Sadeghi
33. Navid Kamran
34. Ramin Parchami
35. Alireza Sohrab-Pour
36. Mahdi Hosseinzadeh
37. Mohammad Sedigh Kaboudvand
38. Mahdi Khodaei
39. Siamak Rahmani
40. Saeid Matin-Pour
41. Masoud Lavasani
42. Mohsen Ghamin
43. Mohammad Pour-Abdollah
44. Hossein Mofidi
45. Mahdi Nowzar
46. Abolfazl Ghasemi
47. Ebrahim Madadi
48. Abbas Nami
49. Ali Behzadian-Nejad
50. Hossein Zarrini
51. Amir-Hossein Ghanbari
52. Gholam-Reza Azadi
53. Majid Tamjidi
54. Yousef Mehr
55. Shahin Zeinali
56. Peyman Aref
57. Javad Alikhani
58. Ramtin Ghaffari
59. Mahdi Vatankhah
60. Fereydoun Seidi-Rad
61. Saeid Malmirian
62. Javad Alikhani
63. Mohsen Ghali
64. Meysam Roudaki
Opposition websites and witnesses say dozens were arrested in the Iranian capital on June 12 while marching silently to mark the anniversary.
The opposition Kalame website reported that several hundred Iranians were detained on Vali Asr Street while marching peacefully.
“Demonstrators remained silent and calm even while they were being detained,” Kalame said, citing its reporters in Tehran.
A demonstrator told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that many opposition supporters marched under the eyes of the security forces.
“We started walking on Vali Asr Street. As [expected], special forces were deployed on both sides of the street like a human wall,” the man said. “But people ignored them and continued walking on the sidewalks without chanting.”
Protesting In Silence
Representatives of the opposition Green Movement had called for a “silent rally” to mark the vote, which the opposition says was massively rigged in favor of Ahmadinejad. The charge has been denied by the Iranian authorities, who have called the 2009 presidential vote free and fair.
Yet they have cracked down on opposition activists and put them in jail. In February they put opposition leaders Mir Hossein Musavi and Mehdi Karrubi under house arrest after they called for a demonstration that attracted tens of thousands of Iranians.
In recent months, Iran’s leaders have praised the Arab uprisings while using force against opposition protesters who have taken to the streets.
Speaking in Washington on June 11, Musavi’s spokesman, Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, said the government repression had not managed to silence the opposition Green Movement, which was formed during the protests that followed the disputed election.
“The Green Movement might have changed its tactics in response to the crackdown, but it has found a way to continue its existence,” Arjomand said.
Security Forces Massed
The Sahamnews website said on June 12 that riot police and plainclothes agents attacked opposition demonstrators with batons at a park on Vali Asr Street.
“Shopkeepers were ordered to close their shops…hundreds of people have gathered in other areas of Tehran,” the website said.
One witness told RFE/RL that in some parts of Tehran hundreds of security forces were deployed to prevent protests. She said she also saw many Basij militia members and plainclothes agents roaming the streets on motorbikes.
Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported that security forces arrested “some individuals” who were trying to disrupt the peace.
“The powerful presence of security forces in Tehran prevented a few elements from reaching their goal of disrupting the peaceful atmosphere of the society with foreign guidance,” IRNA reported, while accusing foreign media of inciting people in Tehran to take part in the silent protest.
The anniversary of the election was overshadowed by the news of the death of a prominent journalist and national religious activist, Hoda Saber, who died from a heart attack following a hunger strike.
The 54-year-old Saber, who was jailed in the crackdown that followed the protests against the presidential election in 2009, died in a Tehran hospital where he was transferred from Evin prison.
He had gone on a hunger strike some 10 days before to protest the death of another dissident,Haleh Sahabi, at the funeral of her father. Sahabi reportedly died from a heart attack following a scuffle with security forces.
June 13, 2011
The Daily Telegraph: Syria is “undoubtedly” being assisted by Iran as it continues to crack down on anti-regime protesters, according to William Hague.
By Andrew Osborn, Guvecci and Richard Spencer
The foreign secretary said the Iranian government was supplying “equipment” and advising on how to crush protests.
Iran’s role was “an extraordinary example of hypocrisy in world affairs,” Mr Hague said.
Britain, France and America have led international criticism of the violence, but lack of support from the Arab League has made outside intervention likely.
China and Russia have also so far opposed a motion of condemnation at the United Nations.
“There is no prospect of getting through the UN a resolution such as the UN resolution 1973 on Libya,” Mr Hague said on Sky News. That resolution authorised the no-fly zone currently in place against Col Muammar Gaddafi’s forces.
“In the case of Libya there was a clear call from the Arab League for action, and that was a transformative intervention. There is no such call in the case of Syria.”
Mr Hague’s condemnation came as a mass grave containing the bodies of at least 10 soldiers was discovered by Syrian troops in a town stormed by government forces in the north of the country.
At least four of the corpses in the grave, found outside the military police headquarters in the town of Jisr al-Shughour, near the Turkish border, had been decapitated or struck on the head by an axe, according to those present.
The government claimed the bodies, all still in uniform, were evidence of an attack by “armed gangs” on security forces it said claimed 120 lives last week.
But residents and some defecting soldiers who have fled over the border claimed that the dead were local recruits shot by their officers for refusing to open fire on peaceful protesters.
They also claimed that the army, which moved in under cover from helicopters and tank fire, had used brutal tactics to recapture the town at the weekend.
“The soldiers told us that they would kick us into the sea,” Mohammed Migdem, 60, told The Daily Telegraph, waving his arms angrily.
“They killed my uncle’s son and I helped lift several dead bodies into cars with my own hands. There is a war going on in Syria against the people.”
Witnesses also described how they had seen two boys trying to escape who were killed by fire from government tanks.
“When I was watching, there were two people trying to escape. They were close to me on the railway tracks. They fired at them with tanks and killed them,” the witness, known as Musa, told The Times. “They were two boys.”
The unrest in Syria has claimed 1,500 lives since March, according to human rights groups, with no sign that the regime is managing to deter opposition.
There were even demonstrations at the weekend in the capital, Damascus.
June 13, 2011
Tehran – Protests were held Sunday – the second anniversary of disputed presidential elections – by opposition supporters in the capital Tehran who also clashed with police and security forces.
But the protests were overshadowed by the sudden death of Iranian dissident and journalist Reza Hoda Saber of a heart attack while he was on a hunger strike.
The opposition had called for silent protests against the government, their websites reported. Demonstrations were planned in central and northern Tehran but designed to avoid provoking confrontations with police.
Masses gathered along Vali-Asr Avenue, which connects the capital from north to south and where several shops downed shutters over concerns of violence.
Witnesses said that police and security forces were deployed in several parts of Tehran, as were baton-weilding members of the voluntary Basij force.
The opposition websites also reported clashes between protesters and security forces at a park in the north and Vali Asr Square in central Tehran. They said that several demonstrators were arrested, but there was no official confirmation.
The reports could not be independently verified as the government has prohibited Western media from covering the opposition protests.
Meanwhile, the 54-year-old journalist and dissident Saber died in a Tehran hospital where he was transferred from Evin prison.
He had been on a hunger strike for 10 days to protest the suspicious death of fellow dissident Haleh Sahabi during the funeral of her father Ezatollah Sahabi earlier this month.
Saber’s sister, Firouzeh Hoda Saber, confirmed the death after she identified his body at the coroner’s office, ISNA news agency reported.
Saber was member of a nationalist movement and was jailed following the presidential elections in 2009 and the protests afterwards over alleged election fraud.
After Ezatollah and Haleh Sahabi, Saber is the third dissident to die this month.
Opposition leaders Mir-Hossein Moussavi and Mehr Karroubi have been under house arrest since February.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won re-election on June 12, 2009 despite accusations of vote fraud.
Violence related to the post-election protests led to the deaths of more than 30 dissidents and thousands of arrests. The opposition has claimed that the death toll was more than 80.
There have also been reports of an internal crisis because of the differences between Ahmadinejad and the clergy and conservative circles since April.
The president’s aides have been accused of undermining the ruling Islamic system and the authority of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who according to the constitution has the final say on all state affairs.
Ahmadinejad said last week that the growing criticism against him would not affect his policies.
06/13/2011
GVF — Iranian activist and journalist Farid Salavati has been detained in the city of Isfahan.
Salavati was arrested by security forces on 11 June at his home in Isfahan.
Sun, 06/12/2011
There are grave concerns today for the health of Iranian political prisoner Abdollah Momeni, who is suffering cardiac complications and back problems, the Jaras opposition website reports.
Momeni, a spokesman for the student organization Advar-e Takim-e Vahdat, was hospitalized twice in the past month for health complications, Jaras reports.
The report adds that Momeni is in critical condition, made worse by the lack of facilities at Ward 350 in Evin Prison, where he is being held with no chance of furlough.
Momeni was arrested in June 2009 in the aftermath of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election, which led to widespread protests and a violent government retaliation.
Last September, Momeni wrote a letter to Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, claiming he had undergone “severe torture” and had been forced to sign a false confession for presentation at a “show trial.”
He was also part of a group of 25 political prisoners who wrote a letter describing their harsh torture at the hands of prison authorities. The Revolutionary Guards and the Prosecutor’s office put great pressure on the prisoners to recant their statements in the letter.
Iranian authorities have not responded to allegations of torture in Iranian prisons.
Abdollah Momeni was sentenced to four years and 11 months in prison following the presidential elections. He was arrested on June 20, 2009 in the building of the Headquarters of Free Citizens, a group supporting Mehdi Karroubi, a Mahmoud Ahmadinejad opponent in the elections, who is now under house arrest as one of the two chief opposition leaders.
June 12, 2011
TEHRAN — Security forces attacked and arrested pro-reform demonstrators gathering in Tehran on Sunday to mark the anniversary of the country’s 2009 disputed election, NBC News and Iran’s opposition website Sahamnews reported.
“Security forces attacked the crowd with electric batons … in the Vali-e Asr street to disperse the demonstrators,” Sahamnews.org said.
Ali Arouzi, a NBC News producer in Tehran, said he witnessed about 15 arrests and saw tens of thousands of pro-reform activists marching silently around the city.
Other witnesses said thousands of security personnel were deployed to stop any revival of anti-government protests that followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s
re-election in 2009.
Opposition websites had called for a “silent rally” to mark the vote, which reformists say was rigged to secure the hardline president’s win. Authorities say the election was the most legitimate since Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Sahamnews also said supporters of the opposition gathered in other parts of the city.
“Shopkeepers were ordered to close down their shops … hundreds of people have gathered in other areas of Tehran,” the website said.
06/12/2011
Video Testimony from a Young Woman Raped in Detention, Most Detailed Account to Date
On the second anniversary of the disputed June 2009 election and the ensuing repression, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran today released video testimony from a young female detainee describing in detail her severe torture and repeated rape after her arbitrary arrest.
Her forceful testimony challenges the Iranian authorities’ official narrative, which denies widespread use of torture and rape by security forces against ordinary protestors.
“Rape is one of the worst forms of torture and allegation after allegation of sadistic torture and sexual abuse continue to emerge,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson.
“How can the Iranian Judiciary claim a shred of legitimacy if it continues to shield the perpetrators of such atrocities? Its credibility is gone with the wind as it promotes a climate of rampant impunity,” he added.
The Campaign expressed serious concern that the same security and intelligence apparatus that committed the gross atrocities detailed in this video testimony, continues to be in charge of the arbitrary detention, interrogation, and imprisonment of prisoners of conscience and dissidents.
Over the past two years the Judiciary has become a tool of the security and intelligence agents, demonstrating an utter lack of independence.
The Campaign is releasing a 28-minute segment from an original 100-minute video interview with the young woman who was detained, tortured and raped in the summer of 2009. The interviewer spent more than twelve hours with the survivor to affirm various aspects of her experience. The interviewer shared all of the details that emerged for the twelve-hour interview with the Campaign, however, any information that may indicate the young woman’s identity has been withheld to protect her from reprisals.
The young woman in the video vividly describes being groped by a boy in the service of security forces during her arrest, along with several other women and held in a secret location that she describes as a warehouse. She spent days in a cramped cell, blindfolded, and deprived of water, food, and toilet privileges. She was then transferred to another secret detention center and held in solitary confinement.
There, blindfolded and gagged, the young woman, who had been a virgin, explains that one of her captors brutally raped, beat and humiliated her.
“First thing he did was lick my face,” the victim recounts. “I felt my life drained. He started to pull my clothes off. My hands bound, my eyes covered, I started crying. He shouted ‘shut up whore!’ Then he started. Opened my bra and took my clothes off. He was stroking and hitting me at the same time, saying ‘I will do something to you that you’ll never forget, I’ll make it so you never leave your house again, anytime you hear my name you will tremble, I’ll drive you insane.’ And he did. He raped me.”
Later, a different security functionary reportedly burned her hands, knees and breasts with cigarettes, and kicked her stomach, forcing blood into her mouth. The interviewer corroborated her account by observing marks on her body that appeared to be remnants of cigarette burns.
Describing the weeks following her first rape and sadistic cigarette burnings, the victim recalls: “I could smell blood, I was still drowsy. I didn’t feel well. They took me back to the cell. I don’t know how much time passed. One week, two weeks. Every other day it was the same routine. They would take me into the room, they would beat me, rape me…”
Rape and torture continued for several weeks until her release, after which she suffered a urinary tract infection and other injuries.
The young woman said that, “My spirit was crushed.” She then implored other rape and torture survivors to speak out, and asked for the international community not to forget the plight of many other survivors of rape and brutality who are living in silent despair.
The Campaign started to receive credible and reliable reports of rape against post-election detainees as early as 25 July 2009. It appears that ordinary people, protestors without profiles, have faced rape and the harshest abuses. Authorities have been apparently trying to cripple them emotionally and send a message to ordinary Iranians that if you go on the streets, if you criticize the government, they will make you suffer.
On 29 July 2009, Mehdi Karroubi, the opposition leader, wrote a letter to Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, saying, “Some of the detainees have reported that female detainees have been severely raped, resulting in serious injuries to the sexual organs. On the other hand, some of the young male detainees have been violently raped such that they have developed serious psychological and physical complications, suffering from deep depression.” Karroubi made this letter public on 9 August 2009 and demanded a parliamentary investigation.
On 12 August 2009, Ali Larijani, the head of the Parliament announced that a special parliamentary committee had dismissed the evidence provided by Karroubi. Their denial was so rushed that it strongly indicated that Larijani’s committee had not conducted any serious or in depth investigation. On 24 August, Karroubi published a detailed account of his own investigations and simultaneously met with a special parliamentary committee.
On 7 and 8 September 2009, security forces attacked and shut down three groups collecting testimony from rape and torture victims. The three groups included the Association to Defend Prisoners Rights; the Committee for Following the Situation of Detainees, which is a part of the campaign of reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi; and the Committee for Following Detainees and Injured, which is a part of the Karroubi campaign. The security forces confiscated all of their documents and evidence.
Shortly after these attempts by officials to cover up evidence of rape and torture, two male victims, Ebrahim Mehtari and Ebrahim Sharifi, fled Iran and provided their testimonies to the Campaign and other international human rights organizations.
“No matter how hard Iranian officials try to hide the truth, they cannot succeed,” Ghaemi said. “All of these young victims are part of Iranian society. As such, the atrocities committed against them cannot be wiped from the country’s collective memory and demands for justice and accountability will continue to haunt the Iranian regime.”
“The heartbreaking nature of this young woman’s case, the lack of accountability, and the complete disregard for due process are a profound testament to the disintegrating legal system in Iran,” Ghaemi added.
The Campaign urges the forthcoming UN Special Rapporteur on Iran to investigate all claims of torture, drawing particular attention to allegations of rape at the hands of interrogators. The Campaign also stresses the necessity for the full investigation and prosecution of perpetrators to ensure that those coming forward can do so without fear of retribution.
