“Obama, either with us or with them”?

I do not think so that the chant “Obama, either with us or with them” mean is that the Green movement “would like more Western support”. I think it mean is do not support “coup de’etat” government in Iran. This two have to much different.

Another Green day for Green movement in Iran

 

Iranian police clashed on Wednesday with supporters of Iran’s opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi who had gathered in a Tehran street as the country marks the 30th anniversary of the storming of the U.S. embassy.

http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE5A315620091104?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

 

BBC NEWS | Middle East | ‘Clashes’ at Iran protest rally

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8341631.stm

http://shooresh1917.blogspot.com/2009/11/were-live-blogging-from-tehran-streets.html#links

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpwR2Qv0PAo&feature=player_embedded

 

Tehran’s Hard-Line Prosecutor Moved To State Role, But Little Changes

By Golnaz Esfandiari

ran’s judiciary chief has named hard-line Tehran prosecutor Said Mortazavi — the man behind mass trials of post-election detainees — deputy prosecutor general.

Officially the move is a promotion for Mortazavi, but legal experts say his power has diminished.

Mortazavi is known as “the Butcher of the Press” because he was the bane of Iran’s independent and reformist publications.

He has ordered the closure of more than 100 pro-reform publications as well as the summoning to court and jailing of journalists and bloggers.

Among them was the New York-based journalist Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, who was jailed in Iran in 2004 with several of his colleagues and forced to make false confessions.

The case’s aim was to implicate reformist figures in spying and other actions that violate Iran’s national security laws. Mortazavi was in charge of the case.

Mirebrahimi tells RFE/RL he was happy to read the news about Mortazavi’s removal as Tehran prosecutor, describing Tehran’s prosecutor’s office as “the jugular vein of the judiciary of the Islamic republic.”

He adds that he believed that as long as Mortazavi was Tehran’s prosecutor, “judicial reforms wouldn’t be possible.”

Another Iranian journalist, Fereshteh Ghazi, says that for Iranian journalists, Mortazavi brings up painful memories — such as the closure of newspapers, imprisonment, the loss of their jobs, and being forced to leave Iran and become homeless.

On August 29, state media reported that the new head of Iran’s judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, had appointed Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi to replace Mortazavi. Dolatabadi is said to be less ideological than Mortazavi

A day later it was announced that Mortazavi had been appointed deputy state prosecutor.

Superficial Changes

Prominent human rights lawyer Mohammad Seyfzadeh says that Mortazavi will now have less executive power and won’t be making any judicial decisions.

Still, he dismisses the changes as being of little importance. Seyfzadeh says if the system was to change, then Mortazvi should have been held accountable.

“The judicial disciplinary court should have moved to suspend him,” Seyfzadeh says. “He should have been summoned to court to explain the majority of his actions.”

The 42-year-old Mortazavi reportedly played a role in the 2003 death of Iranian-Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, who died in a hospital as the results of head injuries she sustained after she had been jailed.

Mortazavi had ordered Kazemi’s arrest while she was photographing a protest in front of Evin prison by the families of detainees.

Mortazavi is described as a cruel and vengeful person who would use psychological pressure and harassment during interrogations. Mirebrahimi says he remembers how Mortazavi indirectly threatened to kill both him and his family.

“I had many encounters with Mortazavi that ranged from positive, in order to force me ‘to cooperate,’ to threats — where he would threaten me and my family and say that we could die in an accident,” he says.

Mortazavi was also reportedly involved in the arrests of dozens of women’s rights activists, workers, peaceful protesters, and reformists after the disputed June 12 presidential election that led to mass demonstrations.

Pawn Of The Regime?

He has often been criticized by independent lawyers and rights activists for lacking independence. Reformist politicians inside Iran had said that Mortazavi should be summoned to court over his role in the death of Kazemi and other issues.

But he was said to be untouchable. Some observers say Mortazavi had the support of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Mirebrahimi thinks Motazavi was a pawn of the regime. “I don’t think he was on his own in all he did,” he says. “It’s true that it was personal to some extent. But he had a powerful backer.”

Mirebrahimi says Mortazavi told him several times: “I am one quarter of the country. One fourth of the country’s power is in my hands.” He adds a person cannot say such a thing without having “prominent backers.”

Mortazavi was the head prosecutor in the trial of a number of top reformist figures who have been accused of involvement in planning postelection protests and plotting a “velvet coup.”

Tehran-based lawyer Nemat Ahmadi told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda that the removal of Mortazavi and the creation of a special committee to investigate the postelection unrest could have a positive impact on the fate of the prominent reformist detainees.

But Seyfzadeh, from the Center of Human Rights Defenders, is less optimistic. He believes that those in power now are “determined to eliminate the opposition that is from within the establishment, having already sidelined the children of the revolution and the opposition.”

Seyfzadeh thinks the process will go on till “the end,” unless “something else happens.”

A blogger has reacted to Mortazavi’s new appointment by thanking the new head of the judiciary for the reminder that “the Islamic establishment cannot be reformed.”

The blogger writes, “Tehran’s executioner becomes the state executioner!”

link

Iran’s opposition calls for inauguration protests

By NASSER KARIMI (AP) –

TEHRAN, Iran — Opposition groups called for protesters to prepare for a new round of street demonstrations Wednesday to coincide with the inauguration ceremony for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The appeals — carried on reformist Web sites and blogs — showed a willingness by protesters to confront the massive security operation expected outside parliament and other areas of the capital Tehran during the swearing in formalities.

Authorities have increasingly dispatched waves of riot police in pre-emptive moves before high-profile events linked to the disputed June 12 elections and its violent aftermath, such as memorials for victims of the unrest.

There were scattered clashes Monday in Tehran after a ceremony where Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei formally endorsed Ahmadinejad’s second term.

Another cause for opposition anger is a mass trial scheduled to resume Thursday for more than 100 people, including many prominent reformist activists and political figures. They are accused of encouraging the protests and challenging the Islamic system.

The trial has brought widespread denunciations from reformists and some powerful conservatives — adding to the rifts within Iran’s leadership over its handling of the most serious domestic upheaval since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

In a possible move to address the discord, Iranian authorities said Tuesday they would bring charges against officials — including security forces and judicial members — accused of abusing civilians during the unrest.

The report by the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency gave no further details on possible action, but it comes after calls for trials for those suspected of killing of torturing protesters.

In the same vein, Iran’s police chief, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, told state TV late Tuesday that he has fired the head of a detention facility on Tehran’s southern outskirts which was ordered closed by Khamenei late last month.

The head of Kahrizak prison was fired because of “mismanagement,” Moghaddam said. Three guards at the facility were detained on charges of mistreating prisoners, he added without giving further details.

Human rights groups have identified at least three protesters they say died after being detained at Kahrizak, though the reports could not be independently confirmed. Kahrizak appeared to have little role as a detention center before the latest unrest, but many of the detainees are believed to have spent time there.

At least 30 people have died in the unrest that followed the vote, according to figures from a parliamentary investigation. Hundreds have been detained. Human rights groups believe the death toll is likely far higher.

Ahmadinejad’s main conservative election challenger Mohsen Rezaei — who served as commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards — has led the demands for high-level probes into abuses. On Tuesday, he warned that Iran could be moving toward a “religious dictatorship” if the ruling establishment tried to cling to power at all costs, according to a speech posted on reformist Web sites.

The son of Rezaei’s top aide, Abdolhossein Rouhalamini, died in detention. He was arrested during a July 9 protest and taken to a hospital two weeks later where he died within hours. Reformist Web sites said his jaw was broken when his father received his body.

Iran’s most senior dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, also compared the mass trial and several public confessions to the tactics of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein and other authoritarian rulers.

“Why they do such things that the people compare their courts to Stalin’s, Saddam’s and other dictators’ courts and trials?” said Montazeri in a statement posted on his Web site.

He said Islamic teachings say confessions in jail “have no religious or legal validity.”

Several pro-reform blogs and Web sites, including some linked to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, appealed for demonstrators to gather in front of parliament, where Ahmadinejad is to be officially sworn in for a second, four-year term. They also called for protests at main markets in other cities around Iran.

Mousavi and his backers alleged widespread vote rigging and other fraud in Ahmadinejad’s landslide re-election. Many protesters have now broadened their anger toward the wider Islamic leadership, which they claim has trampled rights by supporting the election results and launching blanket crackdowns on dissenters.

But one of the pro-reform candidates, Mahdi Karroubi, insisted he still backs Iran’s Islamic system despite claims that Ahmadinejad’s re-election does not reflect the will of the nation.

“The truth is that the majority of people don’t accept the methods, language and style of governing of Mr. Ahmedinejad. … We do not consider this government to be legitimate,” Karroubi was quoted by the Spanish newspaper El Pais in an interview published Tuesday.

He expressed worry about the “killings and the disturbances” during the street protests, but vowed to maintain pressure on Ahmadinejad.

“We are going to continue protesting,” he was quoted as saying. “We are never going to cooperate with this government. We don’t want to harm it but we are going to criticize its actions. We are not going to help it in any way.”

Many of Tuesday’s protest appeals included instructions to shift the rallies to main squares if the security presence is too strong at the first sites.

They called for key opposition figures — including Mousavi and Karroubi — to join the marches. They gave no immediate statements on plans to attend.

Life Inside an Iranian Prison

---

Life Inside an Iranian Prison

 The New York Times / Room for Debate/ Link

Roozbeh Mirebrahimi is an Iranian journalist who lives in New York City.

 

I was arrested in fall 2004 because of my work as a political editor for several reformist newspapers in Iran, as well as my critical comments about the regime on my blog and on other Web sites.

I spent 60 days in solitary confinement, where I was released only three times a day to use a bathroom for two to three minutes under camera surveillance. I was interrogated and tortured for days on end. Security agents blindfolded me and beat me repeatedly, pushing my head into the wall and onto a desk. They asked me questions about my relations with other journalists, particularly women, and with Westerners, and they constantly insulted my family.

 

I felt alone and was afraid for my life. I had no contact with the outside world — not even a newspaper. The interrogators told me — convinced me — that my friends and colleagues had forgotten about me. While in prison, I was charged with eight different counts of “participation in societies,” “propagating against the state,” publication of lies, “insulting the leader” and public disturbance. I was given no opportunity to defend myself.

After 60 days, I was released on bail because of international pressure and help from government reformists. In November 2006, I secured a lectureship at Princeton University and left Iran. In February 2009, the court sentenced me to two years’ imprisonment and 84 lashes. Two other charges are still under review.

The most important thing for Roxana Saberi is continued international pressure. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s letter urging Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the chief prosecutor, to re-examine the case is a good sign, as is Mr. Shahroudi’s order for a review (note that this is not the same as an appeal). With Mr. Shahroudi’s order, I am very hopeful about Ms. Saberi’s case.

Iran is a country

A few weeks ago i went to the bank for some banking works. By the time when the customer service understood that I am an Iranian asked me ” Are you thinking that the president of America has to negotiate with the president of your country?”

 

I said why not? negotiation is not a bad thing but if you want the talks will reach a conclusion I must say that the President in my country is not exact position for the final decision about foreign policy and you should go to the right person.He said “you mean’s Supreme leader?”I said “Yes you know well…”!!!!

 

After the general political discussion with him i came out of the bank and i was thinking about that. It was interesting that Iran’s issue is the case for so many American citizens .

 

I remember just a few years ago that when i was saying to people “I am an Iranian”. They were saying “Oh you are from Iraq”!!! okay so it is a positive point that apparently the result of Ahmadinezhad speeches and American media attention to him that at least more people knows Iran as country now!!

Iran: Four Journalists Sentenced to Prison, Floggings

 

 

Four Years After Arrests, No Public Investigation of Abuse Allegations

 

(New York, February 10, 2009) – The sentencing of four Tehran bloggers by Iran’s Judiciary Court on February 3, 2009, to prison terms, fines and flogging, despite the head of the judiciary’s admission that they had been coerced into confessing, violates their right to a fair trial, Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. The four said shortly after their arrest in 2004 that they had been tortured during interrogation, but there has been no public investigation into these allegations despite a high-level promise to do so.

 

Authorities arrested Omid Memarian, Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, Shahram Rafizadeh, and Javad Gholamtamimi in September and October 2004, and detained them without charge. The four said that they were subjected in detention to physical and psychological abuse, as well as prolonged periods of solitary confinement in a secret detention center without access to counsel or family. Three of the men subsequently described the abuse at a meeting with Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, the head of the judiciary. On April 20, 2005, a judiciary spokesman said that an official investigation confirmed that their confessions had been coerced. “The interrogators and prosecutors committed a series of negligent and careless acts in this case that led to the abuse of the detainees’ words and writings in producing confession letters,” the spokesman said.

 

“These sentences are shocking, given that the head of the judiciary himself admitted the evidence had been obtained by coercion” said Joe Stork, deputy director of the Middle East division at Human Rights Watch. “The judges should be investigating and prosecuting abusers, not their victims.”

 

Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran called on the Tehran Appeals Court to overturn the sentences, and on the government to investigate the torture claims.

 

The four journalists were released on bail in late 2004. Memarian, Mirebrahimi, and Rafizadeh subsequently left Iran and are living abroad. Gholamtamimi resides in Iran.

 

Judiciary authorities informed lawyers for the four on February 4 that Branch 1059 of Tehran’s Judiciary Court sentenced them each to prison terms of up to three years and three months, and to be flogged. Memarian was also fined 500,000 tomans (US$520). The known charges against them include “participating in the establishment of illegal organizations,” “membership in illegal organizations,” “propaganda against the state,” “disseminating lies,” and “disturbing public order.” Gholamtamimi was also charged with treason.

 

The lawyers for the four include the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Shirin Ebadi, who told Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran that they would “definitely appeal” the sentences.

 

Memarian, Mirebrahimi, and Rafizadeh met with Ayatollah Shahroudi on January 10, 2005, and described physical and psychological torture at the hands of a specific interrogator, whom they said identified himself as “Keshavarz” (farmer). They said the magistrate in charge was known as “Mehdipour.”

 

“We trusted Shahroudi,” said Mirebrahimi, who worked as a consultant with Human Rights Watch in 2008. “He told us, ‘Don’t tell anyone what happened to you in prison and I promise I will solve the problem.’”

 

The apparent purpose of the abuse was to extract confessions that implicate reformist politicians and civil society activists in activities such as spying and violating national security laws (http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2004/12/19/iran-judiciary-uses-coercion-cover-torture ). According to the three men, both the interrogator and the magistrate repeatedly delivered messages and threats to the detainees on behalf of the chief prosecutor of Tehran. Shahroudi’s spokesman announced on January 12, 2005 that, “Shahroudi has issued a special order to investigate and probe these [detentions]. If any of the detainees’ allegations, at any level, are true then we will prosecute the violators.” To date, the government has not made the full findings of any investigation public, nor has it announced any penalties or prosecution for the abuse.

 

“Either the Iranian judges are not listening to Ayatollah Shahroudi, or he has reneged on his promise to investigate the torturers and not the bloggers,” said Hadi Ghaemi, coordinator of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. “These brave journalists stood up for their rights. It’s high time the Iranian judiciary stood up for justice.”

 

Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran have documented extensive patterns of forced confessions, arbitrary detentions, and prison torture against opposition political activists, journalists, and anyone perceived as a critic. (http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/01/06/you-can-detain-anyone-anything-0 )

 

To read the Iran country chapter of Human Rights Watch’s World Report 2009, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/en/node/79223

 

For more of Human Rights Watch’s work on Iran, please visit:

http://www.hrw.org/en/middle-eastn-africa/iran

 

For more of the work of the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, please visit:

http://www.iranhumanrights.org/

 

 

8.5 Years Prison, 124 Lashes!‎

Interview with Convicted Bloggers – 2009.02.09

Roozonline: 

A criminal court in Tehran sentenced 4 bloggers to a total of 8.5 years of prison terms ‎and 124 lashes. Bloggers Javad Gholam Tamimi, Shahram Rafizadeh, Roozbeh Mir ‎Ebrahimi and Omid Memarian received the sentences four years after their release on ‎bail.‎

 

MirEbrahimi, who has already spent several months in solitary confinement received a 2 year ‎and 2 day prison sentence plus 84 lashes. “We will appeal the verdict within the ‎designated time period one hundred percent and reveal necessary facts about this case. ‎This verdict has no merit and is based only on previous confessions which were extracted ‎under torture and in solitary confinement,” he told Rooz.‎

 

When asked whether he expected such a harsh sentence four years after meeting with the ‎head of Iran’s judiciary Ayatollah Shahroudi and his promise to rebuke guilty officers ‎and judges in the case Ebrahimi responded, “We have till today not announced the full ‎details of this case and our meetings with officials, thinking we could trust the promise of ‎an official of Ayatollah Shahroudi’s stature. But the sentence that we heard today was ‎completely contrary to what we believed.” Mir Ebrahimi added, “Developments in this case ‎in the past four years, especially replacing four judges in the case pointed to deviations in ‎the process of examining the case.” ‎

 

On the other hand, journalist and blogger Omid Memarian, who is sentenced to 2.5 years ‎behind bars and 10 lashes, told Rooz, “I was shocked to hear about the sentence because ‎after our meeting at the Constitutional Oversight Committee and explaining the events ‎that transpired during our detention in a meeting we had with Ayatollah Shahroudi, the ‎chief judge promised us to close the case and that he would rebuke individuals who had ‎committed illegal and in certain cases perverted actions during our detention.” ‎

 

According to Memarian, “Mr. Shahroudi asked us to refrain revealing to the media the ‎details of what had transpired during our detention and that he would resolve the case. ‎Apparently though Mr. Shahroudi lacks the power to implement his orders and our trust ‎in him was unwarranted.”‎

 

Recalling tortures and psychological pressures imposed on him by detention officers, ‎Memarian said, “The officers who interrogated me and extracted the confessions that ‎they wanted while I was held in solitary confinement under all kinds of physical and ‎psychological pressures were sexual and mental abusers.”‎

 

Memarian emphasized, “I told Mr. Shahroudi that not just in my case, but in no one’s ‎case should these individuals be left alone in the room with anyone, because they are ‎mentally unstable and capable of doing things that no mentally sane and stable person is ‎able to do. After two months of being subjected to torture in solitary confinement, our ‎lives have never returned to its initial condition because of that dark time’s psychological ‎pressures.” ‎

 

Details of the Sentence

 

The sentence, signed by “Judge Hosseini” and forwarded to some of the attorneys of the ‎bloggers and journalists, provides that defendants in the bloggers case are charged with ‎‎“authoring and publishing articles in counter-revolutionary blogs and websites.”‎

 

The verdict refers to defense arguments put forward by Shirin Ebadi, Mohammad ‎Seifzadeh, Nasreen Sotudeh and Nemat Ahmadi (who represented the four bloggers ‎individually) as “unconvincing defense by attorneys” and announces that in accordance ‎with “defendants’ confessions” and “evidence presented in the case” the following ‎verdicts are issued for the four defendants: first defendant Javad Gholam Tamimi is ‎sentenced to 3 years and 3 months in prison and 10 lashes for “membership in illegal ‎groups,” “treason against country,” “propaganda against regime” and “spreading lies;” ‎second defendant Shahram Rafizadeh is sentenced to 9 months in prison and 20 lashes for ‎‎“membership in illegal groups,” “propaganda against regime,” “spreading lies” and ‎‎“disrupting public order;” third defendant Roozbeh Mir Ebrahimi is sentenced to 2 years ‎and 2 days in prison and 84 lashes for “membership in illegal groups,” “propaganda ‎against regime,” “insulting supreme leader,” “spreading lies” and “disrupting public ‎order;” and fourth defendant Omid Memarian is sentenced to 2.5 years in prison, 10 ‎lashes and 500 thousand Tomans in fines for “membership in illegal groups,” ‎‎“participation in illegal groups,” “propaganda against regime,” “spreading lies” and ‎‎“possession of playing cards,” which the judge refers to as “gambling tools.” ‎

 

Case History

 

Shahram Rafizdeh, Roozbeh Mir Ebrahimi, Omid Memarian and Javad Gholam Tamimi ‎were arrested in September 2004 along with 17 other individuals and spent several ‎months in secret detention facilities in solitary confinement and forced to confess under ‎pressure by Tehran’s Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi.‎

 

Following their temporary release, brought about by widespread protests from the ‎Association of Iranian journalists, international human rights organizations and the-then ‎president Mohammad Khatami, the bloggers revealed the account of their tortures and ‎met with the head of judiciary on October 6, 2004.‎

 

The details of that meeting have not yet been published but Mohammad Khatami’s ‎deputy, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, wrote on his blog at the time that, after hearing the ‎details of tortures the bloggers were subjected to and threats received by their families, ‎Ayatollah Shahroudi was visibly shaken and ordered for officers in charge of the case to ‎be prosecuted.‎

 

A day after the meeting, Jamal Karimi-Rad, former judiciary spokesperson said that ‎Ayatollah Shahroudi has ordered the case to be taken away from Tehran’s Prosecutor ‎General and appointed a 3-man committee to investigate the matter.‎

 

The next month, the head of Tehran’s court system, Abasali Alizadeh, told ISNA and ‎IRNA, “Certain officers and judiciary’s officials committed violations throughout the ‎case, including in extracting confessions from defendants.”‎

 

Two years imprisonment and 84 lashes

On Wednesday February 4 , 2009 a division of court in Tehran (# 1059) sentenced four journalists and bloggers to eight and a half years imprisonment and 124 lashes.

Four years ago these four bloggers- Shahram Rafizadeh, Roozbeh Mirebrahimi, Omid Memarian and Javad Gholamtamimi were arrested , interrogated and detained , each for several months. These case in Iran known as ” Blog writers ” case.

Among the four bloggers , Javad Gholamtamimi is still in Iran – Shahram is in Canada, Ruzbeh and Omid are in US.

Shahram Rafizadeh was allegedly accused of ” participation in illegal socities”, ” propagating against the state “, ” publication of lies” and “public disturbance” . He was sentenced to 9 months prison term and 20 lashes. His two other charges is still under review.

Roozbeh Mirebrahimi was allegedly accused of ” participation in illegal socities”, ” propagating against the state “, ” publication of lies” , “insulting the leader “and “public disturbance”. He was sentenced to two years and two days imprisonment and 84 lashes . His two other charges is still under review.

Omid Memarian was allegedly accused of ” participation in forming illegal societies”, ” membership in illegal socities” , ” propagating against the state “, ” publication of lies”, ” keeping gambling tools” . He was sentenced to two years and six months imprisonment , 10 lashes and 500,000 “Tuman” ( equal to $500 cnd ) fine. His two other charges is still under review.

Javad Gholamtamimi was allegedly accused of ” participation in forming illegal societies”, ” , ” propagating against the state “, ” publication of lies”, “public disturbance”. and ” trason to country. He was sentenced to three years and three months imprisonment and 10 lashes.

Link

IRAN From a Window

I made this electronic book by Myebook.com. You can downloade and read most of the my interviews during past 6 years.

Here is book’s link.