TIMES ONLINE: Nine more dissidents will be executed soon, a senior member of Iran's judiciary declared today, as the regime stepped up its efforts to deter another huge opposition rally planned for next week.
The regime is sufficiently worried that it has ordered state television not to broadcast the usual historic television footage of insurrection on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Shah, lest the scenes incite today's opposition to follow suit.
Last Thursday it hanged two men for allegedly plotting against the regime - a move condemned internationally but praised by Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, a hardline cleric, during Friday prayers in Tehran. "May God not have mercy on those who are lenient with the corrupt on earth," he said. "There is no room for clemency. It is time for severity."
On Saturday the regime broadcast the trial of 16 opposition supporters, two of them women, for allegedly plotting against the Islamic Republic and conspiring with its foreign enemies.
Today Ebrahim Raisi, a senior member of the judiciary, announced that nine more alleged members of "anti-revolutionary" groups would be hanged soon. "They had participated in riots with the aim of creating disunity and toppling the system," he said. Nine to be executed as Iran plans crackdown >>> Martin Fletcher | Tuesday, February 02, 2010
