Showing posts with label Iranian elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Iranian elections. Show all posts
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Wednesday, May 22, 2013
Friday, August 14, 2009
BBC: Iran's defeated opposition presidential candidate has said that some protesters held after last month's disputed poll were tortured to death in prison.
The claim by Mehdi Karroubi comes days after he said a number of prisoners, both male and female, had been raped. Officials deny the rape claims, but admit that abuses have taken place.
The BBC's Jon Leyne says the opposition uses the issue to maintain political pressure without directly questioning Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's poll victory.
On Thursday, Mr Karroubi alleged that a number of detainees had been tortured to death.
"Some young people are beaten to death just for chanting slogans in [post-election] protests," his website said.
Mr Karroubi also called for the formation of an independent committee to review his evidence in "a calm atmosphere".
On Sunday, the defeated presidential candidate claimed that some opposition protesters were raped in detention.
The claim was supported by a number of human rights groups but quickly dismissed as "totally baseless" by the speaker of Iran's parliament, Ali Larijani.
"Based on parliament's investigations, detainees have not been raped or sexually abused in Iran's Kahrizak and Evin prisons," said. >>> | Thursday, August 13, 2009
Monday, July 27, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was facing a revolt by furious Iranian hardliners on Monday after he sacked a key conservative minister in an act of revenge.
The Iranian leader found himself at the centre of bitter infighting within the Iranian establishment when he dismissed his intelligence minister after his choice for vice-president was overruled by the country's Supreme Leader.
The backlash intensified when another minister offered his resignation in protest at Mr Ahmadinejad's move at the weekend.
The tit-for-tat exchange between feuding elites threatened his already embattled grasp on power after his disputed election victory in the presidential election last month which provoked street protests and allegations of mass fraud at the ballot box. >>> Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent | Monday, July 27, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: Two inmates die from meningitis in Evin prison / Former detainees speak of harassment and torture
Fears are mounting over the safety of hundreds of political inmates in Iran's most notorious prison following the deaths of two prisoners detained in the recent post-election unrest.
Mohsen Rouholamini and Amir Javadifar died in Tehran's Evin prison after being arrested at a demonstration this month.
Rouholamini, the son of a prominent Iranian scientist close to the country's political elite, died from meningitis after injuries believed to have been inflicted by his jailers went untreated.
The deaths prompted fears of a meningitis outbreak in Evin and other overcrowded detention centres where opposition figures, journalists and students are kept following last month's disputed election. News of the deaths coincided with reports of injuries to other detainees.
One inmate, Isa Saharkhiz, a prominent reformist journalist and commentator, is reported to have suffered broken ribs after being tortured under interrogation.
Campaigners are also concerned for the safety of Kian Tajbakhsh, an American-Iranian scholar said to be under pressure to confess involvement in an alleged western plot to orchestrate the protests following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.
Prisoners recently released from Evin have described enduring countless beatings and being herded into tiny cells without air conditioning, where stifling temperatures regularly soar above 40C. >>> Robert Tait and Saeed Kamali Dehghan in Tehran | Sunday, July 26, 2009
Sunday, July 05, 2009
THE NEW YORK TIMES: CAIRO — The most important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country’s clerical establishment.
A statement by the group, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qum, represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult — if not impossible.
“This crack in the clerical establishment, and the fact they are siding with the people and Moussavi, in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic,” said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. “Remember, they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei.” >>> Michael Slackman and Nazila Fathi | Saturday, July 04, 2009
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Zahra, an Iranian woman studying at an English university, is in a state of terror. Her husband, an activist in the cause of the defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, was arrested a fortnight ago, and has not been seen since. Zahra, whose eyes are lined in green, the colour of the country’s reformist opposition, told the BBC: “Why should he be in jail? What was wrong with what we did in Tehran? It was the basic right of all Iranians to take part in the election.” She went on: “They don’t let my husband call me . . . this is torture.”
It is torture for Zahra because she has a good idea of what is happening to her husband. The Iranian state media have been broadcasting a series of “confessions” by demonstrators against the alleged rigging of the presidential vote in favour of the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They all tend to say the same thing: “I admit that I demonstrated under the influence of the BBC, the Voice of America and other foreign media.”
Their identities are not discernible, because their faces have been obscured. The reason for this was made horribly clear by remarks in The Guardian from a shopkeeper friend of an 18-year-old who had been “questioned” by the Iranian security services: “You could tell straight away he had just been released. His face was bruised all over. His teeth were broken and he could hardly open his eyes . . . [Later] the doctor told me that he had suffered rupture of the rectum.”
The shopkeeper quoted his 18-year-old friend to the effect that he had not “confessed” despite several days of beating while being hung from a ceiling with his hands and feet tied together. At that point two men tore his clothes off while a third “did it” – that is, inflicted the assault that ruptured his rectum. He was raped several times in this way, in front of four other detainees, but continued to refuse to sign a confession along the lines suggested by his interrogators.
So when we hear Ayatollah Jannati, chief of the Guardian Council, say of arrested Iranian employees of the British embassy in Tehran, “Naturally they will be put on trial, they have made confessions,” we should be only too aware of what will have been happening to some of Her Majesty’s servants. >>> Dominic Lawson | Sunday, July 05, 2009
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
TIMESONLINE: It is called Press TV, is funded by the Iranian regime, and opponents say that from its nondescript offices off Hanger Lane in northwest London the 24-hour news station is beaming pro-Tehran propaganda into homes across Britain.
Nick Ferrari, a leading British radio presenter, quit his show on the station yesterday in protest at the regime crushing dissent after the Iranian elections, but Press TV continues to employ plenty of other Britons — including MPs and Cherie Blair’s sister.
It operates freely in this country, even as foreign journalists are ejected from Iran. It advertises on London buses.
The regime set up Press TV two years ago to break the “stranglehold” of the Western media — and its coverage of the election and the aftermath has certainly been different.
Stories featured on its website yesterday carried headlines such as “Ahmadinejad vows to break global monopoly”, “Ahmadinejad orders probe into Neda’s ‘suspicious’ death”, and “Guardian Council closes file on Iran election”.
Ofcom, the broadcast regulator, is investigating a complaint that Press TV has breached its duty to be accurate and impartial, and many Iranians living in Britain are appalled that it can operate so freely.
“They’re the mouthpiece of a vicious regime. Their motto is, ‘We give voice to the voiceless’. In fact, they give voice to liars and murderers,” says Potkin Azarmehr, a popular blogger. >>> Martin Fletcher | Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
If you’d like to help The Guardian put a face to the dead or detained in Iran in the recent uprisings, click here
Saturday, June 27, 2009
THE GUARDIAN: Amnesty reports apparent attempt to implicate defeated presidential candidate in conspiracy to overthrow regime
Jailed Iranian reformists are believed to have been tortured in an attempt to force them into TV "confessions" of a foreign-led plot against the Islamic regime.
According to Iranian websites, the "confessions" are aimed at implicating Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the defeated reformist candidates in this month's presidential poll, in an alleged conspiracy.
Mostafa Tajzadeh, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh, all Mousavi supporters, are reported to have undergone "intensive interrogation" sessions in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since being arrested in a mass round-up of opposition figures following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.
The three, who all served in the government of the former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, are among several hundred activists, academics, journalists and students detained in a crackdown coinciding with the brutal suppression of street protesters who believe the election was stolen.
Fellow prisoners are reported to have heard screams of pain from Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister, and Ramezanzadeh, who was Khatami's government spokesman, during interrogations at Evin's section 209, which is reserved for political prisoners and run by the hardline intelligence ministry. >>> Robert Tait | Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
THE HUFFINGTON POST: Whatever happens from this point on, nothing will ever be the same in Tehran.
Whatever happens, if the protest gains momentum or loses steam, if it ends up prevailing or if the regime succeeds in terrorizing it, he who should now only be called president-non-elect Ahmadinejad will only be an ersatz, illegitimate, weakened president.
Whatever happens, whatever the result of this crisis provoked two weeks ago by the enormity of a fraud that serious-minded people can no longer doubt, no Iranian leader can appear on the global scene, or in any negotiation with Obama, Sarkozy, or Merkel, without being haloed, not by the nimbus of light dreamed of by Ahmadinejad in his 2005 speech to the United Nations, but by the cloud of sulphur that crowns cheaters and butchers.
Whatever happens, the Ayatollah Khamenei, Khomeini's successor and Supreme Leader of the regime, tutelary authority of the President, father of the people, will have lost his role as arbiter, will have shamelessly sided with one faction over the others, and will have therefore lost what remained of his authority: "Only God knows my vote," he carefully replied four years ago to those who were already calling upon him to denounce the fraud--"in the name of merciful God, I armor, I hammer, and I dissolve the people," he has responded this time to the naïve who believed he was there to uphold the Constitution.
Whatever happens, the block of ayatollahs who had always succeeded in maintaining a united front, whatever their differences and divergent interests, will have put their ferocious divisions on display: the ones behind Khamenei, approving of the decision to crush the movement with blood; the others, like the ex-President Rafsanjani, leader of the very powerful Assembly of Experts, warning that if the wave of protests were not taken seriously, veritable "volcanoes" of anger would erupt. Others still like the Grand Ayatollah Montazeri who, since his house arrest in Qom, has been calling for a recount and for national mourning for the victims of the repression; and without mentioning the leading religious experts of the "Office of Theological Seminaries" who no longer fear proposing the possibility--what passed for heresy not long ago--of Khamenei's resignation and of his replacement by a "Guidance Council."
Whatever happens, and beyond these internal conflicts, the people will be dissociated from an anemic and fatally wounded regime. >>> Bernard-Henri Lévy, French philosopher and writer | Monday, June 22, 2009
Translated from French by Sara Phenix.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: A man identifying himself as the boyfriend of the 'Angel of Freedom' whose grisly death in Iran's post-election protests was captured on video and posted on YouTube has said that she only wanted democracy and freedom for the people of Iran.
In the video, Neda Agha Soltan, is lying on the ground as blood appears to flow from her mouth and nose. Her apparent last moments spread around the world on YouTube, Facebook, blogs and Twitter, turning her into an icon in the clash between Iran's cleric-led government and protesters.
"She only ever said that she wanted one thing, she wanted democracy and freedom for the people of Iran," Caspian Makan said.
Makan, a 37-year-old photojournalist in Tehran, said he met the 27-year-old music student several months ago on a trip outside the country. Foreign media are banned from covering the demonstrations and the authenticity of the video cannot be verified.
Makan provided photographs of himself with a woman he identified as Soltan and also had her as a friend on his Facebook page and said he had intended to marry her. "I still feel her, I still talk to her," he said.
Makan said that they had argued in the days before her death about her decision to attend the protests, which were part of the self-described "green wave" movement that claims hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole his June 12 re-election.
He said he had asked her not to go out for fear she would be arrested or shot. "I tried to dissuade her from going out in the streets because I'd seen in my work as a journalist that, unfortunately, there are a lot of merciless behaviours," Makan said. >>> | Tuesday, June 23, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran Elections: Video of 'Angel of Freedom's' Death Will Haunt the Iranian Regime
Neda Agha Soltan’s importance is that her death has vividly demonstrated how far the Iranian regime stands in violation of its own values, writes Damien McElroy.
The video of a woman dying in the streets of Tehran is a historic turning point that will haunt the Iranian regime for as long as it remains unreconstructed.
That governments should not turn guns on its own people is a universal truth of powerful force. Twenty years on from the great convulsion against Communism in 1989, the world is shaped by that principle. Those states that did not, like Poland, have been transformed into mostly free democracies. Those that did, like China, have for all the gloss, merely postponed a process of historic reckoning.
What doubles the impact of the image for Iran is the hold that martyrdom - death for a cause - has exerted on the national imagination. The blood that defines the seconds of mobile phone footage that shows Neda Agha Soltan losing her life is central to the character of the Iranian nation. >>> Damien McElroy | Tuesday, June 23, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Iranian Authorities Scramble to Negate Neda Soltan 'Martyrdom'
The Iranian authorities have ordered the family of a student shot dead in Tehran to take down mourning posters as they struggle to stop her becoming the rallying point for protests against the presidential election.
Neda Salehi Agha Soltan, 26, was killed as she watched a pro-democracy protest, and mobile phone footage of her last moments have become a worldwide symbol of Iran's turmoil.
The authorities had already banned a public funeral or wake and have prevented gatherings in her name while the state-controlled media has not mentioned Miss Soltan's death.
Today it was reported that they had also told her family to take down the black mourning banners outside their home in the Tehran suburbs to prevent it becoming a place of pilgrimage. They were also told they could not hold a memorial service at a mosque.
Nevertheless posters of Miss Soltan's face have started to appear all over Tehran.
The attempted crackdown came as friends present as Miss Soltan died came forward to detail what happened.
Hamid Panahi, her friend and music teacher, told the Los Angeles Times how Miss Soltan was shot as they and two others were making their way to a demonstration in Freedom Square in central Tehran. Their car became stuck in traffic on Karegar Street and they got out for some air.
Mr Panahi said that he heard a distant crack and saw Miss Soltan instantly collapse to the ground.
"We were stuck in traffic and we got out and stood to watch and, without her throwing a rock or anything, they shot her," he said. "It was just one bullet."
He later heard other witnesses claiming that the gunman was not a police officer but one of a group of plainclothes officials or Basiji militia.
He recalled watching in horror as blood came out of her chest and then began to bubble from her nose and mouth - footage that bystanders captured on their mobile phones and posted on the internet, where she has become a global phenomenon.
Mr Panahi said that Neda's last words before she slipped into unconsciousness were: "I'm burning! I'm burning!" >>> Jenny Booth | Tuesday, June 23, 2009
CNN: Fighting Tears, Shah's Son Calls Crisis a 'Moment of Truth'
WASHINGTON -- The son of the former shah of Iran called Monday for solidarity against Iran's Islamic regime, warning that the democratic movement born out of the election crisis might not succeed without international support.
"The moment of truth has arrived," Reza Shah Pahlavi said at Washington's National Press Club. "The people of Iran need to know who stands with them."
Pahlavi has lived in exile since 1979, when his father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution. Under the shah's regime, Iran saw nationalization of its oil and a strong movement toward modernization. Still, his secular programs and recognition of Israel cost him the support of the country's Shiite clergy, sparking clashes with the religious right and others who resented his pro-West views.
The son now lives in the United States with his family, where he spends much of his time talking about the Islamic regime in Iran.
During his remarks, he broke into tears when he spoke of "bullets piercing our beloved Neda," a woman killed Saturday by Iranian police at a protest in Tehran, whose death has become a rallying cry among demonstrators in Iran.
The Iranian regime, he said, was a "sinking Titanic" that might not survive the demands for democracy and human rights reverberating through the country.
Citing anecdotes from people inside the Iranian establishment, Pahlavi said he had heard that security forces have begun to distance themselves from the regime.
"It has already started," he said, citing reports that members of the security forces have gone home after their shifts ended and changed into plain clothes to join the protesters.
"Many, many elements within the security forces, within the Revolutionary Guard, are showing discontent," Pahlavi said. "There is an amazing reflection that is happening. ... This is a movement that has blown out of proportion." >>> By Elise Labott, CNN State Department Producer | Monday, June 22, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
CNN: Fighting Tears, Shah's Son Calls Crisis a 'Moment of Truth'
WASHINGTON -- The son of the former shah of Iran called Monday for solidarity against Iran's Islamic regime, warning that the democratic movement born out of the election crisis might not succeed without international support.
"The moment of truth has arrived," Reza Shah Pahlavi said at Washington's National Press Club. "The people of Iran need to know who stands with them."
Pahlavi has lived in exile since 1979, when his father, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, was overthrown during the Islamic Revolution. Under the shah's regime, Iran saw nationalization of its oil and a strong movement toward modernization. Still, his secular programs and recognition of Israel cost him the support of the country's Shiite clergy, sparking clashes with the religious right and others who resented his pro-West views.
The son now lives in the United States with his family, where he spends much of his time talking about the Islamic regime in Iran.
During his remarks, he broke into tears when he spoke of "bullets piercing our beloved Neda," a woman killed Saturday by Iranian police at a protest in Tehran, whose death has become a rallying cry among demonstrators in Iran.
The Iranian regime, he said, was a "sinking Titanic" that might not survive the demands for democracy and human rights reverberating through the country.
Citing anecdotes from people inside the Iranian establishment, Pahlavi said he had heard that security forces have begun to distance themselves from the regime.
"It has already started," he said, citing reports that members of the security forces have gone home after their shifts ended and changed into plain clothes to join the protesters.
"Many, many elements within the security forces, within the Revolutionary Guard, are showing discontent," Pahlavi said. "There is an amazing reflection that is happening. ... This is a movement that has blown out of proportion." >>> By Elise Labott, CNN State Department Producer | Monday, June 22, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
THE NEW YORK TIMES: For two decades, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has remained a shadowy presence at the pinnacle of power in Iran, sparing in his public appearances and comments. Through his control of the military, the judiciary and all public broadcasts, the supreme leader controlled the levers he needed to maintain an iron if discreet grip on the Islamic republic.
But in a rare break from a long history of cautious moves, he rushed to bless President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for winning the election, calling on Iranians to line up behind the incumbent even before the standard three days required to certify the results had passed.
Then angry crowds swelled in cities around Iran, and he backpedaled, announcing Monday that the 12-member Council of Guardians, which vets elections and new laws, would investigate the vote.
“After congratulating the nation for having a sacred victory, to say now that there is a possibility that it was rigged is a big step backward for him,” said Abbas Milani, the director of Stanford University’s Iranian studies program.
Few suggest yet that Ayatollah Khamenei’s hold on power is at risk. But, analysts say, he has opened a serious fissure in the face of Islamic rule and one that may prove impossible to patch over, particularly given the fierce dispute over the election that has erupted amid the elite veterans of the 1979 revolution. Even his strong links to the powerful Revolutionary Guards — long his insurance policy — may not be decisive as the confrontation in Iran unfolds.
“Khamenei would always come and say, ‘Shut up; what I say goes,’ ” said Azar Nafisi, the author of two memoirs about Iran, including “Reading Lolita in Tehran.” “Everyone would say, ‘O.K., it is the word of the leader.’ Now the myth that there is a leader up there whose power is unquestionable is broken.”
Those sensing that important change may be afoot are quick to caution that Ayatollah Khamenei, as a student of the revolution that swept the shah from power, could still resort to overwhelming force to crush the demonstrations.
In calling for the Guardian Council to investigate the vote, he has bought himself a 10-day grace period for the anger to subside, experts note. The outcome is not likely to be a surprise. Ayatollah Ahmed Jannati, the council’s chairman, is one of Ayatollah Khamenei’s few staunch allies among powerful clerics. In addition, Ayatollah Khamenei appoints half the members, while the other half are nominated by the head of the judiciary, another appointee of the supreme leader.
“It is simply a faux investigation to quell the protests,” said Karim Sadjadpour, an Iran specialist at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. >>> By Neil Farquhar | Monday, June 15, 2009
Monday, June 15, 2009
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has joined hundreds of thousands of supporters at a mass rally in Tehran to protest against alleged vote rigging.
Despite official orders banning the demonstration from going ahead, Mr Mousavi addressed his followers as they chanted "give us back our votes".
Standing on a car roof and speaking to the surging crowds through a loud hailer, he declared: "The vote of the people is more important than Mousavi or any other person."
In contrast to a previous rally on Saturday, the security forces made no attempt to break up the gathering, although there were occasional clashes with bystanders suspected to be supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
As night fell, there were reports of gunmen firing on protesters, killing at least one person and wounding several others in Tehran's Azadi Square. The shooting is thought to have come from a compound for volunteer militia linked to the Revolutionary Guard.
But most police stood watching with their helmets and shields at their sides, while protesters – wearing the green wristbands, scarves and hats that have symbolised the Mousavi campaign – urged them to join in the demonstration.
"Law enforcers, support us, support us!" they shouted. "You are green like us!" Others urged Mohammad Khatami, the former president who pioneered the reformist movement and who backed Mr Mousavi's candidacy, to also attend the rally. Mr Khatami had earlier criticised the authorities for denying permission for the demonstration, and said that the election had dented public trust in the regime. >>> By Colin Freeman | Monday, June 15, 2009
TIMES ONLINE: Hardliners Open Fire as Tension Grips Tehran
Tehran was a tinderbox last night after government paramilitaries started shooting during a huge public protest against last Friday's disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Members of the Basij, a force of young Islamic hardliners, killed one demonstrator and wounded several more when their building was attacked, after tens of thousands of demonstrators held a rally against election fraud in defiance of a government ban.
In another incident, a witness told The Times how she watched from her car as riot police on six motorbikes opened fire on youths walking under a bridge after the rally.
“The riot police started shooting them with big guns,” she said. “It wasn’t like the films where there is just a small hole — the shooting was blowing off hands, limbs. It was terrrible, terrible.”
Gunfire was heard in at least three other districts of the Iranian capital. The Ministry of the Interior was rumoured to have authorised the use of live ammunition as the regime struggled to maintain control. Supporters of the defeated candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, fought running battles with the police and Basiji, who have flooded into Tehran. >>> Martin Fletcher | Tuesday, June 16, 2009
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