Monday, February 1, 2010

Saturday January 30th 2010 Newsletter

Student Information Center (SIC)
Newsletter Issue 163 - Saturday January 30th, 2010                                                                                                                                                              
FUTURE PLANS
--Preparation for 22nd of Bahman demonstration and the "ten-day civil residence".
--Holding the 40th day anniversary of the martyrs of Ashoura day, on 16th of Bahman, at the same time az Arba'een day.
--Holding the 40th anniversary of Ayatollah Montazeri on14th of Bahman.
--Efforts focused at increasing non-violent civil disobedience in the society.
--Writing slogans on the walls and bills

NEWS

--Norouz: Criticizing the recent death sentences issued and enforced without proper judicial procedures, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi expressed their disappointment with the hastiness with which those executions were performed. "It seems that [these two individuals executed last Thursday] had been arrested several months prior to the presidential election and the charges brought against them had nothing to do with the post-election turmoils" said Mousavi and Karroubi pointing to their case "and according to their attorneys, they have only been allowed to have a short meeting with their clients without proper judicial procedures being carried out. It seems like these actions are to frighten people prior to [anticipated] protests at February 11 [the anniversary of Islamic Revolution of 1979]." Mousavi and Karroubi emphasized that "It is illegal to arrest journalists and political and student activists simply for defending their rights. Furthermore the procedures used for getting confessions from those prisoners is also against the Islamic principles and the Constitution."

--Radiofarda: Hashemi Rafsanjani, the Speaker of the Expediency Council, asked people to participate in February 11 rallies and make it a 'manifestation of national unity for defending the Islamic Republic despite their differences." He also said that the supporters of Islamic Republic should do their best having a smooth quiet Feb. 11, since any clash and violence on that specific day will serve the interests of the enemies of the revolution.


--Nedaye-sabz: Dr. Muhammad-Ali Homayoun-Katouzian, the renowned Iranian academician and Oxford faculty refrained from delivering a speech at a conference where the cultural representative of Iran in UK was also invited to speak.


--Neda-y-sabz: In the aftermath of unjust executions of Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour and amid increasing concerns about the likelihood of similar executions of post-election detainees, some Iranians in London gathered  in front of the Iranian Embassy in UK last Friday to express their protest.


--JARAS: Mehdi Karroubi states in an interview with Financial times that he will certainly participate in the 22nd of Bahman rally and adds: The Iranians do not accept something dictated to them. They may suffer that for a short time but they suddenly explode. The full report of the interview is provided in the appendix.

--VOA: Ahmad Jannati, the temporary Imam of the friday prayers in Tehran, applauded the execution of two political protesters on Thursday and encouraged them to continue executing other disorders in order to stop the protests. 

--The Green Voice of Liberty: Manager depute of the Saipa industrial group, strongly denied the inclusion of some relatives of Isfandiar Mashaee, the current speak-man of the President, but he added that giving responsibilities to  relatives is not illegal.

--The Green Voice of Liberty: The American Senate accepted a law which lets president obama increase the sanctions  against Iran.These sanctions focus on companies exporting patrol to Iran. The congress had accepted this law on last December. This law  now be signed by Obama after receiving final revisions.

--Radio Zamaneh: Fourteen Noble Laureates, in an open letter to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, condemned the limitations and pressures enforced upon Shirin Ebadi and other human rights activists in Iran.


--JARAS: Molavi Abdulhamid, the Suni Friday-prayer Imam in Zahedan, in his speech said, "the 1979 victory was possible because of the will of the people not through a military coup. And today, its continuity depends on the will of the people."


--JARAS: In a speech, Ayatollah Sonhani stated, "if the people are satisfied with our performance, we are set and all the problems will be solved eventually; craving the satisfaction of the elite is not relevant and should not be pursued".

--JARAS: Last Week, the students of the Farzanegan high-school of exceptional talents put up photos of the Grand Ayatollah Montazeri on the main board of the high school. Threatened by this action, the education office of the Isfahan asked the school principal to refer the culprits. However, the principal, who is the sister of the martyr commander Agha Rabparast, resists and is subsequently forced to resign. It is mentionable that the high-school was closed two days after the crisis.


--Radio Zamaneh: The international human-rights campaign issued an statement and revealed that the prisoned members of the human-right reporters are under pressure to forcefully confess that they are members of the MKO organization. This human-right organization adds that they have been informed from different sources that the judiciary system plans to relate the human-right reporters to the opposition groups in exile and consequently convict them with severe criminal charges.
NEWS OF THE ARRESTED

--Norouz: The tribunal of sixteen individuals who had been arrested on the day of Ashura was held in Tehran today. Five of them have been charged with muharibah (War on God) and musfed-e-fe-al-arz (corruption on earth) [which are serious crimes in the Islamic Judicial System punished with death penalty]. The rest are charged with gathering and conspiring against national security, propaganda against Regime and intent to disturb national security through encouraging people to rebel and protest, and their membership in secular parties, MEK, monarchist groups, Bahai circles and social networks such as facebook.



--JARAS: Efforts are underway to stop the execution of five post-Ashura detainees who have been sentenced for death by Judge Salavati. 

--JARAS: Seyyed Mohammad Khatami paid a visit to the family of Abolfazl Qadyani, the arrested central committee member of Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organization, a leading reformist party.

--JARAS: Some family members of those who were killed in the explosion of Islamic Republic Party Headquarters in June 28, 1981, gathered in Behesht-e-Zahra [Tehran's main cemetery] at the tomb of Ayatollah Beheshti [the former head of the Judiciary and a leading member of the late IRP] in protest to the arrest of Alireza Beheshti [Ayatollah Behesti's son].
--JARAS: In an overt attempt to signify their dominance and threaten the people to thwart the possibility of demonstrations on Feb 11th, Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmani Pour who were arrested in March last year were hanged on Thursday. Forced confessions were published and their lawyers and families were not informed beforehand.

--JARAS: Sasan Aghayi and Saeed Leylaz are denied visitors.

--SIC: A list of political prisoners facing capital punishment is attached.


RECOMMENDATIONS AND WARNINGS

In his Thursday speech, Mohsen Sazgara pointed to the following items: 
- Mr Obama promised in his annual speech that non-cooperative behavior from the Islamic Republic ends in serious consequences. On the other hand, he declared that the united states will support the Iranian women suffrage. Considering the Russian foreign minister's last speech, there is an agreement in the 1+5 group, excluding China, on including more serious sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran.
- The 40th day ceremony of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri will be held next Friday in the holy city of Qom.
-Chief manager of Siemens company announced that the company has decided to abandon its collaboration with Iran, due to the consecutive problems and sanctions. This decision will affect the power industry, and telecommunication company of Iran severely. This decision is shows the prestige of the Green movement in the world's public opinion. 
- The governmental violence has been increased to prevent the protesters from going to streets. The similar experiences in Iran and other parts of the world show that if the Green movement can handle the current situation successfully, and handle the governmental conspiracy successfully, the government will move back and will recognize some demands of the Green movement. This is why the 22nd of Bahman is vital and important for the Green movement.

On his Friday announcement, Mohsen Sazegara discussed the following points:
- Moammad Reza Alizamani and Arash Rahmanipour were hanged in Tehran. These two were arrested 3 months before the election but the officials forced confessions out of them and ultimately sentenced them to death.
- All our actions in the past four months have been aimed at these issues: 1. challenging the legitimacy of the government, 2. increasing the sense of unity, 3. creating political rafts and eroding the forces of government and 4. paralyzing the government through civil disobedience. The upcoming 10 days in the run-up to Bahman 22nd, we have another chance at boosting morale and diffusing the ideals of the green movement: Bahman 16th, the fortnight of the martyrs, is an ideal day for distributing the symbols of the movement.
- As a tribute to Ayatollah Montazeri, the Exceptional Talents (Farzanegan) highschool in Isfahan went green. However, the principal was pressured by the Ministry of Education to release the names of the students who were instrumental in this event. Resilience on the part of the principal resulted in her expulsion and the closure of the school.
- The CEO if the Iranian Central Bank claimed the national debt to be 50,000 billion Rials (~5 billion dollars). Although the real number is closer yo 80,000 billion Rials.
- The use of the blue color instead of green in the Iran's flag was repeated in the government ceremonies which is quite depressing
.


On his video broadcast on Saturday, Mohsen Sazegara mentioned the following points:
- There have been extensive reactions to the execution of Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour in the international community. Recent statements by Ahmad Jannati, in which he admired the conduct of these execution clearly reveals that the objective of the regime is to frighten people. The most appropriate response is to organize public political actions for next week.
- The 40th-day commemoration of Ayatollah Montazeri in Qom was attended by a big crowd of people and clerics on Friday, there was a similar event in his hometown Najafabad on Friday as well.
- The drama which has started between Hashemi-Rafsanjani and Yazdi entered a new stage after Ahmad Khatami [the hardliner cleric not to be confused with Mohammad Khatami] tried to mediate between these two figures. [It seems like] the hardliners have all mobilized to prevent Hashemi from publicizing his revelations.
- The prospect of putting gas embargo on Iran is becoming more and more serious and is elevating after the reactions to recent execution. US and European countries are pressuring CHina to support new sanctions.
- We should keep in mind that Feb. 11 rallies will be critical for the future of the green movement.



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