Wednesday August 12th, 2009
Student Information Center (SIC)
Wednesday August 12th, 2009
FUTURE PLANS
-- Mohsen Sazgara, in his daily address, urged the people to show up in Friday's prayers regardless of the presence or absence of Hashemi in the sermons.
NEWS
-- BBC, Radio Farda: Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of the opposition presidential candidates, asked for deep reforms in Iran in a meeting with the Coordination Council of the Reforms Front. What happens in the prisons these days, he said, is a clear indicator of the necessity of a major reform. He criticized IRIB's and Kayhan's coverage of the news, and branded that as serving the Foreigners' interests. He added "A certain political will is trying to link people's spontaneous protesting movement to Foreign interference, via waging psychological war and propaganda. If we look closely, however, we find out that no one has benefited Foreigners' interests better than they did in the past two months." Mousavi said that the people seek to express their demands and objections in a quiet atmosphere, and those who oppose peaceful gatherings and shed blood are the ones who serve the Foreigners.
NEWS OF THE ARRESTED, MISSING, AND DECEASED
-- RadioFarda: News agencies inside Iran reported on Wednesday that the young French woman being held in Tehran might be released, citing an "informed political source". It is said that, in an offical note, the French embassy has requested that the French detainee, Clotilde Reiss, be released "on bail" and "in accordance with Iranian Law".
-- RadioFarda:Four lawyers, Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, Nasrin Sotoodeh, Mohammad Mostafai and Mina Jafari, who represent the recently detained political prisoners, wrote a public letter, addressed to Ayatollah Shahroodi (the head of Iran's Judicial Branch), and protested against the trials that are being broadcasted in the Iranian TV. These lawyers have requested the legally problematic aspects of these trials to be addressed. They have indicated some of the limitation that they face, including lack of accountability from the officials, the impossibility to meet with their clients to conduct due process, lack of access to their files and not being informed about the trial times. Furthermore, they have claimed that the Judge and also Tehran's prosecutor have prevented the legitimate lawyers to attend trials and, in addition, they have been asked not to interfere with the process, since the court has already appointed its own lawyers for the defendants. These four lawyers have indicated that court can appoint lawyers only in cases when the criminal sentence involves execution, retribution, stoning and life-sentence and when, in addition to all these, the defendant does not introduce a lawyer. Those on trial in the current situation, however, were able to choose and introduce their own lawyers, and, therefore, had no need for court-appointed lawyers.
-- RadioFarda: Ala'eddin Boroojerdi, the head of parliament's committee for national security and foreign policy, told the reporters today that some of the members of the special committee that had been appointed by the parliament to oversee the conditions of those detained in the aftermath of protests, will visit Evin prison today. He has also noted that most of those arrested are kept in Evin and the committee members are not planning visits to Pasargad, Eshratabad or Shapoor prisons. He further added that Mostafa Tajzadeh, an arrested opposition member, is in good health, but he does not know whether they will be given to meet [during the visit]. Boroojerdi has requested Alireza Behesthi and Morteza Alviri, the representatives of Mousavi and Karroubi, to provide complete information about the recent detainees, including their father's name and ID number, so that a thorough list of those arrested [in the past few weeks], could be put together.
-- BBC: Akbar Ganji, Iranian journalist and political activist, in a letter to Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the UN, asked him to "heed the widespread protests of the Iranian people and to take immediate and urgent action". The letter has been signed by 265 intellectuals, activists and defenders of rights from around the world and expresses that in Iran "elections are not free, competitive or fair, and they never lead to a real transformation in the country's political structure". The letter ends with asking the secretary general to take immediate and urgent action by
1) Forming an international truth-finding commission to examine the electoral process, vote counting and the fraudulent manipulation of the people's vote in Iran
2) Pressuring the government in Iran to annul fraudulent election results and hold democratic, competitive and fair elections under the auspices of the UN
3) Pressuring the government of the Islamic republic to release all those detained in the course of recent protests
4) Pressuring the government of the Islamic republic to free the media that have been banned in recent days and to recognise and respect the right of the people to free expression of ideas and the nonviolent protesting the results of the recent elections
5) Pressuring the government of the Islamic republic to stop its harsh and barbaric treatment of the people of Iran
6) Refuse to recognise Ahmadinejad's illegitimate government that has staged an electoral coup, and curtailing any and all forms of co-operation with it from all nations and international organisations
The letter has been signed by the following plus 246 more:1. Akbar Ganji, journalist
2. Jürgen Habermas (JW Goethe Universitaet, Frankfurt)
3. Noam Chomsky, MIT
4. Charles Taylor, McGill University
5. Martha Nussbaum, University of Chicago
6. Jose Ramos-Horta (Recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, 1996)
7. Orhan Pamuk (Recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 2006)
8. Nadine Gordimer (Recipient of the Nobel Prize for Literature, 1991)
9. Mario Vargas Llosa (Novelist, Peru)
10. Robert Bellah, UC-Berkeley
11. Seyla Benhabib, Yale University
12. Cornel West, Princeton University
13. Hilary Putnam, Harvard University
14. Benjamin Barber, senior fellow, Demos
15. Craig Calhoun, Social Science Research Council
16. Howard Zinn, Boston University
17. John Esposito, Georgetown University
18. Michael Walzer, Princeton University
19. Adam Michnik, essayist, Poland
20. Ahmad Rashid, journalist, Pakistan
The complete text of the letter is attached.
-- BBC: The United Nations denies reports suggesting Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated Iranian president for controversial elections' win.
UN spokeswoman, Marie Okabe, tells Fox News that the letter was not an endorsement of Mr. Ahmadinejad, but "takes advantage of the occasion of the inauguration to express the hope that Iran and the United Nations will continue to cooperate closely in addressing regional and global issues."
"The police commander is working under the supervision of the interior minister and the evidences suggest that the president and the interior minister not only did not make slightest efforts in the last two month to stop the police forces from doing their illegal activities including what they did in the Kahrizak prison, but they also backed and supported such deeds."
The letter also adds:
"Now that after two months, new dimensions and details about this horrible prison are discovered everyday, the government media are trying to distract people's attention from the story and make them forget the issue."
-- The website of Ayatollah Dastgheib: Ayatollah Dasteghib has publish a statement regarding legitimacy and acceptability in Islam. In parts of this statement, we read: "a cleric, in every location and time, rules over those who accept him, meaning he has passed the divine exam and people have accepted him. But it doesn't mean that he rules over every one in all the corners of the easth... in recent events, the public discontent stems from the lack accountability in the election process. If it was according to law, they wouldn't have objected, because they have chosen the law themselves." He also supported the previous expresident [Khatami] and he challenged the 9th adiministration for its lack of response to the cleric socitey. In the end, he urged the Elite Council to form a public meeting and address the complaints put forth by the people and their representatives, Mr. Moussavi and Mr Karoubi.
Mohsen Sazgara issued his Wednesday's address. In his speech, he further emphacized on the continued active yet inviolent presence of the green movement in Friday's movement even in the absence of Hashemi and he urged everyone to join. He also asked everyone to forward his group any information on the companies and institutes managed by the Revolutionary Guards. He also mentioned that products such as foreign cigarettes brands or opiums are the major sources of funding for the revolutionary guards; while boycotting these products seem difficult for the users, it is vital for reducing the funds available for the public crackdown enforced on the people. In the end, he noted Safar Harandi's address now available to the public and mentioned that such information should be gathered for other supporters of the cop as well.
(An audio version of this speech is attached)
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