Weekly Digest Monday May 10th, 2010
 | Weekly Digest Monday May 10th, 2010 |
Message from student.information.center@gmail.com:
SIC wishes to give condolences to all Iranians and Kurds for the executions of the 5 Kurds earlier this week.
FUTURE PLANS
--Efforts focused at increasing non-violent civil disobedience in the society.
--Allah o Akbar during the nights
--Writing slogans on the walls and bills
--Being out in the streets on Thursdays
NEWS
--BBC: Tehran's Prosecutor's Office issued a statement early Sunday announcing the execution of 5 political activists. According to the official report these individuals were executed because of their terrorist activities including planting bombs in government centers. The suspects executed in Evin prison were: Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili, Mahdi Eslamyan and Shirin Elmhooli. It is reported that the families of the political prisoners were not informed that the execution was going to take place. It is widely speculated that these executions were timed to coincide with the approaching one year anniversary of the post-elections protests.
--BBC: The lawyer of executed political prisoners Mr. Kamangar and Mr. Eslamian has told BBC that during the court hearing, the prosecution took an excessive amount of time questioning the defendant on such basic information such as their name etc. When the defendants' lawyer asked for time to speak, the ruling judge asked him to write down whatever he has to say because it is time for him (the judge) to go to his "daily prayer". In this way, according to the lawyer, he was not given proper time to discuss the case and defend his clients.
--Radio Zamaneh: The execution of the 4 men and one woman has raised concerns with multiple human rights watch bodies outside of Iran where these actions have been strongly condemned. The International Campaign for Human Rights released a statement condemning the Iranian regime whereby the sudden and unannounced execution of the five individuals shows that the government is trying to terrorize the population and its opponents.
--Radio France: After the execution announcement, hundreds of Iranians residing in Paris took to the streets and protested the executions. The crowd of protesters headed towards the Iranian embassy where they broke windows until the French police intervened.
--Deutche Welle: The families of the executed have not yet received their bodies. A number of them were told to return on Tuesday. Since a number of the executed individuals were kurdish, their families would like a burial in the province of Kurdistan.
--BBC: It reported that earlier today (Monday May 10th) students at Shahid Beheshti University (north of Tehran) protested the presence of Ahmadinejad on their campus. Youtube videos show the scene where security forces disperse the students. A similar event happened last week when he was present on another University campus in Tehran. In similar news, the families of the executed planned a protest sit-in in front of Tehran University. But the security forces barrackated the area, preventing the sit-in from taking place. Similar protests broke out in multiple cities around Iran where protesters were met with heavy security and in general the atmosphere of these cities has become tense and heavy with police forces. Finally, a sit-in is also organized in the Iraqi city of Soleimanieh and this will continue until tomorrow evening.
--Kalameh: Following the recent execusions, Mr. Mousavi has released a statement heavily condemning the unfair process that led to these executions. He also used this opportunity to point out that the assailants that attacked university dorms last June, and the individuals responsible for the Kahrizak detention center atrocities still walk free and have not been held accountable. The persian version of his statement is attached to this newsletter.
--Radio Farda: For the second time in recent times, hundreds of people gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul and protested the way in which the Iranian government treats afghani refugees and immigrants inside Iran. They also demanded that the Iranian regime stop executing afghan refugees. Many of the protesters were women.
--JRS: An internal investigative survey shows that the government of Ahmadinejad is the most corrupt government Iran has had in recent history with a 27% rank on the corruption assessment scale.
NEWS OF THE ARRESTED
--BBC: The sentences for some of the arrested activists were announced recently. These individuals include Abdollah Momeni, Feizollah Arabsorkhi, haleh Sahabi and Mehdi Kalari. According to the verdict, Abdollah Momeni is sentenced to 4 years in prison. Mr. Arabsorkhi (member of the Organization of Mojahedeen of Islamic Revolution) has been sentenced to 6 years in prison. Haleh Sahabi, women's rights activist, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison and was ordered to pay a fine (which replcaed her flogging punishment). Mehdi Kalari, student at Sharif University, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison.
--Radio Farda: Mr. Karroubi has visited the family of Mohammad Davari, an emprisoned journalist. Mr. Davari hs been arrested for 8 months now because of the journalism work he did on the sexual abuse that goes on in detention centers. He had gathered video and other documents regarding these abuse claims.
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Student Information Center (SIC)
Newsletter Issue 205 - Monday May 10th, 2010
FUTURE PLANS
--Efforts focused at increasing non-violent civil disobedience in the society.
--Allah o Akbar during the nights
--Writing slogans on the walls and bills
--Being out in the streets on Thursdays
NEWS
--BBC: Tehran's Prosecutor's Office issued a statement early Sunday announcing the execution of 5 political activists. According to the official report these individuals were executed because of their terrorist activities including planting bombs in government centers. The suspects executed in Evin prison were: Farzad Kamangar, Ali Heidarian, Farhad Vakili, Mahdi Eslamyan and Shirin Elmhooli. It is reported that the families of the political prisoners were not informed that the execution was going to take place. It is widely speculated that these executions were timed to coincide with the approaching one year anniversary of the post-elections protests.
--BBC: The lawyer of executed political prisoners Mr. Kamangar and Mr. Eslamian has told BBC that during the court hearing, the prosecution took an excessive amount of time questioning the defendant on such basic information such as their name etc. When the defendants' lawyer asked for time to speak, the ruling judge asked him to write down whatever he has to say because it is time for him (the judge) to go to his "daily prayer". In this way, according to the lawyer, he was not given proper time to discuss the case and defend his clients.
--Radio Zamaneh: The execution of the 4 men and one woman has raised concerns with multiple human rights watch bodies outside of Iran where these actions have been strongly condemned. The International Campaign for Human Rights released a statement condemning the Iranian regime whereby the sudden and unannounced execution of the five individuals shows that the government is trying to terrorize the population and its opponents.
--Radio France: After the execution announcement, hundreds of Iranians residing in Paris took to the streets and protested the executions. The crowd of protesters headed towards the Iranian embassy where they broke windows until the French police intervened.
--Deutche Welle: The families of the executed have not yet received their bodies. A number of them were told to return on Tuesday. Since a number of the executed individuals were kurdish, their families would like a burial in the province of Kurdistan.
--BBC: It reported that earlier today (Monday May 10th) students at Shahid Beheshti University (north of Tehran) protested the presence of Ahmadinejad on their campus. Youtube videos show the scene where security forces disperse the students. A similar event happened last week when he was present on another University campus in Tehran. In similar news, the families of the executed planned a protest sit-in in front of Tehran University. But the security forces barrackated the area, preventing the sit-in from taking place. Similar protests broke out in multiple cities around Iran where protesters were met with heavy security and in general the atmosphere of these cities has become tense and heavy with police forces. Finally, a sit-in is also organized in the Iraqi city of Soleimanieh and this will continue until tomorrow evening.
--Kalameh: Following the recent execusions, Mr. Mousavi has released a statement heavily condemning the unfair process that led to these executions. He also used this opportunity to point out that the assailants that attacked university dorms last June, and the individuals responsible for the Kahrizak detention center atrocities still walk free and have not been held accountable. The persian version of his statement is attached to this newsletter.
--Radio Farda: For the second time in recent times, hundreds of people gathered outside the Iranian embassy in Kabul and protested the way in which the Iranian government treats afghani refugees and immigrants inside Iran. They also demanded that the Iranian regime stop executing afghan refugees. Many of the protesters were women.
--JRS: An internal investigative survey shows that the government of Ahmadinejad is the most corrupt government Iran has had in recent history with a 27% rank on the corruption assessment scale.
NEWS OF THE ARRESTED
--BBC: The sentences for some of the arrested activists were announced recently. These individuals include Abdollah Momeni, Feizollah Arabsorkhi, haleh Sahabi and Mehdi Kalari. According to the verdict, Abdollah Momeni is sentenced to 4 years in prison. Mr. Arabsorkhi (member of the Organization of Mojahedeen of Islamic Revolution) has been sentenced to 6 years in prison. Haleh Sahabi, women's rights activist, has been sentenced to 2 years in prison and was ordered to pay a fine (which replcaed her flogging punishment). Mehdi Kalari, student at Sharif University, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison.
--Radio Farda: Mr. Karroubi has visited the family of Mohammad Davari, an emprisoned journalist. Mr. Davari hs been arrested for 8 months now because of the journalism work he did on the sexual abuse that goes on in detention centers. He had gathered video and other documents regarding these abuse claims.
Email: student.information.center@gmail.com
Google Docs makes it easy to create, store and share online documents, spreadsheets and presentations.
