Election News in Iran

Election News in Iran

 

Supreme Leader admits to disgust for theocratic rule by Iran's general public

Iran's Supreme Leader admitted to public disgust for what his government does under the name of "Islam" and warned regime factions.

"The enemies of Iran and Iranians do not like the honor (given to) Islam and Islamic values and on this basis, everyone including authorities and candidates have to be cautious not say something to appease the enemies".

"Some have attempted to gradually make the memory of the Holy Defense (Iran-Iraq war) and the martyrs fade away in the society", he said referring to the 8-year Iran Iraq war.

"If this was out of ignorance they have been negligent, but if it was with knowledge this is considered treason", he added. 

 

Tehran University students: No to Khatami and Mahmoud

Students in Tehran University showed their disgust for the Iranian regime in its entirety in another protest by chanting slogans such as no to Khatami and Mahmoud (Ahmadinejad), "curse them both".

In this protest, students also protested the recent insult of Khatami against Turks chanting, "Khatami Khatami, shame of you", "down with apartheid", and "long live Azerbaijan".

The protesters announced that the appalling act by Khatami is in line with the general policies of the Iranian regime.

Tabriz Teacher Training University in turmoil

After a clash between regime agents and students in the Tabriz Teacher Training University, the atmosphere is still uneasy, recent reports from this university say. 

 

Religious groups in Karaj protest Khatami's recent remarks

Religious groups in Karaj condemned Khatami's remarks on Fatimah (Prophet Mohammad's daughter) in a statement.

"It is with regret that a film showing former authorities headed by Khatami insulting Fatimah, has offended the general sentiments of Shiites, especially Shiites in Azerbaijan", they said in this statement.

 

 

Human Rights News in Iran

Political Prisoner in danger of death

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director - The Iranian government should immediately release ailing political prisoner Behrooz Javid-Tehrani, a human rights activist first arrested during 1999 nationwide student protests, and ensure he has access to adequate medical care, Human Rights Watch said today. Javid-Tehrani, who has been continually detained since 2005, is on hunger strike and suffers from health problems caused by prolonged torture.

A student activist and leading defender of the rights of political prisoners and their families, Javid-Tehrani has spent the last 10 years in and out of prison. He is currently held in the 'doghouse' section of the infamous Gohar Dasht prison in Karaj city, north of Tehran, with his hands and feet cuffed.

'Behrooz Javid-Tehrani, who is critically ill, is in prison for his peaceful political dissent and his human rights advocacy,' said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. 'He should never have been imprisoned in the first place and he should be released at once or he will likely die in prison.'

Javid-Tehrani, 29, has never had access to a lawyer, and has had limited access to his family since his 2005 arrest. Despite an independent medical examination in 2006 that confirmed he had been tortured while in prison, Javid-Tehrani has been refused release to obtain needed medical care. Amongst his current known ailments are fresh bruises and wounds to his body as well as the loss of 50 percent of his eyesight due to head injuries inflicted by his interrogators in prison. In addition, authorities have not provided adequate medical care during his 18-day hunger strike, according to his friend Kianoosh Sanjari, a human rights activist who was a fellow inmate during part of Javid-Tehrani's term inEvin prison in Tehran.

Iranian officials first detained Javid-Tehrani on July 9, 1999, when he was 19, as he participated in student demonstrations that spread across Iran. He was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of 'acting against national security.' Four years into his sentence, his sister phoned him to say their mother had passed away but the Iranian Judiciary refused to let him attend his mother's burial. His sentence was later commuted and he was released in late 2003.

In 2004, he was detained twice, both times for demonstrating for the rights of political prisoners and their families in front of the United Nations offices in Tehran. Prison officials interrogated and tortured him in Section 209 of Evin prison in Tehran, Kianoosh Sanjari told Human Rights Watch. Sanjari became aware of Javid-Tehrani's torture in Evin because of the close proximity of their cells and the fact that they shared the same interrogator, an official who goes by the name of Saeed Sheikhan.

In 2005, ahead of the presidential elections won by Mahmoud Ahamdinejad, Javid-Tehrani and others in an organization called Jebhe-ye Democratic-e Iran(the Iranian Democratic Front), organized activities such as putting up posters, distributing fliers, and writing political graffiti to protest the lack of transparency and lack of democracy in Iranian elections. The group also raised funds to help families of political prisoners and made short films interviewing the families.

After Javid-Tehrani interviewed political prisoner Akbar Mohammadi during the latter's temporary release and shortly before Mohammadi's death under suspicious circumstances during a hunger strike in prison, he was again arrested in 2005. According to Sanjari, that interview was of special interest to prison officials, who raised it repeatedly during their interrogations of both friends.

The head judge at Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran, Judge Hasan Zare Dehnavi, known as Judge Hadad, sentenced Javid-Tehrani to four years in prison for membership in an 'illegal' organization (the Iranian Democratic Front) that 'acts against state security,' 40 lashes for 'insulting the leadership and the state,' and three-and-a-half years on charges of belonging to the Mojahedin'e Khalgh Organization (MKO).

According to Sanjari, this charge was fabricated by the interrogator Sheikhan and furthered by a personal conflict with Judge Hadad, the judge who later sentenced Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi to eight years for espionage.

An appeals court reduced the sentence on the MKO charge by six months. Javid-Tehrani has now served more than half his 2005 sentence. Most prisoners in Iran are eligible for release after serving half of their sentence, but he has not been granted even one day of customary temporary release since 2005.

Human Rights Watch is concerned that Javid-Tehrani's life is in immediate danger, in light of the suspicious deaths of political prisoners at Gohar Dasht prison (also known as Rajayi Shahr), most recently that of Amir Heshmat Saran in March 2009. Gohar Dasht was one of the main sites of the 1988 mass summary executions of political prisoners which killed thousands.

'Amongst Iran's political prisoners, Gohar Dasht prison is known as the ‘doghouse' because prisoners are sent there to die,' said Whitson. 'The Iranian government is legally bound to ensure safety and provide healthcare for all its prisoners. But it has consistently failed to do so for political prisoners, with deadly results.'

Human Rights Watch urged Iranian authorities to release Javid-Tehrani immediately and end its persecution of peaceful critics and dissidents.

 

MOIS lays groundwork to kill political prisoner

The Ministry of Intelligence are planning to kill political prisoner Behruz Javid Tehrani by spreading rumors in prison, reports from ward 1 of Gohardasht Prison in Karaj say. Today and yesterday, the head of this prison, Ali Haj Kazem and his deputy have spread rumors that Tehrani has committed suicide in prison. This is a usual method used by the MOIS against prisoners they plan to kill.

Supreme Court confirms death by stoning sentence of young couple in Tabriz

The death by stoning sentence of a young couple, Rahim Mohammadi and Kobra Babayi who are currently in Tabriz Prison, has been confirmed by the 27^th branch of Iran's Supreme Court.

Their lawyer Mohammad Mostafayi confirmed this report.

"The second branch of the Court of Review in East Azerbaijan issued the death by stoning sentence for Rahim and Kobra and the 27^th branch of the Supreme Court confirmed this sentence", he said.

Student political prisoner exiled to Gohardasht Prison

Political prisoner Hood Yazerlu was exiled to Gohardasht Prison in Karaj after his sentence was confirmed. The industrial management student who studied at Qazvin University was arrested on May 24, 2008 after a court summons. The 15th branch of the Revolutionary Court sentenced him to three years of prison in exile. His mother, Nazila Dashti, was sentenced to the exact prison term on the charge of supporting an opposition group. A court of review confirmed this sentence and Yazerlu was transferred today to Gohardasht Prison where dangerous criminals are imprisoned.

 

Save Mansour Osanlou, leader of Tehran Bus Drivers' Union

The life of Mr. Mansour Osanlou, political prisoner and the leader of Tehran’s Bus Drivers’ Union is in danger.
The mullahs’ regime has imprisoned Mr. Osanlou in Ward 4 of the Gohardasht prison in Karaj (western Tehran). He suffers from a number of ailments including heart, eyes, liver, and back pain. Due to a recent vein stenosis he is in critical state at the moment. The regime has refused to provide him even with the minimum of medical care, despite the fact that the regime’s physicians have thus far stressed on a number of occasions that Mr. Osanlou would not be able to tolerate prison conditions. In August 2008, the regime’s henchmen transferred Mr. Osanlou to Ward 4, which is allocated to dangerous prisoners, in order to impose more pressure on him. Recently, by increasing the number of prisoners in the ward, conditions have become even more intolerable.
Mr. Oslanlou, who is one of the founders of the Greater Tehran Bus Drivers’ Union, has been jailed a number of times since 2005 for his efforts in defense of workers’ rights. After his latest arrest in July 2007, he was sentenced to five years in prison on charges of “acting against national security,” and organizing workers strikes and protests.
Students' Committee warns that the life of Mr. Osanlou is in serious danger, and calls for dispatch of an international delegation to investigate the plight of Mr. Mansour Osanlou and take urgent measures to save his life and get him released. 

Students' Committee

Iran: 99 percent of candidates for mullahs' presidential sham election eliminated

 

Iran: 99 percent of candidates for mullahs' presidential sham election eliminated

The mockery of clerical regime's sham elections

 

The Iranian regime’s Council of Guardians rejected the application of 471 candidates for the so-called presidential election, approving only four. This once again displays the true face of the elections under the clerical rule which is nothing but a ridiculous show aimed at consolidating the state of ruling factions within the regime.
More than 99 percent of candidates were eliminated while they all had pledged their full allegiance to the Velayat-e Faqih (absolute rule of the clergy) system in writing. Many of them have been involved in crimes committed by the regime over the past 30 years. The candidates whose credentials have been approved by the Council of Guardians are war criminals and have committed crimes against humanity, therefore, should be put on trial in international tribunals.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the incumbent president of the regime, has been directly responsible for suppression and export of terrorism during the past three decades.
Mir-Hossein Musavi, mullahs’ former Prime Minister in 1980s, was one of the high ranking officials of the regime during the eight-year Iran-Iraq war. He was responsible for the death of a million Iranian youth in the war and played a key role in export of terrorism and execution of political prisoners including the massacre of 30,000 prisoners in summer of 1988.
Mohsen Rezaii, former Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been responsible for suppression, execution and massacre of political prisoners, dispatch of Iranian youth to their death in the war and suppression of ethnic minorities especially the Kurds in Western Iran.
Mehdi Karoubi, one of the close associates of Khomeini and former Speaker of mullahs’ parliament, has been involved in the plunder of the Iranian people’s wealth.
The common denominator for the candidates is their involvement in suppression and murder of the Iranian people, plundering the national wealth, drive to acquire nuclear arms as well as export of terrorism and fundamentalism abroad. Therefore, the Iranian nation’s response to such theatrics, as it has been in previous cases, is nothing but a boycott. Contributing to such theatrics is tantamount to helping the inhuman clerical regime to advance its suppressive and terrorist agenda.

Students' Committee

News On Iran

 

Brutal clampdown on prisoners in Gohar-Dasht prison

Group of prisoners badly hurt and 13 put into solitary confinement

According to information received by the Iranian Resistance, prison guards and torturers in Gohar-Dasht Prison on May 14 beat up and brutally tortured prisoners on death row in Hall 1 of Ward 1 in order to create a greater atmosphere of terror and fear. Some of the prisoners had their arms, legs, nose or jaws broken or injured.
Khadam, chief of Ward 1, brutally attacked Messrs. Farzad Shahi, Zabihollah yar-Ahmadi and Sadeq Kouhi and transferred them to solitary confinement.
A day earlier, prison guards in Ward 6 of the prison, under the direction of the ward's chief Saeedi, beat up defenceless prisoners. The guards then transferred 13 of the prisoners, including Salaheddin Jaafari, a Kurd, to solitary confinement in Ward 1.
Some of the torturers who took part in the brutal crackdown on prisoners in Gohar-Dasht were:
Ali Hajj Kazem, prison chief; Ali Mohammadi, operational director; Kermani, head of intelligence and security; Nabiollah Faraj-Nejad, deputy head of intelligence and security; Khadam, Ward 1 chief; Akhariyan, Ward 2 chief; Mahmoud Moqniyan, Ward 4 chief; and Saeedi, Ward 6 chief.
We, the Students' Committee, call on all international human rights bodies, in particular the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to condemn these violent attacks and pressures on prisoners.  We urge them to send a fact-finding mission to see to the appalling state of those languishing in the prisons of the religious fascism ruling Iran.

 

Increase of suppression in Sistan & Baluchistan on eve of elections

On the eve of presidential election in Iran, the cities in the province of Sistan & Baluchistan have become militarized because of the heavy presence of State Security Forces.

In addition to body searches by suppressive forces, people are angered by the insults and offensive language used by agents, especially against women, reports say.

In Sistan & Baluchistan University, suppressive measures and the atmosphere of fear has also increased.

Ahamdinejad vows to offer oil bonds to all Iranians

TEHRAN, May 18, 2009 (AFP) - President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad vowed on Monday to offer all Iranians bonds giving them a share in the profits from the oil industry if he is returned to office, the Fars new agency reported.
'Under this plan, bonds will be issued offering oil industry profits to the entire people and Iranians all over the world,' Ahamdinejad said on the sidelines of an oil industry seminar.
The hardline president, who is seeking a second four-year term in the June 12 election, said income from the sale of the bonds would also help finance Iran's oil and gas industry. He gave no figure for the sale price.
'This plan will decrease our dependence on others for financing oil projects,' he said.
Ahamdinejad won election in 2005 on a populist platform of giving Iran's poor a bigger share in the country's oil wealth but critics charge that his economic policies have stoked inflation without doing much to create jobs.
He has already distributed so-called 'justice shares' in some state-owned companies to low-income workers.
Ahamdinejad is being challenged for the presidency by moderate former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, reformist ex-parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and conservative former Revolutionary Guards head, Mohsen Rezai.
Karroubi too has promised to offer Iranians shares in the oil industry if he is elected.
Karroubi pledged to 'put people in charge of the management, production and distribution of oil revenues and remove it from the government budget', his National Confidence party's newspaper Etemad Melli said in March.
As a first step, non-transferrable shares in the National Iranian Gas Company and National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company would be evenly distributed among all Iranians over 18 years of age, he said.
The world's fourth largest crude producer, Iran enjoyed windfall revenues when oil prices surged to record highs of 150 dollars a barrel last July but has seen receipts decline sharply as prices have fallen back.
Analysts say the government has already injected so much oil money into the economy that inflation, currently around 26 percent, will remain high for years to come.

 

Students' Committee

Election News

Iran clerics confess to widespread cheating in future polls

The ruling clerics in Iran warn against the consequences of vote fraud in future elections.

"They give people money to buy their votes. One cannot get votes with lies and money", said Musavi Ardebili, a cleric.

"We are in a special state these days and everyone is going to the extreme. They have to say why we have a record in inflation. I don’t know why the country is not run with 120 dollar oil", said Saneyi, another cleric.  

 

Officials defends flogging

Ahmadinejad's spokesman said, "We defend the physical punishment of flogging without discretion".

"We have to find a new replacement for incarceration. In the Islamic Penal Law a judge can have replacement punishments", added Elham.

"A judge is allowed to change an incarceration sentence to various social limitations", added the cabinet spokesman.

 

Iran speaker defends increase of executions

"We seriously have problems with the west on issues like democracy and human rights and I will tell you where we have fundamental differences. We have (serious differences) on the nuclear issue and freedom of speech and even on the issue of execution we have very very serious problems in our dialogue with the west. We say human rights and cultural variety. What I mean is they don’t care about the rights of the victim in the west. They say what do you mean by blood money for the family. So what if he's killed someone. Why should Mr. Murderer be executed? We say that our cultural foundations are different. Very well, execution by a firing squad, since you believe that hanging is bad. We will not get into legal discussions right now. What is the difference between execution by a firing squad and being bombarded? Bombardment is a form of mass killings but execution (by a firing squad) is not. Those who are under 18 and over 18 are killed in bombardments without a trial. How is this possible? Why is the blood lost with execution bad but the blood shed in bombardments is not bad? These are some serious human rights issues", Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said yesterday in a television interview.

Qashqavi said on the execution of Delara Darabi, "Why campaigns, why getting signatures and why demonstrations outside embassies for an execution and not for war which is a bigger sort of execution. Why is it that in figures and numbers issued by the Red Cross, they do not pay any attention to those who were killed in war in our country but Amnesty International records those killed by executions? These are fundamental issues and will not be easily solved between us and the west". (Iranian state Television – May 10, 2009)

One thousand students stage protest in Yasuj

More than 1000 students staged a sit-in at Yasuj University in protest to suppressive measures in this university and the installment of security cameras.

The students closed the university entrance and prevented cars from entering the university.

The head of the university had previously claimed that the security cameras were for catching thieves.

 

Families of May Day arrestees stage protest

According to reports, the protest gathering of the family members of men and women arrested on May Day is still in progress in Tehran.

On Sunday, May 10, more than 30 families of the arrestees gathered outside the Public Prosecutor's office in Tehran. Regime officials threatened the protesters.

The protesters subsequently gathered outside this city's Revolutionary Court and demanded the release of their loved ones. Regime officials demanded a $215,000 bail for their release.

Students' Committee

Two prisoners hanged in Shiraz
09 May 2009 - The Iranian regime hanged two men, 29 and 36, in a prison in the southern city of Shiraz, the state-run daily Etemad reported on Saturday without identifying them or specifying a date.
On Thursday, 7 May, other state-run media also reported that nine prisoners were hanged in Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison and in southern city of Kerman. Among them was a 30-year-old woman who was hanged after two years of imprisonment.
Iranian regime does not publish official figures on executions. The number of executions since the beginning of 2009 has reached 170.
Iran under the mullahs currently ranks first for per capita executions in the world.
We, the Students' Committee, call on all international human rights organizations, especially the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, to condemn the deplorable human rights situation in Iran and adopt immediate and binding measures to stop suppressive policies of the clerical regime.

Iran official admits to rigging in polls  

Reza Khatami, a regime official, admitted to the existence of cheating in Iran's presidential elections and said, "This is difficult because we are faced with an election system that is easy to tamper with and the only element that can prevent this is piety and virtue and unfortunately they do not have these characteristics either".

"Today we are in a situation where we cannot talk of social and cultural progress because in the lexicon of this government these subjects have no place and are of no use and these men get sick of such issues as political progress and democracy", he added in a speech in Burojerd.

The brother of Iran's former president said on the dire economical situation in the country, "According to statistics, today Iran is one of the biggest importers of wheat in the world. These days, all of our industries have been closed down and all our workers have been fired".

Iran lays foundation to let government vigilantes interfere in future polls

The head of the RGC said on entering pro-government vigilantes in the election scene, "The part of the Bassij (vigilante forces) who are not involved in military activities, are not considered part of the armed forces, and so it is legitimate for them to enter the political scene and to undertake effective activities".

"The Bassij is for the continuity of the Revolution, and wherever the goals of the Revolution weaken or decline, the Bassij will save the Revolution and keep the spirit of the Revolution alive", he added.

"The war was a gift for us and we were able to export our Revolution in the war although our county experienced losses", the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps said on the Iran-Iraq war

Students protest to sexual segregation in university

 Students of the Free University in Tehran staged a gathering in protest to sexual segregation at this university and the reactionary plan to build a wall in the library to separate the girls and boys and prevented the building of this wall.

According to reports, more than 200 students blocked the area the wall was to be built, and forced university officials to retreat their plan.

 

Sabzevar University students protest bad university services for sixth day

Students of the Teacher Training University in Sabzevar held a protest gathering for the sixth consecutive day. The students protested the dire state of services in the university.

University officials summoned several of these students to the suppressive Disciplinary Committee instead of meeting their demands.

According to other reports, female university students in Iranshahr staged similar protests last week.

Students' Committee

Iran hangs nine, including woman

Iran hangs nine, including woman

Iran Focus, Tehran, Iran, 07 May 2009 - Iran has hanged nine people, including a woman, state media reported on Thursday.
Four of the people, including the woman, were hanged on Wednesday, the official state daily Iran wrote. Another state daily Vatan Emrooz identified the men as Hamid Mohammadi, Safarali Nassiri, and Hosseinali Robatseyli and the woman as Zeynab Nazarzadeh. It said they were hanged in Tehran's Evin Prison.
All four were accused of murder.
Five other people were hanged in a prison in Kerman, south-east Iran, according to the Fars news agency, which is operated by the Office of Iran's Supreme Leader. It did not give their full names and it was not clear when they were hanged.
The report described the five as drug traffickers.
Iranian authorities routinely execute dissidents on bogus charges such as armed robbery and drug trafficking.
Evin Prison was built by the Shah’s regime as a modern security prison to house political dissidents, but it became the Islamic Republic’s most dreaded gulag and the site of thousands of political executions. Ward 209 is exclusively set aside for political prisoners.
Iran has stepped up the number of mass executions carried out in recent months. At least 59 people were executed in Iran in January.
Authorities hanged eight men on Saturday in a prison in the town of Taybad, north-east Iran, the state-run daily Aftab-e Yazd wrote on Wednesday. They were accused of drug trafficking.
The hard-line semi-official daily Jomhuri Eslami wrote on Wednesday that another man, identified as Abdolbaret Noorzehi, was hanged in a prison in the town of Khash, south-east Iran. It said he was accused of murder but did not say when he was hanged.
Iran's judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi confirmed on 5 May that a man had been stoned to death for adultery one month earlier in the northern city of Rasht. In January he confirmed that two men had been stoned to death for adultery last December in Mashhad while a third man managed to struggle out of the hole he had been buried in.
Delara Darabi, 23, a talented Iranian artist who was accused of a committing a crime when she was 17 and whose sentencing had been condemned by international human rights organisations, was hanged on 1 May in Rasht. She denied carrying out the murder of which she was accused.
Her lawyer said she was hanged in prison before he arrived at the scene.
The human rights group Amnesty International says that Iranian authorities executed at least eight juvenile offenders in 2008 'in flagrant violation of international law', adding that Iran was the only country in the world in which juvenile offenders were known to have been executed in 2008.
The group says more than 130 child offenders are currently on death row in Iran.
Under Iranian law, girls above the age of nine and boys above the age of fifteen are considered as adults and could be executed for capital offences.
Under increasing international pressure, the Iranian regime keeps children on death row in Juvenile Prison until they turn 18.

 

Iran ranks 181st among 195 countries with respect to freedom of press
Radio France website - In its latest report regarding freedom of press, the Freedom House in Washington, placed Iran in the rank 181 among 195 countries of the world.
This classification is carried out annually based on political, judicial and economic standards of press across the world and has placed Iran in the 17th rank of the regional classification among 19 countries of the Middle East and North Africa.
The report also considers Iran as one of the worst countries regarding freedom of press in the whole world.
Also, the Freedom House has placed Iran as the leading country in the black list in internet censorship and announced the Iranian regime uses a complicated system for filtering sites and weblogs.

Students' Committee

Musavi in Baborsar University

Musavi in Baborsar University

On Monday, May 5, Mir Hussein Musavi went to Babolsar University to speak at a mosque and participate in a question and answer session. This program was organized by this university's Islamic Association and university professors. The Q&A session was supposed to take place in the Industrial Nunshirvani University in Babol but according to students at this university, he went to Babolsar instead for fear of student protests at Babol University. Some 150 students from the Industrial University participated in this Q&A to ask Musavi their questions. Babol University students held banners which read, "imprisoned student must be released", and "we have a right to have free press". They entered the speaking hall chanting, "students will die but will never bow down", "Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is an element of discrimination and corruption" and "imprisoned students must be freed".

At the beginning of the Q&A, a student pointed to the problems students had in the past four years and asked about Musavi's thoughts on imprisoned students.

Musavi did not give a straight answer but pointed to imprisoned students and said, "I am not a warden to be able to open the prison door and free somebody".

In reaction to his answer, a large number of people in the crowd shouted, "Musavi give us a straight answer", and "Death to dictator".

Another student asked about the massacre of political prisoners in 1988 when Musavi was the Prime Minister of Iran.

"According to Ayatollah Montazeri (a cleric critical of the Islamic Jurisprudent in Iran) more than 4,800 political prisoners were executed after being taken to courts which lasted only a few minutes", said this student.

"You were the Prime Minister of Iran then, the third official of the country and responsible for the rights of the people", he added.

"How do you explain your silence and was this silence a sign of your satisfaction?" 

"You have been silent for 20 years. In these 20 years, we witnessed incidents like the serial killings and the bitter incident (suppression of the student uprising) in the summer of 99. Was it not necessary that you take a stance?" this student asked.

Musavi who was openly angered evaded the question and said that was "more like a statement than a question". 

The whole time this Babol University student was asking his question, the host of the program and Musavi's staff tried to take his microphone away from him with no success. However, when this student activist was asking about the 1988 massacre, the amplifiers in the speaking hall were turned down. This student asked Musavi three times, if he was allowed to speak and finish his question and every time, Musavi looked down and did not answer. This is while when a pro-government student had asked to speak, Musavi had said that "give him the microphone and let him speak".

In the end, Mir-Hussein Musavi did not answer this student's question and while several students shouted, "Mir Hussein answer to (19)88", he left the building.

Students' Committee

Two Thousand Protesters Gather for May Day in Laleh Park

Two Thousand Protesters Gather for May Day in Laleh Park

According to reports from Laleh Park in Tehran, around 2,000 people gathered in this park to celebrate May Day. In fear that this gathering might turn into a protest, the Iranian regime closed all the park entrances and surrounding streets. Regime forces also staged a de facto curfew and banned people from gathering in groups of more than two around the park.

According to eyewitnesses, about 20 people including a member of the labor union by the name of Khani were arrested in Laleh Park and taken to an unknown location. There were also four women amongst the arrested demonstrators.

At 5:30 pm, when security forces attempted to arrest a young man and were taking him to their car, the demonstrators clashed with the State Security Forces.

These forces violently attacked and beat the men, women, and children who had gathered in this park. Some of the arrested demonstrators are:

Hamid Malek-Zadeh, senior political-science master's degree student at Tehran University

Kaveh Mozafari, social sciences student at Alameh Tabatabyi University in Tehran

Amir Ya'qubali, social sciences student at Alameh Tabatabyi University in Tehran

According to reporters more than 100 people were arrested in this gathering.

All the arrestees were violently beaten and taken via SSF vans to prisons and detention centers.

 

Workers Clash with SSF in Qasreh Shirin

More than 1,500 workers in Qasreh Shirin staged a demonstration on 'Labor Day', Friday May 1, and clashed with suppressive State Security Forces (SSF). These clashes lead to the arrest of 10 workers.

The workers who carried placards chanted, 'we demand our rights', and 'boycott elections'.

Also, despite high security measures, workers in various cities in Iran, including Kermanshah, Sanandaj (Kurdistan), Arak and Qom, commemorated 'Labor Day', carrying banners and chanting anti-government slogans.

 

Political Prisoners Commemorate 'Labor Day'

Political Prisoners at Evin Prison and Ghohardasht Prison in Karaj wrote a statement announcing their solidarity on 'Labor Day' with laborers across Iran. These political prisoners committed themselves to continuing their struggle against the barbaric mullahs

 

Amir Kabir University student thwart regime plans for election show

According to reports, on Wednesday April 29, a news team from Iran's official TV station in charge of the "Free Tribune Show" on channel 3 came to Amir Kabir University attempting to get interviews from students to encourage participation in the upcoming presidential elections in Iran. This show was thwarted by Amir Kabir pro-democracy students.

The news crew initially asked students to register their names and talk about their opinions on the presidential elections in front of the camera. Several students, who spoke in front of the camera, criticized the government without any fear for imprisoning their classmates.

"None of our problems will be solved by participating in the elections", a student said.

"This has been proved in the last 30 years", he added asking other students not to cast their votes.

Some other students did not even mention elections and demanded that the government stop falsely accusing students.

When a number of pro-government students talked in favor of elections, students stated their disagreement booing them.

Another student who talked in front of the camera requested that the next program be in Evin Prison "since there are enough Amir Kabir students held there".

 

Students' Committee

Iranian regime hangs female juvenile offender in Rasht Prison

Delara Darabi, who was arrested at 17 on charges of murder, was executed in the morning in Rasht Prison.

Her lawyer, Abdolsamad Khoramshahi, confirmed this execution in an interview.

"The execution of this artist was carried out while none of her lawyers knew of the time of the execution", wrote Mohammad Mostafayi, a lawyer, in his weblog.

This juvenile offender had initially taken the responsibility of the murder of one her father's relatives but later denied this in court. Her lawyer believes that she was innocent and evidence in the case showed that she could not have committed this murder.

We, the Students' Committee, condemn execution of juveniles under Iranian regime, and we believe this is an unlawful act. We demand international condemnation for this inhuman and unlawful act of mullahs' regime.

 

Prisoners protested against inhuman treatment and torture at Isfahan Prison

The prisoners of Isfahan central prison protested against torture and inhuman treatment carried out in the prison by the regime's executioners.
According to received report, the sanitary condition in the prison is deplorable. Kaffashan, one of the prison's officials has said: 'We have 100 entries into the prison per day, but we have only 600 Tooman (60 cents) budget for each prisoner; the sanitary budget of the prison has been reduced to one fifth too.'
Due to tortures and overbearing condition in the prison, 30 prisoners tried to commit suicide only last year.

 

SSF enter Free University in Tehran, injure female student

On Monday April 27, State Security Forces in Rudehan – a town in the outskirts of Tehran – who were stationed outside the Free University in this town prevented students from stopping outside of the school which lead to clashes between students and these forces.

SSF agents prevented students from stopping at the Taxi stops, and bookstores close to the university and after checking their university cards, used force and threats to disperse them.

These agents used very offensive language in insulting students, especially female students. The university's Protection Department agents did not support students after SSF agents entered the university with clubs and tear gas and only watched the scene and in some instances threatened and dispersed the students.

Later on, the SSF and head of the Protection Department started examining the clothes and veil of female students. As a result, after SSF "dealt" with a female student, she was severely injured in the nose. Her nose started bleeding so severely that SSF agents and Protection agents were forced to immediately take her to the university's Red Crescent.

 

Ten dissident professors fired from Seqez Free University

According to reports from Seqez in the west of Iran, ten dissident professors were fired from the Free Seqez University under various pretexts.

These people, who were mostly experienced in their field of work, were replaced by people from outside of this city.

The university president has stated that the reason behind the dismissal of these professors is that the courses they taught are no longer taught in this university but students have denied this excuse saying that all the replacement professors teach those same courses.

 

Students' Committee

Industrial Science University students express anger over MP speech in university 

Students of the Industrial Science University in Tehran staged a gathering chanting anti-regime slogans.

These students chanted, "militias should be banned from university", "students will die but will never bow down" and gathered outside the presidential building of this university to show their anger towards statements made by Kuchak Zadeh in this university.

These students also carried banners which read, "students will die but will never bow down", and "appointed president should be fired". This gathering was in protest to statements made by this MP in this university who insulted students.

This MP, who had been invited to speak by pro-government student associations (Basiji), said after a group of students protested to his presence, "I am a Bassiji (pro-government vigilantes). I am a boot wearer (Bassiji) and I am here as a boot wearer to speak to my boot wearer friends".

Kuchak Zadeh had also insulted and verbally abused pro-democracy students threatening to throw them out of the meeting.    

Dervishes' place of worship demolished for second time

The place of worship of Neimatollahi Dervishes in Isfahan was demolished once again with bulldozers.

A room that was about 20 meters and was the only building left from the ruins of the Dervishes' prayer hall, was completely demolished.

According to this report, after regime elements demolished the Dervishes prayer hall on February 18, these Dervishes held their ceremonies on Mondays and Fridays on the ruins of this holy site.  

Baha'i schoolchildren harassed and abused by school officials

According to reports, school officials increasingly harass and mistreat Baha'i schoolchildren in Iranian schools.

Report of mistreatment of Baha'i schoolchildren from September 2008 to February 2009:

Four expulsions from school

Twenty cases of insulting students

Two cases of refusing to register Baha'i students

Seven cases of threats of expulsion from school

Five cases of forcing students to sign commitment agreements

Five cases of staging anti-Baha'i seminars at school

Four cases of the distribution of anti-Baha'i papers

Four cases of forcing Baha'i students to participate in religious ceremonies

Six cases of summoning students and their parents to the intelligence agency and school Security Office

Two cases of encouraging Baha'i students to change or conceal their beliefs

These are only reported cases and in many instances, students and parents do not report the threats and pressures they are subjected to.

   

Head of Iran's Judiciary defends execution of minors

The head of Iran's Judiciary said, "We have written the retribution bill into the Islamic Punishment Bill which is in the final stages of ratification and this issue (executing minors under 18) is clearly stated in this law".

"Retribution is the right of the parents or victims of the family and is a personal right", Shahrudi stipulated.

This cleric expressed hope that the issue of retribution which has been written into the Islamic Punishment Bill be finalized as soon as possible.

"Retribution is different from other punishments because it is a personal right and one cannot deprive someone of their right", he stressed. (IRNA state run news agency – Apr. 28, 2009)

Students' Committee