Iran - petition against the execution of five protesters

The media’s attention has moved away from the aftermath of the post-election unrest in Iran, but hundreds of protesters remain in prison, some have been sentenced to death, and for at least five, execution is imminent.

Those sentenced to death have been forced to confess their involvement in the unrest, yet some of them were already in prison during the election and the subsequent riots, according to a group of ex-political prisoners.

The group is circulating a petition urging Ban Ki-Moon, the Secretary General of the United Nations to intervene and put pressure on the Iranian authorities to prevent the execution of the condemned five.

They fear that these executions might herald mass massacres of political prisoners as it was in the case in the summer of 1988.

The petition is being circulated in Farsi, English, German, French and Spanish. To sign it, click here

Iran - detained opposition leaders at risk of torture to force TV confessions

I was dismayed to hear that many callers on a BBC 4 programme on Iran over the weekend believed that the demonstrations against the outcome of the 12 June election – and the claim of the fixed election itself – were part of a foreign-led plot against the Islamic regime. Even the Independent newspaper’s Robert Fisk suggested in a recent opinion piece that much of the reported demonstrations and violence by security forces were fantasy.

That is exactly what the regime is hoping to achieve. Iranian opposition websites claim the regime is torturing jailed Iranian reformists to force them into TV “confessions” aimed at implicating Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the defeated reformist candidates, in an alleged conspiracy, or the US and UK.

Amnesty International is gravely concerned that several journalists and opposition leaders – including Mohsen Aminzadeh, Abdollah Ramazanadeh and Mostafa Tajzadeh - detained in the wake of the elections may be facing torture to force them to make televised ‘confessions’ as a prelude to unfair trials in which they could face the death penalty.

On Friday 26 June, cleric Ahmad Khatami, who is a member of the Assembly of Experts, called on the judiciary to punish, severely and without mercy, those involved in the demonstrations. Ominously, he used the term moharebeh or enmity against God, a charge that can carry the death penalty.

Televised “confessions” have repeatedly been used in the past by the Iranian authorities to incriminate political activists in their custody or force prisoners of conscience to recant their beliefs or allegiances. Many have later retracted these “confessions”, stating that they were coerced to make them, sometimes after torture or other ill treatment. Iranian historian Ervand Abrahamian documents this practice in Tortured Confessions: Prisons and Public Recantations in Modern Iran.

Mohsen Aminzadeh, Abdollah Ramazanadeh and Mostafa Tajzadeh are among hundreds of politicians, journalists, academics, students and human rights activists, who have been detained, some briefly, across Iran since the election. Most are either supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi or Mehdi Karroubi, or are close to ex-President Khatami who supported Mousavi’s campaign. Others have been critical of incumbent President Ahmadinejad’s policies.

According to official statements, well over a thousand others have been arrested. Protesters were dealt with brutally by security forces. Many were beaten and, according to the authorities, up to 21 people have been killed, although the true number is likely to be higher.

Amnesty is asking people to call on the Iranian authorities to exercise restraint in dealing with the protestors and to ensure that those arrested are not tortured or otherwise mistreated.

Iran's uprising - a view from an Iranian human rights activist in exile

As hundreds of thousands of people are taking the streets in Tehran for the fifth straight day of anti-government demonstrations, I’ve asked Babak Emad, one of the founders of the Association of Iranian Political Prisoners in exile (AIPP) for his views on the uprising (see below). AIPP has members in 11 countries including Sweden, Australia, England, Germany and the USA.

I’ve met Babak in London a few years ago, while researching a piece on a mass massacre of political prisoners in Iran in the summer of 1988. Babak was just 17 when he was first arrested and tortured under the Shah’s rule. Like millions of Iranians, he took part in the 1979 revolution, which overthrew the Shah. They fought for a democratic government, which respected human rights, but their hopes were dashed when Khomeini’s supporters began to impose their strict and punitive vision of an Islamic republic. In 1981, Babak was imprisoned and tortured again, along with thousands of other Iranians, whose opinions were deemed suspect by the new religious regime. He remained in prison for five years and was so severely beaten that one side of his body is permanently damaged.

Here is Babak’s analysis of the uprising (I’ve slightly edited it as English is not Babak’s first nor second language):

The uprising in Iran is the consequence of 30 years of oppressive regime. The people of Iran, the young in particular who made up 70% of the population, are fed up with the regime and the current situation. The Iranian Islamic regime have known for a very long time that the people would soon or later challenge the system. For this reason, they have established the most oppressive system in Iranian history.

In Iran, people are deprived of all their rights. They have no right to organise themselves outside the framework of the regime. There are not free parties nor unions in Iran. Small gatherings and protests are suppressed harshly. So in order to try to change things, people have no choice but to go through the regime, using the available tools which only exist within the regime. By supporting a part of the regime, they have split the regime in two main factions: the reformists and the hardliners. By supporting the reformists, who have promised to bring some small changes, they have split the regime further, making the two parts stand against each other. What we have seen in the last few days, is the logical result of the people’s struggle for change. The people have been able to use the election headquarters of Mousavi to organise themselves and their demonstrations. Indeed, both the people and Mousavi and his fellow reformists have mutual interests in backing each other. The people want changes and Mousavi and the reformists want more power within the regime.

What the outcome will be is not really clear right now, but one thing is sure: Mousavi and his fellow reformists will support the people as long as the protests remain within the regime’s fractional conflict.

People want change and want it soon: this is the main message of the uprising. The situation cannot continue as it has been for the past 30 years. If there are no democratic changes in Iran – and I do not believe it will happen within the existing system - the people will come back again and again, even if they are silenced this time. And they will fight not just for democratic changes, but for a social revolution.

People, the young in particular, are using the rigged election to express their anger against the whole system. There is no doubt that the regime will use any means - if necessary killing thousands of people - to prevent any outcome that would jeopardize the whole system.

The important thing is that the Iranian people now know they have power if they unite and organise.