Iran Torture and Execution

138 Iran Torture and Execution

Four prominent politicians are being held in the notorious section 209 of Evin prison, where incommunicado detention and torture are routine and deaths in custody have occurred. The men face indefinite detention all because they publicly supported either Mir Hossein Mousavi – who according to the Guardian Council lost the disputed election – or the other "reformist" presidential candidate, Mehdi Karroubi.

Powerful Iranian government officials want to make an example out of well-known opposition leaders by charging them with serious offenses, where if found guilty, they could be sentenced to death.

These four opposition leaders are at risk of facing this senseless and brutal punishment unless we show Iran's leaders that even the harshest of sentences will not silence the Iranian people's calls for justice and human rights.
[[IRANDEATH]]
Remind the Iranian government that the world is still watching. Demand the release of opposition leaders from Tehran's infamous Evin prison

By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 10, 2009
TEHRAN, July 9 -- Thousands of anti-government demonstrators were attacked with batons and tear gas by security forces Thursday as they tried to gather around Tehran University for the first protests in about two weeks, defying warnings from the authorities that they would crush any demonstrations.
The protests were called to commemorate an attack on students at the university in 1999. The demonstrators are using such anniversaries and special occasions to rally people in public. Demonstrators and Web sites said the next possible date is the second-term inauguration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which is expected next month. Several national and religious celebrations also are coming up in the months ahead.
At the same time, the authorities also showed their determination to prevent such protests.
An eyewitness said army conscripts carrying plastic shields and batons filled the area in front of Tehran University. Two middle-aged women reportedly walked up to the security forces, asking them mockingly whether it was already 5 p.m., the proposed start time for the demonstration. "Oh, still 20 minutes left," one woman told them. "That means that you still have time to leave," she added, laughing.
But the mood quickly changed when plainclothes security personnel started shoving people into unmarked vans with blacked-out windows. "A girl started screaming, and three men started beating her very hard with batons as she was lying on the ground, swearing at them, calling them dirtbags," an eyewitness said. When groups of people started shouting at the men, a young bearded official in civilian clothes ran toward the crowds, pulled out a revolver and started shooting in the air. "Everybody ran away into the nearby alleys," the eyewitness said.
At Ferdowsi Square, a roundabout in central Tehran, teenage members of the pro-government Basij militia stood shoulder to shoulder in a huge circle, wearing oversize black helmets and camouflage vests and carrying wooden handles of shovels and axes.
The security forces managed to prevent large crowds from gathering, by using tear gas, wielding batons and firing shots in the air. "They were constantly coming from both sides, surrounding us. We couldn't do much," a demonstrator said.
Many shouted slogans in favor of Mir Hossein Mousavi, an opposition leader who has been calling for an annulment of the disputed June 12 election in which Ahmadinejad was declared the landslide winner.
As darkness fell, more and more special riot police belonging to the Revolutionary Guard Corps -- nicknamed "robocops" because of their black protective gear -- flooded the streets. There were reports of people setting trash cans on fire in several neighborhoods.
Mousavi did not call for protests Thursday. But the capital had been abuzz with calls for a huge demonstration around Enghelab Square. On Web sites, in e-mails and in fliers, there were calls to meet up along nine routes leading to the square for what seemed to be spontaneous gatherings. The government accuses foreign governments, media and groups of organizing the protests and has asserted that people dressed as members of the Basij were beating protesters.

On one street, a student named Hadi said in a telephone interview, "robocop-style policemen attacked a group of people. The crowd ran off, only to be blocked by a group of Basijis. Instead of turning away from them, the crowd actually charged the Basijis and started fighting and beating them up."
The Iranian government has complained that in the aftermath of the election, several Farsi-language satellite broadcasting stations have been exhorting people to protest, including the U.S.-funded Voice of America Persian News Network and a similar operation run by the British Broadcasting Corp. "The enemies of the Iranian nation are angry with the post-election calm in Iran and try to damage it through their TV channels," said Morteza Tamadon, governor of the Tehran province and a strong supporter of Ahmadinejad.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military on Thursday released five Iranian officials who were detained in January 2007 in northern Iraq on suspicion of aiding Iraqi Shiite insurgents, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari and Iranian officials said.
"We have no information yet about their physical or psychological condition or where they were kept the past two years," said Amir Arshadi, a spokesman for the Iranian Embassy. "We are still waiting for them."
The U.S. military had no comment.
Iranian leaders have repeatedly demanded the release of the officials, calling their detention a kidnapping that violated diplomatic protocols. At the time of their arrest, U.S. authorities said the men included the operations chief and other members of Iran's elite Quds Force, which was accused of arming and training Iraqi insurgents. Officials in Washington and Baghdad maintained that the men had no diplomatic status.
The surprise release came a day after unusually positive comments about President Obama by a top adviser to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said Obama had tried to remain silent on the country's election outcome.
The comments suggest that Iran's decision makers are still interested in discussing possible diplomatic relations with the Obama administration. "America accepts a nuclear Iran, but Britain and France cannot stand a nuclear Iran," Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign minister, said in an interview on state television on Wednesday.
Correspondent Anthony Shadid and special correspondents Qais Mizher and Zaid Sabah in Baghdad and Kay Armin Serjoie in Tehran contributed to this report.

NYTimes

By MICHAEL SLACKMAN
Published: July 9, 2009
CAIRO — Thousands of Iranians poured into the streets of Tehran on Thursday, clapping, chanting, almost mocking the authorities as they once again turned out in large numbers in defiance of the government’s threat to crush their protests with violence.
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As tear gas canisters cracked and hissed in the middle of crowds, and baton-wielding police officers chased protesters up and down sidewalks, young people, some bloodied, ran for cover, but there was an almost festive feeling on the streets of Tehran, witnesses reported in e-mail exchanges.
A young woman, her clothing covered in blood, ran up Kargar Street, paused for a moment and said, “I am not scared, because we are in this together.”
The protesters set trash afire in the street, and shopkeepers locked their gates, then let demonstrators in to escape the wrath of the police. Hotels also served as havens, letting in protesters and locking out the authorities.
It has been almost four weeks since the polls closed and the government announced that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had won re-election in a landslide.
And there have been almost four weeks of defiance, in the face of the government’s repeated, uncompromising and violent efforts to restore the status quo. The government did succeed in keeping people off the streets in the previous 11 days, leaving many to simmer on their own as political insiders and clerical heavyweights slugged it out behind the scenes.
But there was an opening to take to the streets again on Thursday in a collective show of defiance, and many protesters seized it, even though the principal opposition leaders stayed away. Mir Hussein Moussavi, who claims he won the election; another candidate, Mehdi Karroubi; and former President Mohammad Khatami have agreed to pursue their complaints through the legal system and to protest only when a permit is issued.
But the mood of the street never calmed. One witness said that had it not been for the overwhelming show of force, it appeared, tens of thousands would have turned out.
The day was supercharged from the start, with a protest called for 4 p.m. to honor the students who 10 years earlier were bloodied and jailed during a violent confrontation with the police.
Under a hot summer sun, police officers in riot gear patrolled the streets in roving bands of about 50. Then the crowds started to form, men, women and children packing the sidewalks. Traffic stopped and drivers honked or stepped from their cars in solidarity. The people chanted, “Down with the dictator,” “God is great” and “Mouss-a-vi” as they walked along Revolution Street.
“Tell the world what is happening here,” one 26-year-old engineering student said. “This is our revolution. We will not give up.”
Asked what he wanted, he said, “We want democracy.”
One witness gave this account: “The crowds are too huge to contain. Riot police running up and down Fatemi Street, beating people, barely got out of the way. The crowds just get out of their way and come back.”
Scenes like that were reported all over the city, though the main skirmishes seemed to have occurred near Tehran University and at Enghelab Square. The police shot tear gas into Laleh Park. As night fell, the scene grew more severe. The air filled with acrid smoke and soot, and police officers and Basij militia members ran along the streets.
A man in a business suit pulled out a collapsible baton and beat a person who had a camera until the baton broke. A middle-age woman ran through the crowd, her coat covered with blood stains. Protesters hurled rocks at security officers. Two men held a huge arrangement of yellow and purple flowers on green leaves, in commemoration of those killed last month and in 1999, a witness said.
But still, no matter who stopped to talk, witnesses said, there was a sense of mission and unity that seemed almost validated by the brutal government response. A 55-year-old woman on the streets in support of the marchers said: “This is Iran. We are all together.”
The security forces did not fire on protesters, witnesses said, and it was unclear how many people were injured or arrested.
Until now, the government has relied on three main tactics to try to put the turbulence of the presidential race behind it: detentions; the violent suppression of street protests; and a shifting of blame for the unrest to “meddling” foreign nations, primarily Britain and the United States, but also Israel and Saudi Arabia.
The nation’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has sanctified the election, and the powerful Guardian Council has certified the results. But the opposition has continued to insist that there were widespread irregularities, rendering the vote and the results invalid. It has refused to concede, which has served to keep the conflict from fading.
Cellphone messaging was disconnected Thursday for a third consecutive day, apparently to prevent communication among protesters. The government also closed universities and declared an official holiday on Tuesday and Wednesday, ostensibly because Tehran has been shrouded in a cloud of heavy dust and pollution.
But neither the announced holiday nor the murky air seemed to thin the crowds.
Many people thrust their hands into the air, making the V-sign for victory. The crowds remained mostly peaceful, a witness said, even as they watched, and sometimes tried to stop, police officers and militia members beating unarmed men and women. Many women were on the street, as they have been throughout the crisis.
A crowd chanted, “Please stop,” and chased two Basij members away.
The streets burned with garbage fires. Tear gas settled all around. And on one street, thousands of people pushed on, proclaiming their solidarity and defiance.
“We don’t want war,” said one 27-year-old man in a black shirt. “We just want freedoms.”
Reporting was contributed by Nazila Fathi from Toronto, and independent observers from Tehran.


Thousands of protesters massed in the streets of central Tehran on Thursday evening, defying government warnings and resuming a strategy of direct confrontation with the police nearly a month after Iran's disputed presidential election.
Photo: Getty Images/Getty Images