The Latest from Iran (14 January): The Professor's Funeral

1925 GMT: A (Pick the) Number of Protesters Will Be Tried Sometime in the Future with War Against the Regime (and Maybe God). Press TV trots out the latest press release to show Justice Will Be Done over the protests of Ashura (27 December):

Iran's judiciary says it has forwarded the cases of sixteen individuals indicted in connection with the Ashura riot in Tehran to the Revolution Court.

The Tehran Prosecutor's office said in a statement that one of the defendants could be charged with being "mohareb" (enemy of God) — a crime punishable by execution.

The fifteen [other] suspects were charged with "conspiring against national security and carrying out acts against the establishment," the statement added.

This is the latest in a series of public set-pieces. A couple of weeks ago, "seven" defendants appeared in Revolutionary Guard. Then there was the announcement that "five" demonstrators would be charged as "mohareb".

All of this, in contrast to the public show of the Tehran trials in August, seems just a bit haphazard.

1840 GMT: Mir Hossein Mousavi has offered condolences to the family of Professor Ali-Mohammadi.

1835 GMT: Payvand has a useful summary of 19 women's rights activists and female journalists who were detained in the days after the Ashura protests.

1825 GMT: Professor Ali-Mohammadi and Sweden. There has been a lot of chatter around the theory that Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was killed by regime loyalists, in part because he was going to take up a fellowship at Stockholm University in Sweden. We've done some checking:

1. We can establish nothing beyond the claim of the physicist's colleagues that "he had been in touch" with Stockholm about a one-year research grant. That's not necessarily "taking up" a fellowship, since in many cases, an application is made to a funding body, e.g., the European Union's research support programmes, for a Visiting Scholar.

The claim, without further evidence, was exaggerated on prominent blogs into Ali-Mohammadi definitely leading the country.

2. It is not necessarily an anti-regime step to take up an overseas fellowship. I personally know academics who support the regime who have held such fellowships.

3. There is nothing to indicate that Ali-Mohammadi's research fellowship would have turned into a defection.

4. There's a contradiction in the theory. If Ali-Mohammadi was in fact a particle physicist who had little or no connection with Iran's nuclear programme, why would there be a risk for the regime in his taking up a fellowship, since he would have no sensitive information to disclose?

NEW Latest Iran Video: The Life, Death, and Funeral of Professor Ali-Mohammadi (14 January)
NEW Latest Iran Video: “A Message to Armed Forces of Iran” (13 January)
NEW Iran Analysis: Political Manoeuvring Around the Professor’s Death
Iran Analysis: Nuclear Myths, Rogue Elements, and Professor Ali-Mohammadi’s Murder
NEW Iran Special: Interpreting the Death of Professor Ali-Mohammadi
NEW Latest Iran Video: The Leverett Line on Killing of Professor Ali-Mohammadi (13 January)
Latest Iran Video: How State Media Frames Killing of “Nuclear” Professor (12 January)
The Latest from Iran (13 January): Speculations and Realities

1800 GMT: Follow-up on Troublesome Clerics. We noted last night that clerics are re-emerging to challenge the Government. Ayande News has the letter of Ayatollah Mohammad Sadeghi Tehrani declaring that any official position for Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, former First Vice President and current Ahmadinejad Chief of Staff, is religiously forbidden. And Persian2English posts the text of Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani's position on velayat-e-faqih (ultimate clerical authority):

QUESTION: Recently, the slogan "the principle of the supreme leader is part of our religion [Islam]’s principle” was heard and repeatedly broadcast on TV. Are the principles of religion among secondary principles? Can something be added to it or deducted from it? Isn’t this slogan a blasphemy? According to Islam what sentence should be considered for [those who challenge velayat-e-faqih]? What is our responsibility?

ZANJANI: The principle of the supreme leader is a political and juridical principle, and an arguable subject among Faqihs. Although it seems to be the right principle, it’s not the principle of religion and denying it is not infidelity. Those who claim otherwise are innovating and they should be rejected.

1500 GMT: Parleman News reports that Hassan Abedi Jafari, an advisor to Mir Hossein Mousavi, has been released from detention. It is claimed that Jafari's seven-year prison sentence has been overturned.

Nobel Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has told Al Jazeera that her sister Noushin has been freed from prison.

1425 GMT: Rah-e-Sabz reports that the chief editor of Aftab-e Yazd has resigned to prevent the closure of the daily newspaper.

1415 GMT: Arrests and Jail Terms. Mohammad Ali Shirzadi, documentary-maker and member of the Committee of Prisoner's Defense was arrested Monday night. His whereabouts are still unknown.

Salman Sima, a member of the Students Policymaking Council, has been given a six-year prison sentence by the Revolutionary Court. SPC senior members Ahmad Zeydabadi and Abdollah Momeni have also received long jail terms.

Peyke Iran is reporting that 100 protesters detained on Ashura (27 December) have been put in the solitary-confinement cells of Gohardasht prison in Karaj.

1405 GMT: Linking Economics and Politics. It might be worthwhile to keep an eye on Khabar Online, which has been poking at the Government. First, there was the rebuff of the official line that Professor Ali-Mohammadi was part of Iran's nuclear programme (see 1025 GMT). Now there is this economic story, which intersects with comments EA readers have been making:

Currently several projects in Iran's rich gas field of South Pars have come to a halt or are to be closed down....Sirous Sazdar, a member of the energy committee of Iranian Parliament (Majlis) emphasized that the gas ventures of the country are not developed in an efficient manner. He referred to the fact that from the last year the capacity of Iran's gas production has not boosted.

"This winter the weather was on the side of Iranian gas officials. The gas production capacity of the country is about 500 million cubic meters per day. This year if the weather had grown so cold like what people experienced in winter 2008, we would need 700 million cubic meters of gas and could face a shortage of 200 million cubic meters a day," he said.

"Although these days the weather is not that much cold, we witness that to provide consumer gas for houses and business places, the officials have dropped the bulk of delivered gas to power stations by 30 million cubic meters," Sazdar pointed out.

The wider significance? Khabar is far from a reformist publication; indeed, it's considered to be close to Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani. So, while Larijani makes his statements promoting the hard line against the Green movement, an allied publication is making trouble for President Ahmadinejad....

1350 GMT: Israel Did It. Pretty much a complete summary of today's comment by President Ahmadinejad on the Ali-Mohammadi killing, although he did dress it up a bit:

The depth of the enemies' grudge can be seen in the university professor's assassination. The manner of bomb planting shows a Zionist style and they want to make sure that Iran would not advance. [Iran's foes] don't want to see thinkers and scientists in Iran and do not want to see its development. The enemies can not take away the concept of genius from Iran by killing geniuses.

1345 GMT: Complementing today's video of the Ali-Mohammadi funeral, we've posted the video of an Al Jazeera debate, featuring Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Siavush Randjbar-Daemi, and Joshua Goodman, over the politics around his death. (See our initial comments on this debate in yesterday's updates.)

1215 GMT: Reliable sources report that Shapour Kazemi, the brother of Mir Hossein Mousavi's wife Zahra Rahnavard, has been released from detention. Kazemi has been in jail, on two separate occasions, for most of the post-election period.

1210 GMT: We have posted two videos of the life and death of Ali-Mohammadi, a report on today's funeral and an interview with his colleague.

1200 GMT: An Eyewitness Account of the Ali-Mohammadi Funeral. An EA correspondent has received the following from a "very reliable" source:

The street in front of Ali-Mohammadi's house was filled to the brim with louts who were bussed in to chant "Death to America". They essentially hijacked the street AND the house of Ali-Mohammadi.

Ali-Mohammadi's family were holed up inside their home by security forces, and they have been threatened since yesterday. His wife was screaming "You finally killed him!" [this detail has also been reported by Rah-e-Sabz]. The students and professors were forced to go into a separate procession. They started shouting religious intonations for the dead and were assaulted by plainclothesmen.

No one has any shred of doubt in Tehran any longer as to who really killed him --- it's the security forces, in one way or another.

Rah-e-Sabz reports the following from another eyewitness:

There was a heavy presence of security forces, with no one was allowed to stand in front of Ali-Mohammadi's home. Police loudspeakers were ordering people out of the street and onto the burial site. The streets around it were packed with plainclothes and ordinary police. Three women photographers working for "foreign news agencies" were arrested by the female division of the police.

A brother of Ali-Mohammadi has claimed that his desktop computer has been taken away from his house, and he and another relative [the Professor's wife] claims the authorities killed him.

A statement which Fars claimed last night to have obtained from Ali-Mohammadi's family was false. According to the same source, the family hasn't made any statements yet.

1035 GMT: OK, I'll Stay for 99% Support. Hojatoleslam Ruhollah Hosseinian, who had threatened to resign as a member of Parliament because there has not been “100% support for Ayatollah Khamenei”, has decided to stay after discussions with President Ahmadinejad's advisors. Hosseinian reportedly presented the revocation of his resignation directly to the Supreme Leader.

1030 GMT: The Ali-Mohammadi Funeral. Peyke Iran has a report on the event, including the observation of a heavy security presence which remains even though the funeral has concluded.

1025 GMT: Khabar Online has challenged the official line on Professor Ali-Mohammadi, highlighting the statement from the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization that the physicist did not work with the nuclear programme.

0945 GMT: We've posted an interesting video --- makers unknown --- calling on Iran's armed forces to join the Green movement.

0930 GMT: Another University Statement on Ali-Mohammadi. Islamic Republic News Agency is featuring a statement from Allameh Tabatabei University, declaring that Iranian scientists are victims of counter-revolutionaries associated with global threats, arrogance, and Zionism.

0910 GMT: We now have confirmation, including photograph in our inset box, of heavy security presence around the funeral of Professor Ali-Mohammadi, as authorities fear that the occasion will bring protests.

0710 GMT: The Move Against Ahmadinejad's Government. Radio Farda returns to a key story beyond the Ali-Mohammadi news: member of Parliament Ali Motahari's ongoing campaign against the President and his allies. Motahari has again called for the removal of the legal immunity of Saeed Mortazavi, former Tehran Prosecutor General and now Presidential aide, in the investigation of detainee abuses.

0640 GMT: And There Will Be Free Cupcakes for All. You cannot accuse President Ahmadinejad of being cautious in his declarations. Here is a nugget from his speech in Khuzestan in southwestern Iran on Wednesday.

Iran is a rich country and if justice is established not even a single person will be unemployed or poor....I have also assured the parliament members that if the plan is implemented by a smooth mechanism, Iran will not have even a single jobless or poor within three years.

0635 GMT: Unsurprisingly, the leading news today continues to be the speculation and political manipulation of the killing of Professor Massoud Ali-Mohammadi. We have posted a latest analysis. We will also post, later today, the video of the discussion on Al Jazeera English's "Inside Story" --- including academics Seyed Mohammad Marandi and Siavush Randjbar-Daemi --- of the case.

Ali-Mohammadi's funeral is today, and we will be watching for any sign of a demonstration around it.

Comments

[Arshama]

Scott,

Heavy security measures reported from the funeral with dozens of anti-riot and other forces, patroling even surrounding alleys (with photos): http://www.peykeiran.com/Content.aspx?ID=12146
Security forces still on the spot, even though the funeral is finished.

Ruhollah Hosseinian, the 5-days trial proposer, decided to stay in parliament after meeting the SL and after some kind of agreement with AN's faction: http://www.peykeiran.com/Content.aspx?ID=12147

Arshama

[Peace Maker]

According to Mousavi's facebook :

..." his brother lost his patience and repeatedly said "They killed my Brother", "They took his computer case".

http://fb.me/4pFV1nc

[Catherine]

I read somewhere this morning that there were 2 groups of mourners in the funeral procession: a group shouting pro-government slogans in the front and friends, family and colleagues of Ali-Mohammadi in the back shouting traditional mourning slogans, Can't find the article anymore - it was either a news item or on a blog, not Twitter. (Maybe it was even somewhere on EA!)

[Arshama]

Catherine,

At least one group (security with walky-talky), shouting "Death to America" etc. is described in Peyke Iran's article. All these moves make it more likely that killing Ali-Mohammadi was staterun. And now look, what Yahoo is reporting:
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100114/twl-angry-mourners-bury-slain-iran-nucle-3cd7efd_1.html
MESS media!!!

[Catherine]

RE 1350 GMT: Israel Did It. Pretty much a complete summary of today’s comment by President Ahmadinejad on the Ali-Mohammadi killing

AN is obviously an assiduous follower of Dr Marandi's latest pronouncements:
http://enduringamerica.com/2010/01/14/iran-al-jazeeras-debate-over-the-death-of-ali-mohammadi-13-january/

Silly me - I thought it was the other way around!

[Bijan]

Regarding Motahari's recent statments and manovers directly challenging AN, does anyone have a sense of his popularity in Iran? I understand his position but am curious as to how his statements resonate with the people. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[Rev Magdalen]

I agree that there seems to be no available evidence or even suggestion that the Professor was going to defect, but then again there was no evidence or hint that the Ashura mourners would have done anything but walk peacefully in the street, and the Regime brutally attacked them anyway. We're dealing with people who attack first and ask questions later or sometimes never.

The mere opportunity to defect may have been enough for this paranoid group to target the Professor. He wouldn't necessarily have had to give up sensitive information; the embarrassment of a former IRGC scientist defecting might have been too much for someone's pride to bear. There seem to be many poorly-coordinated "security" forces all operating at the same time, some of which may be acting autonomously based on their own definition of defending the IRI.

Maybe they simply felt the Professor was "too friendly" with foreigners and wanted to make an example of him. Maybe he said the wrong thing to the wrong person at some official function once. I don't think we should assume the Regime would only kill people for a solid, well-planned tactical reason after getting hard evidence it was necessary to their objectives. They may have simply been casting about for people to kill as part of a general program of terrorizing the Greens, and he was the victim they chose.

[Scott Lucas]

Rev Magdalen,

Your last sentence could be aligned with Mr Smith's analysis as, "They may have simply been casting about for people to kill as part of a general program of terrorizing [academics]", in context of the recent open letter to the Supreme Leader from 88 member of Tehran University's Technical Faculty.

S.

[Barry]

Re your report that the wife said at the funeral "you have FINALLY killed him"

I am interested in her use of the word FINALLY. What could she have meant by that?

Barry

[Samuel]

It is absolutely stunning how obssessed the pro-greenies are with Lebanese Hezbollah. They seem to be everywhere, attacking protestors, killing scientists, plotting, plotting, plotting. The SL apparently cannot even trust the IRGC or the Basij anymore--after all they are Iranian. He has to reach out to his ARAB JANISSARIES to do his dirty work for him. And don't forget his primary executioner General Naqdi was born and raised in Iraq which makes him the equivalent of those nasty Hezbollah. One has to wonder on what planet the pro-greenies live--is it even in our solar system?

I'm spreading the following rumour: Hassan Nasrallah has been seen in Tehran (dressed as a woman even) where he will soon be put in charge of anti-riot activities. Grainy pictures to follow.

[Cecil]

And I'm spreading this rumor too: A 65 year old Iranian woman just hit Samuel at the back of his head with a baton from which she confiscated from Hassan Nasrallah. Samuel fell unconscious and when he wakes up, he suddenly realize the mullahs, pasdaran and the basijis have to go and he start praising the green movement. More praises for the green movement to follow from Samuel. (lol)

[Barry]

Cecil

As I do not believe ANYTHING that the Iranian Regime or it's supporters say, I will have to believe your "rumour". It sounds quite feasible. 65 year old Iranian women do attack Basiji - I have seen it!! :)

Barry

[Babak]

Interview with the Iranian defector in Oslo (norwegian and persian): http://www.nrk.no/nyheter/verden/1.6946664

[Cecil]

I've seen it too, Barry. That's why I use it as example to make it more believable than Sam's rumour. I just want this guy to wake up from his delusional state of mind.

[Kevin Scott]

on Ali-Mohammadi and Sayed Mohammed Marandi's appearances..

First, some of my thoughts on the U.S. and the "smell test" are already here ;-) http://bit.ly/932GgB

But as for how it was actually done .. I'm still guessing as much as anybody, but "elements associated with the regime" seems to make the best sense, and of those, Hezbollah makes a lot of sense. It's hard to see this as a hit organized from A-Z from the very top of the regime - it's too messy. The selection of this professor seems a little odd, unless you could put it together that some elements were extremely angered by the combination of his association with "Green" professors, *plus* his regular contacts with Israelis and the international community. The piece about Abu Nasser in Persian2English, while certainly not dispositive on its own, certainly fits in as a potential piece of this puzzle.

On Marandi's various appearances: I believe it is possible to have the viewpoint that he is a very legitimate (and prominent) academic, but as of late, he's been resorting to something approaching propaganda, or even invective. Perhaps this mirrors how the regime is acting, as it gets further in trouble, because Marandi used to provide some interesting analysis before the last few months. But of late, Marandi has not been presenting analysis where all the facts and evidence are laid out, and then he explains why this evidence favors the regime. [Frankly, Samuel, whatever his credentials, does a much better job of this in the EA comments section.] Rather, he's seemingly throwing out assertion after assertion, some close to groundless. Even when he seems to approach something credible and useful, such as when he recently alluded to the fact that there "are many different layers of opinions in Iran, not just regime and opposition", he skips right past it and moves on to something like "the reform movement is negligiable and dying."

I'm not sure why people here and elsewhere keep suggesting that Marandi wants to move back to the U.S. - I've heard no such thing. He does, however, have an interest in his students being placed over here as it is a degree requirement that his students spend a year in the U.S. or Canada. I'm sure he'd prefer to keep up his contacts here too and have partner schools - he recently was elected to the executive committee of the International American Studies Association. Scott, doesn't Marandi already have some kind of partnership with your department at UB? How does that work?

[Peace Maker]

Video- A Debate on IRIB where Dr. Javad Etaa'at ,
a former MP, is very critical of the government !
http://www.sidewalklyrics.com/?p=3042

[Megan]

Cecil,

I loved it. Please give us more rumors. We need to laugh once in a while in order to go on.

[News vom 15. Januar « Ar]

[...] bei Beerdigung von Professor Ali-Mohammadi http://enduringamerica.com/2010/01/14/the-latest-from-iran-14-january-fighting-for-position/ [...]

[Scott Lucas]

Kevin,

The Department of American and Canadian Studies at Birmingham and the Institute of North American and European Studies at Tehran established in link in 2005 which allowed for the movement of staff and postgraduate students between the programmes. It was a valuable partnership for "guest teaching", fieldwork for Master's and Ph.D. candidates, and visiting scholars.

S.

[Submitto]

The regime organized rallies in the last thirty years with crowds shouting "Death to America" and calling the United States "the great Satan" must have made Iran an El Dorado for Professors like Marandi teaching North American Studies in Tehran to "enlighten" the masses of Iranian students about the various facets of evil. When the official title of one the two North American countries is identified by the Islamic Republic with the mythological idea of Satan (I don't dare to call it metaphysical) then it definitely takes a professor in the field of North American Studies to lecture the viewers the non-existent difference between nuclear physics and quantum and theoretical physics.

[Bill]

This murder was a trick out of the KGB's bag of tactics. The problem with the regime is they botched it up. The regime clearly wanted to use this to intimidate the educational establishment in Iran with a "this could happen to you" statement. They then of course tried to connect this to their nuclear program, but the problem is most educated people(except for mainstream media) know the difference between particle physics and nuclear energy research. What nitwits and it so troubling that they had to resort to killing an innocent to make their point. My prayers go out to this person and his family. Hopefully one day soon this regime will have to pay for this!

[Kevin Scott]

Bill, I have a comment that is relevant to yours on today's timeline:

http://enduringamerica.com/2010/01/15/the-latest-from-iran-15-january-refreshing/comment-page-1/#comment-22479

Thanks.

[Kevin Scott]

Thanks for info, Scott. Yes, it sounds like a pretty good "coup".

[Kevin Scott]

I actually didn't intend a pun there, if you would believe that .. LOL