The Latest from Iran (14 February): Watching for Protests

See also Iran Feature: Two Sisters Try to Reach Their Country with Pop Music
The Latest from Iran (13 February): The Economic Squeeze

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"Strong and Steadfast"2115 GMT: All the President's Men. The trial of Abbas Ghaffari and Mehdi Mohagheghi, both on the President's staff and accused of being in the "deviant current", has begun.

Ghaffari, the Friday Prayer leader for Ahmadinejad's office, and Mohagheghi was arrested last year and charged with "sorcery", "exorcism", and "blasphemy".

2025 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Minister of Science and Higher Education Kamran Daneshjoo has made an implicit threat against former President Hashemi Rafsanjani in the battle for control of Islamic Azad University.

Daneshjoo said that the Supreme Cultural Council of the Revolution will decide on several conditions that Rafsanjani has set over the University, adding that a speedy decision is necessary.

One of the clashes is over Rafsanjani's refusal to sign the mandate naming Daneshjoo's brother Farhad, appointed by President Ahmadinejad, as head of the University.

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Iran Special: Revisiting the Horrors of Kahrizak Prison --- The Guilty, the Victims, and Their Families

A Memorial to 3 Who Died at Kahrizak“Kahrizak” ---- Although familiar to locals, the word was only elevated to heights of infamy, in the most bitter, painful and tragic ways, in the disputed 2009 Presidential election.  The public --- both domestic and foreign --- learned about a place called Kahrizak Prison, a detention centre where those protesting the election results were subject to mistreatment, beatings, abuse, torture, and, in some cases, death.

Kahrizak is located on the south side of Shahr Ray, a small town south of Tehran.  Under a plan introduced in 2004, with the pretext of “collecting the gangs and thugs”, the Islamic Republic’s security forces began using Kahrizak as a holding place for  those arrested.  Shortly afterward, scores of journalists, human rights activists, and the Prisoners Rights Defense Committee (PRDC) began objecting to the mistreatment of the detaineds.  The journalist and human rights activist, Shiva Nazar Ahari, and PRDC member Mehdi Mahmoudian were among the activists raising public awareness about the dire conditions. 

But the efforts of Mahmoudian and other journalists and human rights activists fell short of drawing local or foreign attention to the real magnitude of the catastrophe.  Many of those protesting the 2009 election were transferred to Kahrizak where, according to eyewitnesses, they ended up in groups of 30-40 shoved inside containers with a maximum capacity of 10 people.  The detainees were kept in the worst possible physical and sanitary conditions, in the scorching summer heat, inside these containers.  They were repeatedly tortured.  Many of them, according to other prisoners and former officials, were raped.  

This is why the word Kahrizak is now intertwined with and reminiscent of several people’s names: from those in charge of this prison, to those beating and torturing the prisoners, to the whistleblowers of the place, and finally to the victims of the unspeakably brutal violence inflicted in the centre.

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The Latest from Iran (11 March): In the Balance

2118 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Hashemi Rafsanjani may have lost the contest to retain his leadership of the Assembly of Experts, but he has triumphed elsewhere: in a poll of Khabar Online readers on the political figure of the last year, Rafsanjani gets 59% of the vote vs. 17% for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Conservative MP and Government critic Ali Motahari is third with 9.2%.

2115 GMT: The New Leader. Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani has issued his first statement after the Assembly of Experts election, declaring, "We must preserve unity."

2100 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Political activists Mohammad Reza Malekian and Iman Sedighi have been freed on bail.

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Iran Document: The Indictment for the Abuses at Kahrizak Prison (Rah-e-Sabz)

A source forwards an English translation, posted on the opposition website Rah-e-Sabz on 5 January, of the Tehran military prosecutor's 27-page indictment against 12 alleged perpretrators of the post-election abuses and killings at the Kahrizak detention centre. The text is introduced with a lengthy analysis:

The full text of the indictment against the accused in the Kahrizak case, signed by the Deputy Military Prosecutor of Tehran, Abbas Parsapour, has recently come to the possession of the Jaras (the Rah-e Sabz (Green Path) Movement). The document, file number 88/4703 and dated 25 Azar 1388 (16 December 2009), is organized in 27 pages. Twelve names appear in this indictment as the accused.

Eleven of the 12 accused who are charged with the crimes in this case are members of the armed forces and one person is a civilian, a hooligan who worked with the law enforcement forces. The highest ranking accused in this case is the commander of the Law Enforcement Forces in the Greater Tehran area (Brigadier General Azizollah Rajabzadeh).

The names of several high-ranking officials of the judiciary also appear in the indictment, but apparently these individuals who issued the orders (making the detainees subject to the conditions in the Kahrizak Detention Center) have not been officially acknowledged by this document as the accused.

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The Latest from Iran (22 December): Chaining the Balloon

2155 GMT: Sedition Watch. Kurdish defendants in a trial in Tehran have said that they were paid $30 million by British intelligence to carry out terrorist acts and assassinations. The defendants also implicated elements in Iraqi intelligence "opposed to Iran".

2040 GMT: Subsidy Cuts Watch. Ali Chenar, writing for Tehran Bureau, offers some vivid first-hand testimony about the effect of the rise in gasoline prices on taxi drivers and on airlines. One cabbie summarises his reaction when the increases were announced: "Right away, I knew I was bankrupt."

1950 GMT: Picture of the Day. Journalist Abdolreza Tajik after he was released tonight on $500,000 bail (hat tip to Mehdi Saharkhiz):

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Iran Document: Lawyer Mostafaei to Supreme Leader "You are Main Culprit Behind All These Crimes"

Where are you dear Mr. Khamenei to see what crimes and atrocities are being committed in the judiciary and the Islamic republic prisons, in particular in the security “Guantanamo” ward 209 in Evin prison?  We both know very well that you are the main culprit behind all these crimes. It is you who has closed your eyes as you issue any order to protect your power.

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