Tuesday
Aug252009
The 4th Tehran Trial: The Tehran Bureau Summary
Tuesday, August 25, 2009 at 21:14
The Latest from Iran (25 August): The Trials Resume
Video: The 4th Tehran Trial (25 August)
The Tehran Trial: The Regime Goes After the Reformists AND Rafsanjani
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At the end of a dramatic and surprising day, perhaps one of the most important since 12 June, Muhammad Sahimi of Tehran Bureau offers a concise summary of the 4th Tehran trial. This picks up on a lot of the developments we've noted in our live blog, bringing them together in one place. Even more importantly, Sahimi notes the goals of the regime that we've identified: 1) to break the reformists through charges of treason; 2) to humiliate Saeed Hajjarian, one of the key figures in the movement; and 3) the objective missed by all others in the Western media, the curbing of Hashemi Rafsanjani:
Stalinist Show Trials, Part Four
The fourth installment of the Stalinesque show trials of the leaders of the reformist movement was held today in Tehran. In this part of the big show, some of the most important reformist leaders were featured, including Dr. Mohsen Mirdamadi, secretary-general of Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), the most important reformist group in Iran; Mohsen Safaei Farahani, Saeed Shariati, Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, Shahabolddin Tabatabaei, and Dr. Saeed Hajjarian, all leading members of the IIPF; Mostafa Tajzadeh, a member of the IIPF and the Islamic Revolution Mojahedin Organization (IRMO), another leading reformist group; Behzad Nabavi, a leading member of the IRMO, and Hedayatollah Aghaei, a leading member of the Executives of Reconstruction Party (ERP), a reformist group close to former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Also present in court were Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, who used to work for the George Soros Open Society, and three of the journalists arrested, Jalal Karami, Masoud Bastani, and Mohammad Quchani, a leading reformist journalist and editor of many reformist newspapers that have been closed by the hardliners. [Overall, 42 journalists were arrested, but some were later released]. Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour, who was a leader of the Mir Hossein Mousavi campaign, and a doctoral student at Oxford University in Britain, was also present in court. The court has apparently ordered the release of Quchani and Jalaeipour before the court session took place, but they were still brought to court for an appearance.
Once again, the prosecutor read a long “indictment” that had been prepared by Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran’s notorious Prosecutor General and the Prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court. Once again, the “indictment” was not a legal document, but a political manifesto of the hardliners, almost all of which had been published over the past few years by the daily newspaper Kayhan, the mouthpiece of the security-intelligence apparatus, and Fars News Agency, which operates more like a propaganda machine.
Once again, the reformist leaders were accused of having links with foreign powers, and in particular Britain and the United States, through a variety of channels, from the Open Society to people who are, or were at some point, supposedly members of western intelligence agencies.
Read rest of article....
Video: The 4th Tehran Trial (25 August)
The Tehran Trial: The Regime Goes After the Reformists AND Rafsanjani
Receive our latest updates by email or RSS SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FEED
Buy Us A Cup of Coffee? Help Enduring America Expand Its Coverage and Analysis
At the end of a dramatic and surprising day, perhaps one of the most important since 12 June, Muhammad Sahimi of Tehran Bureau offers a concise summary of the 4th Tehran trial. This picks up on a lot of the developments we've noted in our live blog, bringing them together in one place. Even more importantly, Sahimi notes the goals of the regime that we've identified: 1) to break the reformists through charges of treason; 2) to humiliate Saeed Hajjarian, one of the key figures in the movement; and 3) the objective missed by all others in the Western media, the curbing of Hashemi Rafsanjani:Stalinist Show Trials, Part Four
The fourth installment of the Stalinesque show trials of the leaders of the reformist movement was held today in Tehran. In this part of the big show, some of the most important reformist leaders were featured, including Dr. Mohsen Mirdamadi, secretary-general of Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), the most important reformist group in Iran; Mohsen Safaei Farahani, Saeed Shariati, Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, Shahabolddin Tabatabaei, and Dr. Saeed Hajjarian, all leading members of the IIPF; Mostafa Tajzadeh, a member of the IIPF and the Islamic Revolution Mojahedin Organization (IRMO), another leading reformist group; Behzad Nabavi, a leading member of the IRMO, and Hedayatollah Aghaei, a leading member of the Executives of Reconstruction Party (ERP), a reformist group close to former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Also present in court were Dr. Kian Tajbakhsh, who used to work for the George Soros Open Society, and three of the journalists arrested, Jalal Karami, Masoud Bastani, and Mohammad Quchani, a leading reformist journalist and editor of many reformist newspapers that have been closed by the hardliners. [Overall, 42 journalists were arrested, but some were later released]. Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour, who was a leader of the Mir Hossein Mousavi campaign, and a doctoral student at Oxford University in Britain, was also present in court. The court has apparently ordered the release of Quchani and Jalaeipour before the court session took place, but they were still brought to court for an appearance.
Once again, the prosecutor read a long “indictment” that had been prepared by Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran’s notorious Prosecutor General and the Prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court. Once again, the “indictment” was not a legal document, but a political manifesto of the hardliners, almost all of which had been published over the past few years by the daily newspaper Kayhan, the mouthpiece of the security-intelligence apparatus, and Fars News Agency, which operates more like a propaganda machine.
Once again, the reformist leaders were accused of having links with foreign powers, and in particular Britain and the United States, through a variety of channels, from the Open Society to people who are, or were at some point, supposedly members of western intelligence agencies.
Read rest of article....
tagged Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Behzad Nabavi, Executives of Reconstruction Party, Fars News Agency, Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hedayatollah Aghaei, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Islamic Iran Participation Front, Jalal Karimi, Kargozaran Party, Kayhan, Kian Tajbakhsh, Masoud Bastani, Mohammad Ghoochani, Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Mohsen Safaei Farahani, Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Muhammad Sahimi, Saeed Hajjarian, Saeed Mortazavi, Saeed Shariati, Shahab Tabatabai, Soros Foundation, Tehran Bureau in Middle East & Iran
Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Behzad Nabavi, Executives of Reconstruction Party, Fars News Agency, Hashemi Rafsanjani, Hedayatollah Aghaei, Iran, Iran Elections 2009, Islamic Iran Participation Front, Jalal Karimi, Kargozaran Party, Kayhan, Kian Tajbakhsh, Masoud Bastani, Mohammad Ghoochani, Mohammad Reza Jalaeipour, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Mohsen Safaei Farahani, Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Muhammad Sahimi, Saeed Hajjarian, Saeed Mortazavi, Saeed Shariati, Shahab Tabatabai, Soros Foundation, Tehran Bureau in Middle East & Iran
Reader Comments (3)
Another thing people seemed to have missed is the emphasis on the apparent connection between western philosophers and the reformists. It might well be a move to purge universities from western-oriented intellectuals in the future (setting the state for a second cultural revolution if you will, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran%27s_Cultural_Revolution_of_1980-1987 ).
Moussavi is a member of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council (an institution which has been active in fighting the student movement of 1983-1989 "banning many books and purging thousands of students and lecturers) , as well as AN and Ali Larijani
FreeIran,
Thanks --- we're working on a special analysis touching on this point, probably for Thursday.
S.