The Latest from Iran (6 November): Beyond the Israeli Diversion

1650 GMT: Bank Fraud Watch. The Central Bankhas restricted the activities of money-lending co-operatives to their specific area.

In the recent $2.6 billion bank fraud, Iranian institutions issued Letters of Credits to companies who operated across Iran and allegedly moved funds abroad.

1630 GMT: The Battle Within. President Ahmadinejad's Thursday speech, made to the Supporters of Islamic Revolution Dialogue, continues to escalate in possible significance.

Absar News has these choice extracts. The President offered this defence of his embattled aide Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, "If Rahim-Mashai had stolen 1 rial (about 1/100th of a cent), 'they' would have executed him."

Ahmadinejad then implied that responsibility for the $2.6 billion bank fraud engulfing Iranian politics lay with people connected to the Supreme Leader.

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (19 September): Ahmadinejad Leaves An Embezzlement Behind

See also Iran Interview: Azerbaijani Activist Fakhteh Zamani Explains the Lake Urmia Protests

---

1900 GMT: The Supreme Leader's Son and the "Election Coup". On Friday, we published the WikiLeaks-released cable in which Ayatollah Sayed Salman Safavi, the brother of the Supreme Leader's military advisor, told Western diplomats --- four days after the disputed 2009 Presidential election --- that there had been a "coup" orchestrated by a prison "close to the Supreme Leader".

The story is now in the Persian-language Digarban, with a link to the document and Safavi's assertion that the coup had split the Revolutionary Guards.

1645 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. 1535 GMT: BBC Persian has denied that it employed six people arrested by Iranian authorities (see 0630 GMT) for supposedly working for the service, saying they are independent filmmakers. BBC Persian said, as is common in the industry, that it had paid for the rights to show documentaries and programmes produced by the detainees.

Opposition websites identified the six filmmakers as Naser Saffarian, Mojtaba Mirtahmasb, Hadi Afarideh, Mohsen Shahrnazdar, Katayoun Shahabi and Mehrdad Zahedian.

A source involved in the arrests said, "This network of anti-Iran people were collaborating with the BBC in a cover-up to fulfil the needs of the British secret service in exchange for big sums of money. The anti-Iran intentions of the channel and its collaborators are clear."

Click to read more ...

Latest from Iran (9 September): Ignoring Ahmadinejad on Syria

See also Iran Special: Mousavi's Moment Outside House Arrest "The Future is Bright"
Latest from Iran (8 September): Fearing Persian Spring

---

1610 GMT: Ahmadinejad and Syria. Fars reports on President Ahmadinejad's meeting with Kuwaiti media. Its English-language website highlights Ahmadinejad's caution to Turkey not to host a NATO missile defence system: "Turkey is among our brothers and sincere friends, but when enemies deploy a missile system there and admit that it is against Iran, we should be careful."

Fars, however, does not utter a word about Ahmadinejad's proposal (see 1400 GMT) for an Islamic summit on the Syrian crisis.

Mehr News, however, does mention the President's comments, well into an article on the meeting, on a summit and on reforms in Syria.

Click to read more ...

Iran Special: The List of the 100+ Journalists Detained Since the 2009 Elections --- Part 1 (Alinejad/Irani)

Since the disputed June 2009 Presidential Election, EA has periodically featured the names of journalists on Arshama3's Blog --- a list which is up to 70 entries.

Now another record of those reporters who have been imprisoned --- or who are free on heavy bail but always threatened with a summons back to detention --- has been compiled by Masih Alinejad and translated into English by Azita Irani. There is also the note of at least one journalist who was slain during the initial demonstrations after the election.

We will be presenting the more than 100 entries on a rolling basis over the next few days. And we will endeavour, with the help of Arshama3 and Alinejad, to keep the list up to date.

24. Hossein Nouraninejad

Nouraninejad, the head of Jebhe-ye Mosharekat Melli Eslami (Islamic Coalition Front), was arrested on 17 September 2009 and spent one year in prison. He was a staff reporter at the Iranian Labor News Agency and reformist newspapers. After the Presidential election, he played an active role in organising religious events for reformist groups, particularly in connection with political prisoners.

Nouraninejad was one of 16 political prisoners at Evin Prison who participated in hunger strikes protesting the ill treatment by prison guards. His mother and his wife, Parastou Sarmadi, repeatedly complained to the media about the prisoners’ situation, until the security forces attempted to arrest Nouraninejad's mother. They forced her to sign a consent form to her detention if she continued to protest the imprisonment of her son by talking to the press.

Click to read more ...

Iran Special: The List of the 100+ Journalists Detained Since the 2009 Elections --- Part 1 (Alinejad/Irani)

This entry has been moved to the top of EA for 6 August 2011.

The Latest from Iran (13 June): Back to the "Normal" of In-Fighting

1755 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch (Saber Edition). The wife of journalist Hoda Saber, who passed away after a hunger strike in Evin Prison, claimed on Sunday: ""My husband died two days ago, but we were unaware of his death until today when someone in the hospital informed one of our friends."

1750 GMT: Corruption Watch. Iran Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejei has confirmed that leading MP Ahmad Tavakoli is formally accusing 1st Vice President Mohammad Reza Rahimi of corruption. Mohseni-Ejei said judicial deputies had met with President Ahmadinejad to discuss the matter.

Rahimi has been accused by critics of involvement in a massive insurance fraud.

1730 GMT: Warning of the Day. A writer for http://digarban.com/node/1314" target="_blank">the hardline Raja News claims that supporters of Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, formerly an ally of the President, have warned the Ahmadinejad camp: "When you trespass the red lines, we will act."

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (9 June): Devaluing

2055 GMT: Diversion Watch. Back from a conference break to find that Iranian authorities, the press, and State broadcasting have teamed up --- well, sort of --- to offer a spy story as an alternative to real-life political tension.

Both State broadcaster IRNA and Fars have claimed that the Ministry of Intelligence has foiled a US plan to form a "government in exile" for Iran.

The scheme, which included scholars Gene Sharp and Joseph Nye and the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, was headed by former Repvolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Reza Madhi. The American organisers arranged for Madhi to travel to Washington, where he met with Vice President Joe Biden, who promised full support.

Meanwhile, Dennis Ross of the National Security Council tried to establish the government in exile. Candidates included Amir Hossein Jahanshahi, a businessman with dual French-Israeli citizenship who is close to Ashraf Pahlavi, the twin sister of the late Shah; Abdollah Mohtadi, leader of Kurdish dissident organisation Komala; Hassan Sharafi; Alireza Nourizadeh, a London-based political analyst; Reza Hosseinbor, the leader of a secessionist group; and filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf, all of whom participated in a conference at the Atlantic Hotel in Paris.

The US provided $7 billion for the effort, but it fell apart when the identity of Ahmad Maleki, a diplomat in the Iranian embassy in Italy and a nephew of Mehdi Karroubi, was revealed.

A grand story, although there have been glitches. For Fars claimed that Madhi, working for the Ministry of Intelligence, had penetrated the "counterrevolutionaries", while IRNA and Kayhan referred to him as a "CIA spy".

Click to read more ...

Iran Video: The BBC Documentary on Human Rights and Post-Election Repression

A 30-minute edition of the BBC documentary series Panorama on "Living with the Ayatollah" --- included are interviews with Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, who was jailed for more than three months after the 2009 election, and with Mahsa Amirabadi, who was detained and whose husband, journalist Masoud Bastani, is still in prison. The programme also considers stoning and the cases of condemned women such as "Parvin" and Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani:

PART 1 of 2

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (10 April): A Law Professor is Fired

Mohammad Sharif2115 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Activist and blogger Laleh Hassanpour has been sentenced to five years in prison, four of them suspended.

Sarah Mahboubi, a Baha’i student from Sari, has been banned from university and sentenced to 10 months in prison for "membership in an anti-revolutionary Facebook site“.

1855 GMT: Cats and Dogs Watch. Iran's Parliament is discussing a law to prohibit keeping dogs and cats as pets because they are "unclean and dangerous".

Click to read more ...

The Latest from Iran (16 March): The Fire Festival

1955 GMT: The House Arrests. This just in from Saham News, translated by Banooye Sabz:

A few hours ago, Mohammad Taghi Karroubi, Mehdi Karroubi's second son published a short note on his personal site indicating that a close family friend has visited with his parents.

The following is an excerpt of the note on Mohammad Taghi Karroubi's site:

"A dear clergyman trusted both by the family and the ruling government contacted me today by phone stating that he had met with my mother and father last night in a friendly setting. This beloved person informed me that they are doing well, are in good health and peaceful."

Note the curiosity in the story: the clergyman did not meet the Karroubis in their residence, where they are supposedly under house arrest, but in "a friendly setting". (The same situation occurred last week with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard when they met their daughters in a building "near their home".) That leaves open the question of the exact status of the Karroubis --- strict house arrest or detention? And it also leaves open the question of when the Karroubis will next be able to speak to someone.

Click to read more ...