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Entries in Rooz Online (7)

Thursday
Jun032010

The Latest from Iran (3 June): Karroubi Video Message

2210 GMT: Made-Up Story of the Day? We close with a supposed "exclusive" (exclusive because no one else is reporting it) from Fars News. The website claims that Mehdi Karroubi was driven from the shrine of Ayatollah Khomeini today by a crowd shouting, "Death to the Hypocrite".

Fars' visual support for the story? A picture of Karroubi from last year's Tehran Book Fair.

2115 GMT: Karroubi Watch. Mehdi Karroubi has released a lengthy video message. We've posted the first of six parts below. You can also link to Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6.

We are looking urgently for an English translation.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEn4cHR10rM&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

NEW Iran Document: Majid Tavakoli “The Will of My Nation Led to Victory”
Iran Document: Mousavi “Imam Khomeini, Revolution, and the Green Movement” (2 June)
Latest Iran Video: Ahmadinejad in Ilam “Where’s My Crowd?”
The Latest from Iran (2 June): Where’s My Crowd?


1800 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi says that, following the Supreme Leader's pardon of 81 detainees, a number of prisoners have been released. Still no names of those freed.


1650 GMT: Propaganda Corner. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran claims that Fars News has published a fabricated letter of resignation by Morteza Semyari, the secretary of the Cultural Commission of the student organisation Daftar-Tahkim-Vahdat.

1645 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. The sentence of 3 1/2 years in prison and lashes for journalist and filmmaker Mohammad Nourizad was confirmed earlier this week. The response of Nourizad, who has been imprisoned in part because of letters to the Supreme Leader?

He has written another letter to Ayatollah Khamenei before the Supreme Leader leads Tehran Friday Prayers this week: “The damage and harm that we (the religious government of Iran) have caused Islam and religious beliefs of the people is beyond the damage and harm throughout history."

1520 GMT: Reports are coming in that Mir Hossein Mousavi and Zahra Rahnavard met representatives of Iranian women's organisations today.

1515 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. An admission.... As I tried to read the various political contender set up position for the anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's death --- with both the Supreme Leader and Mir Hossein Mousavi "claiming" Khomeini --- I read summaries of a statement by former President Hashemi Rafsanjani but did not post them.

I did not post the original from the Iranian Labor News Agency or the abridgements from outlets like Radio Zamaneh because the language seemed, well vague: "Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, head of Iran’s Assembly of Experts urged those faithful to the Islamic Revolution and Ayatollah Khomeini not to let “the Revolution to fall in the hands of strangers.” Rafsanjani called on the public not to let the Islamic Revolution to be derailed from its “original and true” path because, once deviations in the Islamic Republic occur, “it will be very difficult or impossible to overcome them”.

So has Rafsanjani issued a veiled warning to the Government, cautioned the opposition not to be too strident, or taken a seat on a tall fence? Answers on a postcard or in our comments section....

0900 GMT: Film Corner. Jafar Panahi, the acclaimed film director released last week after more than three months in prison, has said, "Sometimes I feel that the mere thought of writing a film can be a crime here, just the idea that to do so may be penalized. It may even be enough to go to jail....Now I have to make films in my dreams, sometimes in my head."

0855 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. RAHANA claims several students and activists were released last evening.

Khabar Online reports that Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi is meeting families of detainees on a weekly basis, apparently in an effort to get prisoners to repent.

Kodoom updates on detained teachers.

0835 GMT: Economic Battles. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani has criticised President Ahmadinejad for not implementating the law on privatisation correctly.

The Supreme Audit Court has presented examples of deviations in oil revenues, with $1 billion missing in 2007.

0830 GMT: A Green IRIB? The pro-Government Raja News, in a surprising admission and/or an attack on possible subversives within Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, declares that Mir Hossein Mousavi was favoured over President Ahmadinejad by employees of IRIB by a 7:1 margin.

0820 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Rooz Online reports on detained activists in Iranian Azerbaijan.

0810 GMT: Home Box Office in the US has released a new documentary on the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, "For Neda".

(Documentaries from November 2009 by the BBC and by the US Public Broadcasting Service are available elsewhere on EA.)

0700 GMT: The Supreme Leader''s Latest Move. Dave Siav0shi at Iran News Now posts a sharp assessment of yesterday's announcement of pre-election pardons, "The Shrewd Calculus Behind Khamenei’s Release of 81 Political Prisoners".

The names of those pardoned are still unknown.

0635 GMT: We have finally tracked down an English translation of Sunday's letter from detained student activist Majid Tavakoli, "The Will of My Nation Led to Victory", and posted it in a separate entry.

0610 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kamran Asa, the brother of the slain protester Kianoush Asa, has been re-arrested.

Kamran Asa was first jailed on 16 December and detained for two months.

0550 GMT: One more day before the pace of the politics --- and, possibly, the public contest over the Government and the regime --- quickens.

Tomorrow is the anniversary of the death in 1989 of Ayatollah Khomeini and all sides are staking out their positions. Both the Supreme Leader and the President appear at Friday Prayers, and Mir Hossein Mousavi has released his statement --- posted in a separate entry --- to claim the legacy of Khomeini and Revolution for the opposition.

And where there is political manoeuvring, there are also the steps to limit debate. Rooz Online has a summary of "the third round of mass arrest of journalists and political activists". It notes the detentions of journalists Azam Veisameh and Mahboubeh Khansari and claims that security agents failed in their attempt to arrest several reformist activists and one political prisoner’s wife.

The pro-Government Raja News has claimed that Veisameh and Khansari “communicated with foreign media” and discussed “information about certain issues”.
Wednesday
Jun022010

The Latest from Iran (2 June): Where's My Crowd?

2040 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Ayatollah Khamenei's website says that the Supreme Leader has pardohttp://farsi.khamenei.ir/message-content?id=9499ned 81 opposition supporters.

The website did not identify the prisoners. It said the pardons were made on the occasion of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad's daughter, Fatemeh.

NEW Iran Document: Mousavi “Imam Khomeini, Revolution, and the Green Movement” (2 June)
NEW Latest Iran Video: Ahmadinejad in Ilam “Where’s My Crowd?”
The Latest from Iran (1 June): Latest on Emad Baghi


1615 GMT: Requesting the March. The Facebook page supporting Mir Hossein Mousavi reports that, complementing the request of Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi,  eight reformist parties and organizations asked for permission to hold a rally on 12 June (22 Khordaad), the anniversary of the Presidential election.


The eight groups (Assembly of Former Members of the Parliament, Mojahedin of Islamic Revolution Organization, Islamic Association of Medical Society of Iran, Association of Women Journalists, ssembly of Alumni of Islamic Iran, Islamic Iran Participation Front, National Will Party, and Assembly of Followers of Imam) asked for a rally moving from Imam Hossein Square to Azadi Square in Tehran at 4 p.m. (1230 GMT).

The authorities in the office of the Governor of Tehran Province refused to accept the letter, saying that they can only give permits for rallies that are held in closed spaces. The Ministry of the Interior has also received a copy of the request.

1340 GMT: We have posted the translation of Mir Hossein Mousavi's statement today on Ayatollah Khomeini, Revolution, and the Green Movement.

1230 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. An Iranian activist reports that Mehdi Boutorabi, founder of Persian Blog, and teachers Mahmoud Beheshti Langeroudi & Alireza Hashemi have been released on bail.

0945 GMT: Most Wanted. The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran has issued a 36-page report "naming 15 leading officials responsible for carrying out the brutal repression against peaceful protestors and civil society activists".

0825 GMT: Political Prisoner Follow-Up. Yesterday an EA correspondent updated us on prison conditions and the health of detained journalist Emaduddin Baghi, who recently met his family after five months in solitary confinement.

Another EA correspondent adds that Baghi and Amir Aboutalebi, an aide to Mir Hossein Mousavi's advisor Alireza Beheshti, are in the same cell. They have been told that, if they want to be released, they should write a letter of apology to the Supreme leader.

0815 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Zahra Shams, a law student at Mashhad's Ferdowsi University, has been released after almost a month in detention.

0800 GMT: Un-Free Press Update (with a Bit of Football).The sports daily "Goal" has been banned, with another 10 newspapers and 3 magazines warned. (The threatened publications are the newspapers Vatan-e Emrooz, Farhikhtegan, Mardomsalari, Aftab-e Yazd, Jahan-e Eghtesad, Arman-e Ravabet-e Omoumi, Jomhouri Eslami, Jahan-e San'at, Karoon, and Alborz-e Varzeshi and the magazines Behdasht-e Ravan va Jame'e, Rah, and Honar-e Musighi.)

An EA correspondent notes a significant number of journalists from Vatan-e Emrooz and Farhikhtegan have been imprisoned, with others from Jomhouri Eslami and Jahan-e Eghtesad detained.

0745 GMT: Iran Propaganda Special. Fereshteh Ghazi reports on rifts within the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, which is broadcasting a series of "portraits" of political figures from 17 to 26 Khordad (7-16 June). Ghazi claims the series was actually put together by the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, and IRIB only does only the editing.

The distortion of the views of Iranian reformist Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, which we have noted in recent days, is apparently only the first installment of this propaganda extravaganza.

0620 GMT: After an evening talking to the Security Studies Group at Oxford University about the Obama Administration's foreign policy, it is back to the Iran front this morning....

Ahmadinejad: "Where's My Crowd?"

We have posted the video of the far-from-significant crowd that attended the President's speech in Ilam Province on Tuesday.

Remembering Kianoush Asa

A far different video from Tehran's Elm-o-Sanat University, where about 400 students remembered their classmate Kianoush Asa, reportedly killed during the 15 June demonstration protesting the outcome of the Presidential election.

HomyLafayette has a close-up report and more videos.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIN3Xfj2nPY&feature=channel[/youtube]

Political Prisoner Watch

The prison sentence of Ph.D. student Mahmoud Alizadeh Tabatabai has been reduced to one year on appeal. Tabatabai was originally given a two-year term.
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