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Posts Tagged ‘Neda Agha-’

Iran reformers slate trial ‘sham’

August 1st, 2009 | No Comments

Iran’s biggest reformist party has dismissed the court appearance of 100 people, including leading opposition figures, as a "laughable show trial".

The accused are on trial for alleged involvement in post-election violence, on charges including acting against national security and vandalism.

Pro-government media reported what they said were confessions by some of the leading reformists.

But the party, Mosharekat, said the "confessions" had been forced.

It said "even a cooked chicken" would laugh at the charges.

The party was the principal backer of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main opposition candidate in the 12 June presidential elections.

Meanwhile on his website Mr Mousavi rejected the authorities’ claims that Western countries had fuelled the post-election unrest.

‘National heroes’

Kasra Naji, special correspondent for BBC Persian Television, says the timing and scale of the trial came as a surprise and suggests Iran’s leadership wants to send a message to stop any more protests.

KEY DEFENDANTS

  • Mohammad Ali Abtahi (left): former vice-president, member of the Assembly of Combatant Clerics
  • Mohsen Mirdamadi (centre): leader of the biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front
  • Behzad Nabavi (right): member of the central council of the Organisation of the Mujahideen of the Islamic Revolution, former industry minister and former vice speaker of parliament
  • Mohsen Aminzadeh: former deputy foreign minister, served under reformist president Mohammad Khatami, member of Islamic Iran Participation Front

From left: Mohammed Ali Abtahi, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Behzad Nabavi

But judging from messages on micro-blogging site twitter and the internet, our correspondent says, the move may have the opposite effect, with several people talking about the need for new demonstrations and calling those on trial "national heroes".

Some of the defendants told the court their earlier claims of fraud during the 12 June poll were baseless, official media said.

Allegations of vote-rigging were made by defeated candidates and their supporters as soon as it became clear President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been re-elected by a large margin.

But former vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi was quoted by Fars news agency as telling the court: "I say to all my friends and all friends who hear us, that the issue of fraud in Iran was a lie and was brought up to create riots."

He said that the aim was to create a "velvet revolution", referring to the overthrow of Communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989.

Restrictions

At the trial, pictures from the packed courtroom showed seated defendants wearing prison uniforms and with guards next to them.

Foreign media, including the BBC, have been restricted in their coverage of Iran since the election protests turned violent.

IRAN UNREST

  • 12 June Presidential election saw incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected with 63% of vote
  • Main challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi called for result to be annulled, alleging poll fraud
  • Mass street protests saw at least 30 people killed and foreign media restricted

Profile: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Q&A: Election aftermath

Official news agency Irna said other charges against the accused included "having ties with counter-revolutionary groups", rioting and conspiring against the ruling system.

The defendants included supporters of opposition leaders Mr Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi – both defeated in the election – and aides of former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.

Fars news agency reported that former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramazanzadeh, former senior lawmaker Mohsen Mirdamadi and former Industry Minister Behzad Nabavi were among the defendants.

The protests were the largest mass demonstrations seen in Iran since the 1979 revolution, which brought the current Islamic regime to power.

In the days of violence following the re-election of President Ahmedinejad at least 30 people were killed.

Authorities also arrested hundreds during the protests.

About 140 people arrested at the time were released from prison on Tuesday, with a further 200 accused of more serious crimes remaining in prison.

Opposition groups believe the number of prisoners and those killed in the violence to be higher.

Mr Ahmadinejad is due to be officially sworn in on 5 August.

Clashes have continued since his election, most recently during mourning to mark 40 days since the death of Neda Agha Soltan, who was shot as she watched protests on 20 June.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Eyewitness Iran

July 31st, 2009 | No Comments

Three Iranians describe police attempts to break up demonstrations at a cemetery in Tehran, 40 days after the death of Neda Agha-Soltan – the young woman who has become a symbol of the opposition cause in Iran.

Ahmed, Tehran, via telephone

I was at the memorial event for Neda at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery.

Mir-Hossein Mousavi [defeated presidential candidate and opposition figurehead] arrived at the start, at about 1615, but I only stayed for 10 minutes because the police were dispersing the crowds and made me leave.

"Cameramen were filming the crowds directly, spying on who was there"

Ahmed, Tehran

The police were attacking people with batons and they arrested lots of people and took them away in their cars.

I think there were about 3,000 people there and more were arriving on the Metro as I was leaving. They thought Mousavi would be there, but he had already left.

One important thing I must mention: I saw about seven or eight cameramen in certain vantage points and bridges around the cemetery. They were filming the crowds directly with professional cameras.

I am sure they were official cameramen, spying on who was there.

People were chanting "Death to the dictators", "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein", [one of the Mousavi supporters' key chants] and reciting Fatehe loudly [two verses from the Koran which are traditionally recited above the grave of the deceased].

The graves of Sohrab Arabi [a teenager killed during the protests] and Neda were quite close by. People surrounded both of their graves.

I didn’t see Mr [Mehdi] Karroubi [another opposition figure] there, but I saw several other clerics who were talking to people, ordinary people there.

Daryaa, Tehran, via email

I got to the cemetery at about 1615 and went to Neda’s tomb to see her family and to pray, but the police were trying to scatter us.

The crowds were bigger than I expected. The weather was so hot and the cemetery is not easy to get to. I would say there were about two or three hundred police there.

Neda’s relatives asked us to be silent and to leave immediately, so I went to the tombs of Sohrab Arabi and Ashkan Sohrab [two teenagers killed during protests]. People were standing by their graves praying loudly.

"We should keep protesting if we really believe this government is illegal"

Daryaa, Tehran

I didn’t see Mr Mousavi. I heard that he was coming but that the police hadn’t let him out of his car.

I saw his wife, Ms Rahnavard, and I asked her about the demonstration at Mosala afterwards in the north of the city, but she didn’t know about it.

When Ms Rahnavard arrived, police tried to keep us away from her. Two men were protecting her from police, who were trying to scare us and disperse the crowds, but we stayed put.

Finally they started attacking us and we escaped to a different part of the cemetery, where we started chanting.

It is becoming dangerous to protest, but I think we should keep doing it if we really believe this government is illegal and if we value the blood of Neda and our other martyrs.

Email sent to BBC Persian

The riot police arrived at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery at about 1615, but they didn’t act against the crowds at first.

At about 1650, the forces charged towards the crowds and tried to push them back, but the crowds started chanting slogans. They were inviting the forces to help and work with the people – and they were giving flowers to the policemen.

Then a cleric, Hadi Ghaffouri, arrived and the crowds followed him towards the northern end of the road.

I went towards the war martyrs’ part of the cemetery, where the Basijis and Hezbollah guards were standing.

I saw them hitting an old cleric with a baton, and then one of the Basijis ordered some other Basijis on motorbikes to head towards section 257 of the cemetery [where Neda Agha-Soltan is buried].

Then I had to go back to Tehran as I had work to do.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Iran police clash with mourners

July 30th, 2009 | No Comments

Neda Agha-Soltan

Iranian opposition leaders have vowed to attend ceremonies to honour those killed in the violence following the country’s disputed election result.

Authorities have refused permission for a ceremony traditionally held 40 days after a person’s death.

Among those who died on 20 June was Neda Agha Soltan, a young woman whose death was filmed on a mobile phone.

The mother of Ms Agha Soltan – who became a symbol of Iran’s protests – is expected to take part in the memorial.

One of 10 protesters who died that day, 27-year-old Agha Soltan was shot to death as she watched protests from the sidelines of the demonstrations.

Graveside ceremony

When footage of her death was posted on a video-sharing website, she became a symbol for the country’s opposition movement.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne says that Shia Muslims traditionally mark 40 days after a death in a ceremony called the Arbayeen.

Bowing to pressure about the treatment of opposition detainees, some of whom are reported to have died in prison, Iranian authorities have announced that many are going to be released.

Twenty who are charged with more serious offences – including bombings and attacking security forces – are expected to be put on trial next week.

There has been growing outrage, even amongst government supporters, about the treatment of opposition detainees, some of whom have died in prison.

On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she deplored the way the Iranian government was treating those it had imprisoned after the violence and urged authorities to release political detainees.

Are you in Iran Will you be attending any ceremonies to honour those recently killed Send us your stories using the form below.

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Uncensored web

July 30th, 2009 | No Comments

Digital Planet
Dave Lee
BBC World Service

Protest in Iran

It has been 40 days since Neda Agha-Soltan, a young Iranian woman, was killed during an anti-government protest in Tehran.

Within hours, graphic scenes showing her final seconds of life dominated newspapers and bulletins over the world.

Yet this moment wasn’t recorded by a professional journalist working for a big news organisation. Instead, a regular bystander captured the powerful footage and uploaded it online.

The clip of Agha-Soltan’s death is just one of hundreds of pieces of citizen journalism to come from Iran in the past few months.

With journalists forced to stay in their hotel rooms, or even leave the country, these amateur recordings quickly became the only means of getting uncensored news out of Tehran.

No entry

With no correspondents allowed on the ground, the BBC, like almost all major news organisations, is forced to rely on the honesty of citizen journalists to provide details from the protests.

Inevitably, with valuable information comes deceptive mis-information and programme makers have to make difficult decisions about how to harness social networks.

"We look at what’s going on on Twitter, and then we follow it up in order to verify"

Azi Khatiri

Download the podcast

"On Twitter you see people tweeting on various protests that have happened," Dr Azi Khatiri, an interactive producer for the BBC’s Persian TV service, said.

"But, as a news organisation we have to make sure what we report is accurate and correct.

"We look at what’s going on on Twitter, and then we follow it up in order to verify," she told the organisation’s Digital Planet programme.

"We have various contacts inside of Iran that we call up so they can tell us that, for example, a protest has actually happened."

Flood of information

Since the disputed election results, BBC Persian has been inundated with content sent in by viewers.

Far from being a hindrance, Khatiri says the great flood of information helped the team decipher content and identify reliable information.

Protest in Iran

"We literally get hundreds on days that massive protests happen inside Iran," said Dr Khatiri .

"When somebody tells us that something has happened, and then we get 10 or 20 pieces of film coming in from mobile phone footage, it shows the same thing: it actually did happen."

However, Bill Thompson, a technology journalist, said the move to citizen journalism didn’t necessarily spell the end of the professional.

"Anybody can now have access to these sources," he said.

"But of course there’s no validation or verification of the stuff coming out. The role of the journalist is not just to be the person who gets the information, but the person who puts it in context and makes sense of it."

"When it comes to complex political situations, where people’s lives are at risk, the mainstream news organisations come into their own because they have done this before. We know how to check something, we know how to get the balance right," he added.

He said that he was also concerned that citizen journalism was only representing the young, web-savvy community of Iran, and that the older generation, with perhaps different views, are being drowned out.

However Dr Khatiri is adamant this isn’t the case.

"A lot of the older generation have also been out in the street.

"This is not just the one-sided, young and youthful and funky sort of a protest. You would think, ‘OK, do people in the provinces really give a damn Is it really their cause as well’ I say that yes, it is."

Digital Planet is broadcast on BBC World Service on Tuesday at 1232 GMT and repeated at 1632 GMT, 2032 GMT and on Wednesday at 0032 GMT.

You can listen onlineor download the podcast.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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US urges Iran to free prisoners

July 29th, 2009 | No Comments

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

The US secretary of state has called on Iran to free political detainees following reports that many are being abused by the authorities.

Dozens were arrested during post-poll protests and 20 are due to face trial next week.

Hillary Clinton said she deplored reports that political prisoners were being mistreated.

She urged the government to release prisoners held for political reasons and to treat detainees properly.

"We believe that it is imperative for the Iranian authorities to release political prisoners, to treat them appropriately and humanely," Mrs Clinton said during a news conference in Washington.

Grave visits

She said reports of the continuing detention and abuse of political prisoners suggested that Iran’s political situation had yet to be resolved.

Her comments come as the country announced that it would release some of the prisoners accused of minor offences on Friday, amid growing outrage in Iran over their treatment.

Those who will stand trial face charges including bombings and attacking security forces.

Opposition leaders said they planned to visit the graves of slain protesters on Thursday, after permission was refused for a public memorial ceremony.

Correspondents say the visit could become the next flashpoint between the security forces and opposition protesters.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, both reformist candidates who say the June poll was rigged, are planning to mark the end of the 40-day mourning period for several protesters.

Among the graves they intend to visit is the burial site of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young women who became an icon of the opposition movement after video of her death was posted on the internet.

Allegations

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was re-elected in the election, has reportedly ordered that all prisoners not accused of serious offences be freed by 7 August.

On Tuesday, officials said about 140 people detained during the protests were released from Evin prison.

But about 200 others, accused of more serious crimes, remained in the prison.

Accounts have been emerging of mistreatment of people detained during the protests.

Hanif Mazroei, a reformist journalist and blogger, told BBC Persian that he had interviewed family members of people held at the facility.

Groups of 10-20 prisoners had been held in goods containers with no sanitation and little ventilation, and detainees were beaten daily, some until they were unconscious, the prisoners relatives told him.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Iran accused of ‘Zionist’ tactics

July 25th, 2009 | No Comments

Protestors in Brussels hold posters of those they claim have been arrested and held in Iran for anti-government activities during a demonstration.

One of the defeated moderate candidates in Iran’s presidential election, Mehdi Karroubi, has accused security forces of using harsher methods than Israel.

"The behaviour of Iran’s security agents is worse than those of the Zionist in occupied Palestine," a statement on his website said.

Hundreds have been arrested following protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election last month.

Activists around the world demonstrated against the crackdown on Saturday.

Mr Karroubi and other moderate candidates say the 12 June election was marred by massive fraud.

Iran’s top election body, the Council of Guardians, has said the poll was free and fair. Officials results gave Mr Ahmadinejad more than 62% of the vote.

‘In the gutter’

Days of streets protests against the election results were violently suppressed, drawing international condemnation.

A letter to Intelligence Minister Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei posted on Mr Karroubi’s website says that "women were attacked with clubs and beaten and thrown in the gutters" during the protests.

"This is more painful in comparison to crimes committed by the Zionists against the oppressed people of Palestine… The Zionist aggressors have some reservations when it comes to confronting women."

Meanwhile activists have taken part in a "global day of action" on Iran.

Protests supported by leading groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International were held in many cities – including Sydney, Seoul, Geneva London, Brussels, Berlin, Dublin.

The demonstrators urged the Tehran authorities to free those arrested. Many held pictures of people they say remain in jail.

Some placards showed Neda Agha Soltan, the 27-year-old woman whose death was captured on a video that was posted on the Internet.

In Amsterdam, Iranian Nobel Peace prize laureate Shirin Ebadi called on the international community to reject the outcome of the election.

In Bishkek, the capital of the central Asian republic of Kyrgyzstan, nine human rights activists marching towards the Iranian embassy were detained and fined for illegally protesting.

Two days ago Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev won a second presidential term in an election criticised by foreign monitors.</p

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

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Reporters Uncensored: Twitter Revolution or Iranian Evolution?

July 21st, 2009 | No Comments

Parsi admits all forms of social networking tools remain critical to documenting injustices inside Iran, but some, he believes, were not as competitive as Facebook and SMS.

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