http://persian2english.com/?p=22766
Four leftist labor and student activists in Tabriz sentenced to a total of 22.5 years in prisonSeptember 17, 2011 Ethnic Minorities<http://persian2english.com/?category_name=ethnic_minorities>| German <http://persian2english.com/?category_name=german-language> | Human Rights <http://persian2english.com/?category_name=humanrights> | Students<http://persian2english.com/?category_name=students>| Workers <http://persian2english.com/?category_name=workers> *Ähnlichen Artikel in deutscher Übersetzung auf Julias Blog lesen<http://englishtogerman.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/linke-arbeiteraktivisten-in-tabriz-zu-insgesamt-22-jahren-haft-verurteilt/> * * <http://persian2english.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/20.jpg>* *Committee of Human Rights Reporters (CHRR)<http://chrr.biz/spip.php?article16044>- * On Tuesday, September 13, news was published of the issuance of heavy sentences (a total of 22.5 years imprisonment) for four labour activists in Tabriz. According to the verdict of branch 1 of the Tabriz Revolutionary Court, which was held on August 17th, Shahrokh Zamani was sentenced to 11 years in prison, Mohammad Jarahi to five years in prison, Nima Pouryaghoub to six years in prison, and Sasan Vahebivash to six months in prison. Buick Sidler, the fifth defendant in the case was acquitted of all charges. The charges of these labor activists include: Formation of an illegal group against the regime, Propaganda against the regime, Assembly and collusion with the intent to commit crimes against national security, and Insulting the Supreme Leader. Translation by Davood Eftekhar -------------------------- 50 Lashes for Journalist Somayyeh Tohidloo in 'Freest Country in the World' by MUHAMMAD SAHIMI in Los Angeles 16 Sep 2011 10:1612 Comments<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/09/lashing-journalist.html#disqus_thread> *Female blogger, convicted of insulting Ahmadinejad, illegally lashed by man.* [image: somayehstanding.jpg]*[ comment ]* Somayyeh Tohidloo is a journalist and a political and social activist. She was born on December 22, 1978, into a religious family. Her father, Fatollah Tohidloo, is a teacher and was active in culture and politics before the 1979 Revolution. She studied chemical engineering at the Faculty of Engineering (FOE) of the University of Tehran. Between 1997 and 2001, she was a member of the central committee of the Muslim Students' Association of the FOE. She is also a member of the central committee of the Muslim Students' Association of the University of Tehran. After graduating from the FOE, Tohidloo was accepted into the doctoral program of sociology at the University of Tehran, where she is currently a student. She organized a four-day series of seminars and poetry reading at the school in 2004, during the second administration of Mohammad Khatami, which was supported by the Ministry of Science, Research, and Technology. The seminars, devoted to Iran's literature and culture, began at 8 a.m. and lasted past midnight, and were often attended by prominent people as well as students. They drew such a crowd that four large auditoriums had to be used. She also started a well-known blog, Bar Sahel-e Salaamat <http://smto.ir/>(On the Shore of Safety). She said <http://shomaha.ir/no1/post-4.html> in an interview that she began her blog because "I have no other place to speak." Tohidloo was active in Khatami's presidential campaigns in 1997 and 2001. She also worked for various Majles and city council campaigns. Soon after Mir Hossein Mousavi launched his campaign for the presidential election of June 2009, she joined the effort, even though she had made it clear that she preferred <http://khatami.malakut.org/smto.html> Khatami, who withdrew after Mousavi announced his candidacy. She worked hard at the headquarters of the Coalition of the Reformists and was instrumental in organizing youth groups in support of the campaign. She wrote about Mousavi to give young people a more informed view <http://eslah.malakutonline.org/smto.html> of the candidate. She played a critical role in the formation of a long human chain that was formed by Green Movement supporters from Shemiran in northern Tehran all the way to the train station at the city's southern edge. Angered by Tohidloo's role in organizing the human chain and other Green Movement rallies, and by her broader influence in Mousavi's campaign, the hardliners made her one of the first people to be arrested right after the voting ended. At 3 a.m., Tehran time, on June 14, 2009, armed security agents came to her home and rang the bell. When her husband asked who they were, they replied that they had come from a taxicab company. He said that no cab had been called for, and only then did the agents identify themselves. He opened the door and demanded to see an arrest warrant for his wife, but the eight agents simply arrested Tohidloo and took her personal belongings with them, including a camera and laptop computer. She was detained for 70 days, many of those in solitary confinement. Her arrest and incarceration prompted an emotional outpouring<http://blog.maryammomeni.com/2009/07/post_728.html>from many Iranian bloggers. After Tohidloo's arrest, 800 women's rights activists issued a statement demanding her release and that of her fellow journalists Jila Bani Yaghoob, Bahman Ahmadi Amooee, Hengameh Shahidi, Mahsa Amrabadi, Shiva Nazarahari, and Kaveh Mozaffari. Tohidloo was released on August 23, 2009, after posting $200,000 bail. Bani Yaghoob and Amrabadi have since been released as well. Tohidloo continued writing her blog<http://kurdistantoday.ir/NewsDetail.aspx?itemid=666>after she she was freed, offering constructive criticism of what is going on in Iran. After his daughter's arrest, Fatollah Tohidloo wrote<http://ftohidloo.blogfa.com/post-68.aspx>in his own blog, I am Somayyeh's father, Fatollah Tohidloo. I have always been a revolutionary, even before the Revolution, and an ardent supporter of this great revolution. My daughter studied well, but was also active in social affairs for her own growth and always was active in the defense of Islam and the Islamic Revolution. When she realized that what is presented in the name of Islam in her town is not the same as what she had learned from her own studies and teachers, she began a constructive critique of it and expressed her views honestly in her blog, while also reading the views of others. She loves her nation, as well as the great revolution that was the result of the blood [spilled by] martyrs... Tohidloo's mother wrote a similarly moving letter<http://www.mowjcamp.com/article/id/21120>after she was released from prison, encouraging her daughter to continue what she was doing and not to give up. [image: somayehtowhidlou+aschild.jpg]Tohidloo was prosecuted in a show trial. Among the charges was that she had insulted Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. She was "convicted" and sentenced to one year of imprisonment, a $100 fine, and 50 lashes. Her jail sentence was commuted. On September 14, she was summoned to Evin Prison and received 50 lashes <http://sahamnews.net/1390/06/91382/>. In violation of the law, she was lashed by a man. News of the lashing has reverberated around Iranian cyberspace and shocked many in the country. A journalist and social and political activist was lashed, with the aim of humiliating her, while Ahmadinejad keeps claiming that "Iran is the freest country in the world," that anyone is free to criticize him, and that -- more than anyone else -- he is being freely criticized in Iran. This is the plight of the Iranian journalist just when the hardliners are pretending that they are trying to open up the political system in order to encourage people to vote in the upcoming Majles elections next March. After Tohidloo was lashed, she wrote <http://www.ayandenews.com/news/36466/>, If I am trying to be patient, it is because I do not want morality to be destroyed. Even injustice and oppression do not give us permission to ignore morality. On the other hand, I am a small child of the great Iran, one similar to others, not more [important]. I am embarrassed [about my sentence] because others have paid a much heavier price. I would be grateful if you do not talk much about me, and make me indebted to you for your kindness. Our dream is a bright future and a green, free, and advanced Iran. She also wrote a blog entry <http://smto.ir/?cat=12> titled "I Record This for the Future and for Myself," addressing those who ordered and carried out her sentence: Be happy. Your intention was to humiliate me.... [And] I was humiliated today. My pride was broken. But greatness and smallness are in the hands of God. He is there, because if He were not, I would die today. Tohidloo is a pious young woman. She is also educated, cultured, and well-read, a patriot who loves her homeland, and one who is trying to help her nation to achieve democracy through peaceful struggle. Interestingly, Raja News, which is published by Fatemeh Rajabi, the hardline author of *Ahmadinejad, the Miracle of the Third Millennium,* denied<http://rajanews.com/detail.asp?id=101905>that any lashing took place at all. *An update*: A close relative of Tohidloo told<http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/rolling_news/2011/09/110915_l44_rh_whip_tohilu_shtml>the BBC that she was brought to Evin Prison, where her hands and feet were chained. The lashes hit "her surrounding," the relative said, perhaps meaning that she was not directly hit, or that she was not seriously injured. The relative said that the aim was to humiliate her. But Saham News, the website that reflects the views of Mehdi Karroubi, has angrily rejected<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/09/http//sahamnews.net/1390/06/91382/>this explanation. It said that Tohidloo herself has indicated that the order was carried out, but that because she did not want her friends and supporters to be concerned, she relayed it in a way that would not seem that the lashings injured her or left scars. Even if she was not hit directly, the very act of chaining a person and carrying out the lashing is utterly inhumane. Copyright © 2011 Tehran Bureau Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/09/lashing-journalist.html#ixzz1YR0Y9m9e More Mixed Messages from Iran on Fate of U.S. Hikers, Embezzlement Case 18 Sep 2011 19:340 Comments<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/09/more-mixed-messages-from-iran-on-fate-of-us-hikers.html#disqus_thread> [image: 175345233_PhotoL.jpg][image: 175346748_PhotoL.jpg] *Press Roundup provides a selected summary of news from the Farsi and Arabic press and excerpts where the source is in English. Tehran Bureau has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy. Please refer to the* Media Guide<http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2009/12/media-guide.html> *to help put the stories in perspective. You can follow breaking news stories on our* Twitter <http://twitter.com/TehranBureau> *feed.* The following items were compiled by Muhammad Sahimi: The Iranian judiciary is considering commuting the sentences of the two American hikers and releasing them, said Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, speaking <http://www.aftabnews.ir/vdcdoo0f9yt0sj6.2a2y.html> at a joint press conference with his Armenian counterpart Edward Nalbandian. Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal have been in prison in Iran since July 2009. Salehi did not indicate a date. Meanwhile, Masoud Shafiei, the attorney for the two Americans, told<http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/09/18/general-iran-us-hikers_8685919.html>The Associated Press on Saturday, that he was in court, "following up the case." He said<http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-09-17-Iran-US-Hikers/id-f9630967033a4ba5875810ee5af95517>he hopes the judiciary will clear the way for the payment of the bails set for the two earlier. Shafiei also said that as of noontime in Tehran on Saturday, one judge had signed the order for the release of the two, and that after a second judge signs the order, they will be released. On Sunday, it emerged that the second judge "was not in his office," and therefore the claimed reason for the delay. These mixed signals from Iranian officials is yet another manifestation of the power struggle between the two main factions: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his supporters and the hardliners around Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. This is while Ramin Mehmanparast, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, said<http://www.aftabnews.ir/vdcjtxevtuqetoz.fsfu.html>that the two American can be set free if they post their bails. Meanwhile, during Salehi's press conference, he seemed to be criticizing Turkey for allowing NATO to station radars on its soil. He said that the radars, which are part of the U.S. and E.U. anti-missile shield, have created considerable concerns in Iran and among its neighbors. "We do not consider stationing the radars necessary in a region that is undergoing changes," he said. "Our friends in Turkey must provide adequate justification for what they want to do. We should not allow the region to encounter more misunderstanding [between its nations]." In a press conference in Ahvaz, the provincial capital of Khuzestan in southwest Iran, Iran's prosecutor Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejehei, who has been appointed to investigate the largest case of embezzlement in the nation's history, said<http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1850203&Lang=P>that 19 people have been arrested in connection with the case, including Amir Mansoor Khosravi, the main defendant. He added that more arrests should be expected. According to him, some suspects have been barred from leaving Iran and that they had frozen the assets of some of the others and banned them from taking part in any business transactions. Ejehei said they had also identified and blocked any means by which the suspects could transfer funds out of the country. Ejehei also added that the first report of embezzlement was sent to the judiciary 43 days ago, implying that it came to their attention earlier than the public believed. Minister of Intelligence Heydar Moslehi said<http://www.isna.ir/ISNA/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-1850256&Lang=P>that the total capital of Amir Mansoor Aria Investment Group is much larger than the $2.8 billion that has been embezzled. Some of the funds that have been reportedly transferred out of the country, he said, to purchase industrial machines and tools, will be returned to Iran. Mohammad Reza Khabbaz, a reformist Majles deputy, reported<http://www.aftabnews.ir/vdccx0qs42bq1o8.ala2.html>that about $2 billion of the embezzled funds have been transferred outside Iran. Seyyed Shams-olddin Hosseini, Minister of Economics and Financial Affairs, said <http://www.ilna.ir/newsText.aspx?ID=208095> that no funds were transferred anywhere. The MP, Khabbaz, called the $2.8 billion embezzlement a catastrophe, as the total national budget for development and infrastructure in the current Iranian year is about $19 billion. "Mr. Ahmadinejad claims that his administration is the cleanest government in Iran's history," he said. "So I'd like to ask a question: If this is so, how can one distinguish a corrupt government from an uncorrupted one?" Mohammad Reza Tabesh, leader of the reformist block of the Majles, said, "There have been other cases of embezzlement similar to the current one, but because we have been told not to speak about them for now, I will not say anything." He added, "When the various organs become devoid of expertise, when the press loses its power of criticism, when responsible critics are not allowed to speak out, when the Majles cannot do its [mandated] work in defense of the nation's interests, and when the judiciary comes under pressure not to look into important cases, we should naturally expect such [embezzlement] cases. Thus, the root cause of such events must be identified." Read more: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/tehranbureau/2011/09/more-mixed-messages-from-iran-on-fate-of-us-hikers.html#ixzz1YR1CjtxV [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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