Is CB really a partisan of Stalin or is this a debating tactic? Also,
surely Iran is characterized a lot more by other things than show trials
or executions (however repulsive they may be)?
--ravi
Of course Iran has other things besides show trials and executions. We get
maybe fifty posts a week from Yoshie advertising the resistible charms of
the Islamic Republic. I just wanted to throw in a reminder that it is not
all documentaries about sex changes and condom distribution to fight AIDS.
The Independent (London)
September 13, 1999, Monday
IRANIAN STUDENT PROTESTERS FACING THE DEATH PENALTY
BYLINE: Rupert Cornwell
AN IRANIAN revolutionary court has sentenced four people to death for their
part in the rioting two months ago that threatened to bring down the
country's pro-reformist President Mohammad Khatami.
According to Gholamhossein Rahbarpour, chief judge at the Tehran
Revolutionary Court, two of the sentences have already been approved by the
Supreme Court, while two were under judicial review. "Other dossiers with
heavy punishments are also under investigation," he told the conservative
newspaper Jomhuri Eslami yesterday, in a clear hint that others among the
1,000 people still in detention could face the death penalty.
The riots, in which five people were killed and dozens more injured, were
in response to a vigilante crackdown on student protests at the closing of
a pro -reform newspaper, and quickly developed into the worst unrest in
Iran since the 1979 revolution which overthrew the Shah.
Mr Khatami survived the turmoil - but at a considerable political price.
Not only did the riots give hardliners a chance to arrest many of his
leading pro -democracy student supporters; they also forced the President
to drop efforts to strip a key conservative religious council of its power
to veto candidates for February's parliamentary elections.
More than ever, that vote is developing into a showdown between the
conservative and reformist blocs in the establishment. President Khatami's
election in May 1997 was a major victory for the latter, and was followed
by a relaxation of some especially strict tenets of Islamic rule, overtures
to traditional foes including Saudi Arabia and the United States, and a
part-lifting of the fatwa against the British author Salman Rushdie.
But lately the pendulum has been swinging in the opposite direction, back
towards conservatives grouped around the country's supreme leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Pro- reform newspapers have been closed,
intellectuals jailed and hardline clerics appointed to important positions.
In recent days, a senior religious figure has branded some of the July
protesters as mohareb, "those who declare war on God", while Mr Rahbarpour
yesterday accused the students of ignoring the wider interests of the
theocratic Islamic state. The four who had been sentenced to death, he
said, had links with "certain political groupings", which he declined to
specify.
The judge also told the newspaper that there was evidence to prove the
guilt of 13 Iranian Jews arrested earlier this year on charges of spying
for Israel. The case is being handled by a court in the southern city of
Shiraz. If convicted, they could be executed under a 1996 law stipulating
the death penalty for anyone guilty of spying for either Israel or the US.
====
http://web.amnesty.org/pages/deathpenalty-children-eng
Stop child executions!
Ending the death penalty for child offenders
The use of the death penalty against child offenders people under 18 at
the time of the crime is clearly prohibited under international law, yet
a handful of countries persist with child executions.
Since January 1990 Amnesty International has documented 46 executions of
child offenders in eight countries the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iran,
Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the USA, China and Yemen. The USA carried
out 19 executions more than any other country.
====
The New York Times
June 29, 2004 Tuesday
Iran Drops Death Penalty for Professor Guilty of Blasphemy
BYLINE: By NAZILA FATHI
DATELINE: TEHRAN, June 28
Iran's hard-line judiciary backed off from the death sentence issued
against a history professor, his lawyer said Monday. The sentencing of
Hashem Aghajari had sparked days of protests in 2002.
Mr. Aghajari was convicted of blasphemy after he said in a speech that
Muslims were not ''monkeys'' to follow blindly the teachings of clerics.
Although that charge, carrying the death penalty, was dropped earlier this
month, he may still face up to five years in prison for ''insulting
religious values,'' said his lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht. Mr. Aghajari has been
in jail since 2002.
The head of the Supreme Court, Ayatollah Mohammad Mohammadi Gilani, said
last week that Mr. Aghajari could be freed on bail. But the court ruled
Monday that he must remain in jail for another month.
Mr. Aghajari, a reformist politician who lost a leg while serving in the
1980-88 war with Iraq, had said he would not appeal his death sentence. But
in keeping with Iranian law, the verdict was sent to the Supreme Court,
which ordered a review.
''He had said that he would not appear in court today because it was behind
closed doors,'' said his wife, Zahra Behnoodi, the ILNA news agency
reported. ''The only reason he went to court today was to show his good
intention.''
Mr. Nikbakht said Mr. Aghajari did not accept the charge of insulting
religious values that was brought against him on Monday. ''I am a Shiite
Muslim and do not accept any of the charges leveled against me,'' Mr.
Nikbakht quoted his client as saying.
Two other dissidents appeared at the court on Monday. Emadedin Baghi, a
reformist journalist, was tried for insulting senior officials. Fatimeh
Haghighatjoo, an outspoken former member of Parliament, was charged with
spreading lies.
The European Union and Human Rights Watch denounced Iran this month for
human rights violations, including infringements of the rights of political
prisoners.
But Mr. Nikbakht said Monday that dismissing the blasphemy charge against
Mr. Aghajari was evidence that international pressure had forced Iran's
judiciary to show greater lenience.
''I do not think the judiciary will seek charges that carry death sentences
anymore,'' he said. ''Anyone who was visiting Iran brought up Mr.
Aghajari's case with Iranian officials. This had huge effect.''
--
www.marxmail.org
