For two weeks the Iranian government and official media outlets have claimed that news of the resignation of an Iranian diplomat in Norway in protest to the Islamic regime's crackdown is a lie.
But this evening, Mohammad Reza Heidari, Iran's former consul in Oslo, gave an interview to Norway's NRK channel (video and translation at the end of this report) and set the record straight: He has indeed resigned in protest and it appears that it was the Islamic regime that has engaged in spreading falsehoods. Other reports signal broad dissatisfaction among Iran's diplomatic corps and the resignation and defection of at least 27 diplomats.
News of Heidari's resignation began surfacing on January 5 and was initially based on the claims of the Norweian-Iranian Support Committee, an opposition group. At the time, NRK stated that it had spoken to Heidari and that he had defected. The Norwegian Foreign Ministry declared that it was unaware of the situation.
The Islamic regime riposted by saying that the news was disinformation spread by enemies of the state. Various explanations were engineered by the Islamic Republic: that Heidari's term had simply ended, that he was on vacation... Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the following, as recently as two days ago, minimizing Heidari's role at the embassy, providing a lesson in diplomatic relations and offering a veiled warning to Heidari:
Newscaster:
The Foreign Ministry spokesman added the following about the individual who has been described as Iran's head consul in Norway and has been said to have requested political asylum...
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast:
We have an embassy in Norway. In places where we have embassies, we cannot have consulates. So these things that are mentioned in the news -- sometimes they speak of the Islamic Republic's ambassador or the chief consul -- well, this is incorrect information. Mr. Heidari is a consular employee and his mission has come to an end. He has a problem with his child's academic life. He would like to stay there a bit longer in order to resolve issues concerning his child's university. I think that he is wiser and wilier than to take the wrong path with respect to the fabrications of some people who oppose the revolution and the regime.
The ensuing NRK news report, prepared by Iranian-Norwegian journalist Mina Ghabel, is mostly in Norwegian, but the sections in Farsi have been translated below. The footage shows Zohreh Moini of the Norwegian-Iranian Support Committee coming to Heidari's house to give him a bouquet of flowers. She tells Heidari, 'I congratulate you on your return to the people's freedom-seeking movement.'
Mohammad Reza Heidari:
I was constantly conflicted during the past seven months and asked myself, 'Why should these events take place in my country? What are my people seeking, after all?' On Ashura Day (NB December 27, commemoration of the 7th-Century martyrdom of Imam Hossein, a key figure in Shiism. For several reports and videos on what occurred during protests on Ashura, click here), the blood of my countrymen was shed only because they wanted freedom and what is referred to in the West as democracy. My conscience could not stand those images. I declared that I was resigning so that the people could see that we were with them.
[...]
They said that if I denied this news, I would be able to return. I know that my decision is the right one. My conscience is clear. I hope that my friends around the world, who are listening to me and seeing me and know me, will also stand alongside the people and that they will spurn personal interests and think of the nation's interests.
Rahman Saki, spokesman for the Support Committee in Germany, spoke to the Voice of America's Newstalk program, and gave additional information this evening. Saki rejected all of the Islamic Republic Foreign Ministry spokesman's allegations, except for the fact that Mr. Heidari is indeed wise. 'Mr. Heidari had not come to the end of his mission in Norway. He had eight months left. Furthermore, Mr. Heidari's son is still in high school and he will not be going to university for some time,' Saki said. 'The Islamic Republic has dispatched a three-man delegation to Norway to meet with Mr. Heidari. They have made all sorts of promises to him, if he retracts his resignation and gives an interview at Tehran airport, saying that he never resigned. Mr. Heidari has refused to meet the delegation, which is still in Norway as we speak.'
In the same program, VOA's journalist in Rome, Ahmad Rafat, reported that he had personally spoken to three Iranian diplomats in Europe who had stated that the country's diplomatic corps was riven with dissatisfaction. 'One diplomat told me that he was preparing to resign [...] and that 27 diplomats in Europe, but also in countries in Asia, had resigned,' Rafat said. These resignations have occurred in recent weeks, particularly after the violence against protesters on Ashura, Rafat reported from Rome. Not all of these individuals have become refugees, but some are thinking of coming to Europe to ask for political asylum.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Tehran University professor Massoud Alimohammadi assassinated: fact and fiction
A Tehran University physics professor was killed in a bomb blast in front of his Tehran home this morning, January 12, 2009.
Massoud Alimohammadi was driving away from his home when a device placed inside a parked motorcycle was detonated.
Amateur footage posted to YouTube shows the scene minutes after the blast and before the arrival of the police:
The official story
Official Iranian news sources almost immediately went into overdrive. Borna news, close to the government, referred to Alimohammadi as a 'senior nuclear scientist' in an article posted at 10:48 AM.
Borna's journalist was one of the first at the scene of the crime and its photos provide an idea of the strength of the conflagration which blew out the windows of the building across from Alimohammadi's house:
Journalists could freely photograph and film the scene:
The photos also show the investigators and several dozen people trampling the crime scene:
One of the many people present points to the bloodstains on the ground, next to the magistrate's vehicle:
Images also show a cleaning crew shoveling debris which could have contained evidence:
Fars news, a semi-official news outlet close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported that the professor had been killed by 'anti-revolutionary elements.' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast announced that the opposition, the United States, and Israel were behind the attack.
Fars published an interview with an alleged student of the late professor, Seyed Mohammad Kazem Manzourolajdad, who stated that Alimohammadi 'worked with the IRGC from the start of the [Iran-Iraq] War (NB 1980) until 2003,' though it is unclear why a student would have access to such information. Manzourolajdad also allegedly told Fars that Alimohammadi 'stood firm behind the principles of the Islamic system and the velayateh faghih' (NB Principle of the guardianship of the jurisprudent, from which Leader Ali Khamenei derives his power). The Basij militia also co-opted the slain professor in a statement which condemned the 'martyrdom of Massoud Alimohammadi, a Basiji and Jihadist professor.'
In a television report which shows the remnants of Alimohammadi's automobile and the motorcycle, the chief magistrate in charge of criminal affairs, Fakhreddine Jafarzadeh, was more circumspect and only offered that the explosion had taken place on Soheil Street and that the device with a remote detonator had been secreted inside a motorcycle next to the professor's front door:
Mirzapour Street, still universally called by its former name of Soheil Street, is in Tehran's Gheytarieh neighborhood:
View Mirzapour Street - Tehran in a larger map
Jafarzadeh was more loose-lipped in an interview with Fars news, in which he said that 'the Tehran judge on duty had been informed of the explosion at 8:05 AM.' Later in the interview, he said that the explosion had taken place at 7:58 AM, therefore indicating that the judge knew of the blast 7 minutes after it occurred. Health Ministry spokesman Abbas Zareh-nejad declared in the afternoon that two other individuals, whom he did not name, had been injured in the explosion.
Though state media had declared since early morning that anti-regime forces were behind the terrorist attack, it was not until 1:30 PM that the villains were designated by name: the Anjomaneh Padeshahi Iran (NB The Monarchist Association of Iran, also known as the API). According to various news reports, including one by Safir News, an offshoot of IRNA created several months ago with the avowed goal of countering the 'soft revolution' engineered by foreign media, the API had taken responsibility for the assassination on its web site.
The API, along with the MKO, is one of the official bogeymen of the Islamic regime. Several political prisoners have been charged with membership in the organization, which has been blamed for orchestrating some of the post-election unrest. Regime officials have been loudly calling for the execution of its members in recent weeks.
The facts
Alimohammadi obtained his Phd in elementary particle physics from Sharif University in 1992, according to Tehran University. His field is linked to nuclear physics and may have weapons applications, though no information that has surfaced thus far indicates that Alimohammadi engaged in such work.
His personal page on Tehran University's web site has a link to published articles which can be downloaded in PDF format. He appears to have been fairly prolific, publishing two to four articles a year (from 1993 to 2009) on arcane topics such as 'Berry phase for spin-1/2 particles moving in a spacetime with torsion' or 'Large-N limit of the two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory on surfaces with boundaries.' His last published work in 2009 is on 'Remarks on generalized Gauss-Bonnet dark energy.' He does not appear to have been particularly secretive about his work.
In the summer of 2004, Alimohammadi even gave an interview to Gamma, a quarterly Farsi-language physics magazine, which describes its articles as educational and cultural.(Issue 3's table of contents)
In comparison, Shahram Amiri, a nuclear scientist who went missing in Saudi Arabia this summer and is believed to have been involved in Iran's nuclear program, did not publish any works in recent years and did not give interviews. Amiri is thought to have defected to a Western intelligence organization.
Alimohammadi was also a non-resident researcher at the school of physics of the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (NB Pajouheshgah Daneshhayeh Bonyadi, also knows by its acronym IPM, which stands for the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics). Strangely, Alimohammadi was not a researcher at the school of particles and accelerators. Had he been, he may have attended a seminar with Professor John Hauptmann of Iowa State University. Hauptmann gave a talk on 'New ideas for big detectors in high energy physics' at Tehran's Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences on January 6, 2010, according to the institute's site. Would the State Department allow Hauptmann to give a talk there if the researchers were suspected of links to the nuclear program? Possible, but improbable. The instiute is run, by the way, by Mohammad Javad Larijani, regime apologist and brother of the Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani.
Despite the claims of official news outlets, Alimohammadi does not seem to have been a supporter of the current government. He is one of the 420 signatories of a statement in support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's run for president. The statement, entitled 'The support of 420 professors of Tehran University and the school of medical sciences for Mir Hossein Mousavi,' was posted on the web site of Academic Supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi on June 9, 2009, three days before the ill-fated election. (Screen capture of the statement to the right, with Alimohammadi's name highlighted).'The presidential election is one of the most important manifestations of the most fundamental human right, the right to determine one's fate,' the statement reads. 'We, [...]while respecting the other candidates, express our firm support for Mr. Engineer Mousavi.'
A blog which purports to be run by opposition supporters at UCLA stated that Alimohammadi had applied to spend a year researching at a university in Stockholm, Sweden. It is impossible to confirm this allegation at this time.
As for the supposed masterminds behind the plot... The Monarchist Association of Iran (NB Anjomaneh Padeshahi Iran or API) was created by a former actor, dubber, and film director Foroud Fouladvand. The group does not support the Pahlavi dynasty, but is nostalgic about Iran's former empire. Fouladvand disappeared under suspicious circumstances while in Turkey, near the Iran border, in 2007. Amnesty International gives an account here and believes that Fouladvand is being held in secret in a Tehran prison. Ever since, various individuals have claimed the mantle of leader and two competing web sites have been established.
The original API, based in London, says that both web sites, Tondar (NB Thunder) and Takavaraneh Tondar (NB Thunder Runners), are controlled by the Islamic regime's Intelligence Ministry. There is reason to believe these accusations. Tondar, for example, clearly states that Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani is an API member and that his alias is Bardia. Zamani is currently in prison in Iran and on trial for fomenting unrest after the disputed election of June 12.
The Takavaraneh Tondar web site is much more radical. It encourages armed resistance, highlights videos of rioters breaking public property, and even has pages explaining how to build bombs. (A screen capture of the bomb-building page can be seen to the right.) The site seems to be more an agent provocateur than a genuine opposition source of information.
It is Takavaraneh Tondar which issued a statement claiming responsibility for Alimohammadi's assassination. A screen capture of that statement, complete with celebratory fireworks next to a photo of Alimohammadi can be seen below:
State media in Iran quickly latched onto this claim of responsibility, although the original API in London denied the allegations.
Massoud Alimohammadi was driving away from his home when a device placed inside a parked motorcycle was detonated.
Amateur footage posted to YouTube shows the scene minutes after the blast and before the arrival of the police:
The official story
Official Iranian news sources almost immediately went into overdrive. Borna news, close to the government, referred to Alimohammadi as a 'senior nuclear scientist' in an article posted at 10:48 AM.
Borna's journalist was one of the first at the scene of the crime and its photos provide an idea of the strength of the conflagration which blew out the windows of the building across from Alimohammadi's house:
Journalists could freely photograph and film the scene:
The photos also show the investigators and several dozen people trampling the crime scene:
One of the many people present points to the bloodstains on the ground, next to the magistrate's vehicle:
Images also show a cleaning crew shoveling debris which could have contained evidence:
Fars news, a semi-official news outlet close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), reported that the professor had been killed by 'anti-revolutionary elements.' Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast announced that the opposition, the United States, and Israel were behind the attack.
Fars published an interview with an alleged student of the late professor, Seyed Mohammad Kazem Manzourolajdad, who stated that Alimohammadi 'worked with the IRGC from the start of the [Iran-Iraq] War (NB 1980) until 2003,' though it is unclear why a student would have access to such information. Manzourolajdad also allegedly told Fars that Alimohammadi 'stood firm behind the principles of the Islamic system and the velayateh faghih' (NB Principle of the guardianship of the jurisprudent, from which Leader Ali Khamenei derives his power). The Basij militia also co-opted the slain professor in a statement which condemned the 'martyrdom of Massoud Alimohammadi, a Basiji and Jihadist professor.'
In a television report which shows the remnants of Alimohammadi's automobile and the motorcycle, the chief magistrate in charge of criminal affairs, Fakhreddine Jafarzadeh, was more circumspect and only offered that the explosion had taken place on Soheil Street and that the device with a remote detonator had been secreted inside a motorcycle next to the professor's front door:
Mirzapour Street, still universally called by its former name of Soheil Street, is in Tehran's Gheytarieh neighborhood:
View Mirzapour Street - Tehran in a larger map
Jafarzadeh was more loose-lipped in an interview with Fars news, in which he said that 'the Tehran judge on duty had been informed of the explosion at 8:05 AM.' Later in the interview, he said that the explosion had taken place at 7:58 AM, therefore indicating that the judge knew of the blast 7 minutes after it occurred. Health Ministry spokesman Abbas Zareh-nejad declared in the afternoon that two other individuals, whom he did not name, had been injured in the explosion.
Though state media had declared since early morning that anti-regime forces were behind the terrorist attack, it was not until 1:30 PM that the villains were designated by name: the Anjomaneh Padeshahi Iran (NB The Monarchist Association of Iran, also known as the API). According to various news reports, including one by Safir News, an offshoot of IRNA created several months ago with the avowed goal of countering the 'soft revolution' engineered by foreign media, the API had taken responsibility for the assassination on its web site.
The API, along with the MKO, is one of the official bogeymen of the Islamic regime. Several political prisoners have been charged with membership in the organization, which has been blamed for orchestrating some of the post-election unrest. Regime officials have been loudly calling for the execution of its members in recent weeks.
The facts
Alimohammadi obtained his Phd in elementary particle physics from Sharif University in 1992, according to Tehran University. His field is linked to nuclear physics and may have weapons applications, though no information that has surfaced thus far indicates that Alimohammadi engaged in such work.
His personal page on Tehran University's web site has a link to published articles which can be downloaded in PDF format. He appears to have been fairly prolific, publishing two to four articles a year (from 1993 to 2009) on arcane topics such as 'Berry phase for spin-1/2 particles moving in a spacetime with torsion' or 'Large-N limit of the two-dimensional Yang-Mills theory on surfaces with boundaries.' His last published work in 2009 is on 'Remarks on generalized Gauss-Bonnet dark energy.' He does not appear to have been particularly secretive about his work.
In the summer of 2004, Alimohammadi even gave an interview to Gamma, a quarterly Farsi-language physics magazine, which describes its articles as educational and cultural.(Issue 3's table of contents)
In comparison, Shahram Amiri, a nuclear scientist who went missing in Saudi Arabia this summer and is believed to have been involved in Iran's nuclear program, did not publish any works in recent years and did not give interviews. Amiri is thought to have defected to a Western intelligence organization.
Alimohammadi was also a non-resident researcher at the school of physics of the Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences (NB Pajouheshgah Daneshhayeh Bonyadi, also knows by its acronym IPM, which stands for the Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics). Strangely, Alimohammadi was not a researcher at the school of particles and accelerators. Had he been, he may have attended a seminar with Professor John Hauptmann of Iowa State University. Hauptmann gave a talk on 'New ideas for big detectors in high energy physics' at Tehran's Institute for Research in Fundamental Sciences on January 6, 2010, according to the institute's site. Would the State Department allow Hauptmann to give a talk there if the researchers were suspected of links to the nuclear program? Possible, but improbable. The instiute is run, by the way, by Mohammad Javad Larijani, regime apologist and brother of the Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani.
A blog which purports to be run by opposition supporters at UCLA stated that Alimohammadi had applied to spend a year researching at a university in Stockholm, Sweden. It is impossible to confirm this allegation at this time.
As for the supposed masterminds behind the plot... The Monarchist Association of Iran (NB Anjomaneh Padeshahi Iran or API) was created by a former actor, dubber, and film director Foroud Fouladvand. The group does not support the Pahlavi dynasty, but is nostalgic about Iran's former empire. Fouladvand disappeared under suspicious circumstances while in Turkey, near the Iran border, in 2007. Amnesty International gives an account here and believes that Fouladvand is being held in secret in a Tehran prison. Ever since, various individuals have claimed the mantle of leader and two competing web sites have been established.
The original API, based in London, says that both web sites, Tondar (NB Thunder) and Takavaraneh Tondar (NB Thunder Runners), are controlled by the Islamic regime's Intelligence Ministry. There is reason to believe these accusations. Tondar, for example, clearly states that Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani is an API member and that his alias is Bardia. Zamani is currently in prison in Iran and on trial for fomenting unrest after the disputed election of June 12.
It is Takavaraneh Tondar which issued a statement claiming responsibility for Alimohammadi's assassination. A screen capture of that statement, complete with celebratory fireworks next to a photo of Alimohammadi can be seen below:
State media in Iran quickly latched onto this claim of responsibility, although the original API in London denied the allegations.
Thursday, January 7, 2010
Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance web site hacked following attack on Ahmadinejad's blog
The web site of the Islamic Republic's Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance was hacked in the late hours of Thursday, January 7, 2010.
The main titles on the home page were replaced with 'Hacked By DevilZ TM ... D3v1l Was Here !'
Friday morning the ministry's home page had been replaced by the following, which stated:
The electronic services of the Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry I.R.I. (NB Islamic Republic of Iran)
This site is temporarily not accessible because of maintenance. Please try again later.
This follows a sustained attack on Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's personal blog, ahmadinejad.ir, which has been blocked for the past two days. A Google search for 'Iranian presidency' returns the following result which states:
Your Ip is blocked
The maximum number of your request has been reached, Please try again later...
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Mother of young man sentenced to death expresses her anguish
The mother of a man sentenced to death by the Islamic regime's Revolutionary Court gave a poignant interview to the Voice of America's Newstalk program on Tuesday night, January 5, 2010. (Video and translation at the end of this report)
Ahmad Karimi, a young carpenter accused of being a ringleader in the post-election unrest in Iran and a member of the Anjomaneh Padeshahi (Monarchist Association), was sentenced to death on December 28, 2009, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Judge Mohammad Mogheiseh, who presides the 28th branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, called Karimi a mohareb, an individual who fights against God, and delivered this verdict even though the young man was arrested before the presidential election of June 12. Karimi had been forced to testify against himself in the infamous show trials of the past months.
Judge Mohammad Mogheiseh, also known as Mogheisieh and Nasserian, was one of the tight circle of prosecutors and judges responsible for the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in the late 1980s. He was prosecutor at Gohardasht and Evin prisons at the time and operated under the name Nasserian, according to sources who wish to remain anonymous.
The court informed Khalil Bahramian, Karimi's lawyer, of the death sentence. Bahramian is a prominent human rights lawyer and represented Karimi pro bono. Hamed Rouhinehad, another client of Bahramian, was sentenced to death in the same case in October. In an interview published on November 6, Bahramian said the following concerning his clients:
I have submitted papers to the country's high court [to appeal Rouhinejad's death sentence]. In the meetings I had with [Rouhinejad] in prison, I observed that he suffers from multiple sclerosis and both of his hands are almost paralyzed. After writing for a few minutes both his hands become completely useless and he has to wait for a while before resuming his writing. His right eye is blind. This individual is handicapped and is not able to engage in activities against the country or politics. [...] The verdict that was issued does not conform to the law and I believe that it was guided by politics. They brought them before the court alongside those accused of being involved in the post-election unrest. I believe that Mr. [Saeed] Mortazavi, the prosecutor at the time, acted as he usually does and tried to build a weighty scenario and engineer a trial to create an untrue picture in the minds of the Iranian people. These people had nothing to do with the post-election protests and were arrested before [those events]. I can clearly say that neither Mr. Ali Zamani (NB Another defendant in the case who was sentenced to death), nor my two clients were members or supporters of that organization (NB The Monarchist Association), nor did they even know about that organization. They were just three young men, and a small child, Mr. Zamani's child, who went to Iraq and planned to go abroad from there. Because of a lack of funds and other problems, [Rouhinejad] and Ahmad Karimi returned to Iran in coordination with the Intelligence Ministry and honestly told the authorities everything that had happened. [...] I hope that the high court judges, whose attitude in security cases so far has been to blindly confirm verdicts without reading the files, will not veer from their consciences, their God, and their beliefs and that they will not submit to the political climate. [I hope] that they will not issue a verdict to please a few individuals but for which they will have to answer tomorrow to the Iranian people and almighty God. (For an in-depth description in Farsi of the regime's bogus case against these individuals and others accused of fomenting violence in support of the Monarchist Association, please click here)
A translation follows the video:
Note: Without being disdainful in any way, it is worth mentioning that Mrs. Karimi has an accent from Azerbaijan province and employs a working-class syntax. I only point this out as class and politics are often mentioned in the same breath by some Iran experts who still maintain the fallacy that the Islamic regime has been a defender of the oppressed and that the opponents of the regime are middle-class Tehran residents.
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Mr. Ahmad Karimi is a young Iranian who is in prison. He has been sentenced to death. He was jailed before the [presidential] election. His mother is on the line with us. Greetings. Mrs. Karimi, why was your son arrested?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
What was that?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Why was your son arrested?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
Because, dear sir, a man fooled my son. He told him, Let's go abroad for work. Can you hear me?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Yes, we can hear you, dear Mrs. Karimi.
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
A man made a proposal, said, Let's go abroad to work. He left with my son. They went there and weren't able to find work. When his daddy died, [my son] came back to Iran. He came back with Intelligence officials. Then he came here and identified himself to Intelligence. Do you have the sound of my voice, Mr. Haji (NB Someone who has gone on the Hajj pilgrimage)?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Yes, we do. Don't worry. Please go on.
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
He identified himself and [they] said, You're free. Go and put your head down and live your life. After six or seven months, they raided the house at midnight, it was before the elections. They raided our house and I felt ill and my child felt ill. They ransacked our house and didn't find anything. They didn't find anything and took my child away. For two months, no one gave me any answers wherever I went. Two months. After two months, my child called and said, Mother, I am all right. I asked, Where are you? He said, I can't tell you. He said, I can't tell you. After hat call, I didn't know where to go. They don't give any response. I go to the prison and they don't tell me anything.
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
You mean you didn't see Ahmad?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
No, they wouldn't give any visits. For five, six months, they didn't give me any answers. After five, six months, Mr. Bahramian... We got Mr. Bahramian as a lawyer. Mr. Bahramian spoke to them and I went with him and I got one visit. They broke our door. He was my breadwinner.
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
How was your child when you saw him? You may observe things with your maternal instincts...
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
He's not bad. He's a bit better. But we're in bad health. I have heart problems, Mr. Haji. I swear to God, I can't stand this. What has my child done? I don't know what he's done. They should give a reason. He's been on trial for two months. After two months of not giving any answers, they took him twice to the examining magistrate. Now they tell me, Your child will be executed. (begins weeping) What should I do? Where should I go, sir? What must I do, Mr. Haji, please God... Wherever I go, no one gives any answers. The Islamic Republic has taken away my bread. He was my breadwinner. My child is innocent.
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
So Ahmad was your family's breadwinner?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
Yes, yes, he's my family's breadwinner. I swear to God, my son-in-law is paying for me now. What should I do? Where can I find money?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Have you seen anyone to save your child from execution?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
We just got a lawyer. He's human rights. I had no money to get a lawyer. I had no money to get a lawyer. I went to the court twice and they don't respond to me. They give no answers wherever I go. Wher must I go? He's my child. They fooled my child. Mr. Haji, honorable sir, they got a confession from my child. They fooled him. They said, Say these things and we'll give you freedom tomorrow or the day after. We'll free you. He said those things and they gave him a death sentence. I swear to God, I didn't know. The kids are saying, Your child has a death sentence. (starts weeping) What am I to do? My child has been executed (sic). What am I to do? Me and my family's breadwinner... Where should I go, what should I do? Is this the Islamic Republic? Is this law? Is this a government? What am I to do? (weeps) My child has been sentenced to death. What has he done for them to give him a death sentence? His daddy's not here to look into this, he has no older brother to look into this.What can I do?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
What do you ask of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Mr. Ali Khamenei, dear mother?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
Who's going to take me to Khamenei?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
He may hear what you're saying here. Or government officials or other officials may hear what you're saying here.
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
I don't know. They won't let me see Mr. Khamanei. The President... the Islamic Republic has taken away my bread, I swear to God. What should I do, where should I go? Why are they executing my child? What has he done? I don't know what he's done. He was arrested before the election. So someone told him, Let's go abroad to work and make money. They left and didn't succeed. His father died and he came back. Intelligence and officials knew he came back. He didn't do anything illegal. He doesn't know about politics. We don't know about politics, I swear to God. He's a carpentry laborer. Is this life? You just destroy someone like this. I swear to God, I have heart problems right now. I have no money to see a doctor. I can't get any money... What should I do, where should I go? He worked as a carpenter and brought money home. What am I to do? Tell me what's going to happen to me, government! The government must release my child. He's innocent.
Ahmad Karimi, a young carpenter accused of being a ringleader in the post-election unrest in Iran and a member of the Anjomaneh Padeshahi (Monarchist Association), was sentenced to death on December 28, 2009, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Judge Mohammad Mogheiseh, who presides the 28th branch of the Tehran Revolutionary Court, called Karimi a mohareb, an individual who fights against God, and delivered this verdict even though the young man was arrested before the presidential election of June 12. Karimi had been forced to testify against himself in the infamous show trials of the past months.
Judge Mohammad Mogheiseh, also known as Mogheisieh and Nasserian, was one of the tight circle of prosecutors and judges responsible for the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in the late 1980s. He was prosecutor at Gohardasht and Evin prisons at the time and operated under the name Nasserian, according to sources who wish to remain anonymous.
The court informed Khalil Bahramian, Karimi's lawyer, of the death sentence. Bahramian is a prominent human rights lawyer and represented Karimi pro bono. Hamed Rouhinehad, another client of Bahramian, was sentenced to death in the same case in October. In an interview published on November 6, Bahramian said the following concerning his clients:
I have submitted papers to the country's high court [to appeal Rouhinejad's death sentence]. In the meetings I had with [Rouhinejad] in prison, I observed that he suffers from multiple sclerosis and both of his hands are almost paralyzed. After writing for a few minutes both his hands become completely useless and he has to wait for a while before resuming his writing. His right eye is blind. This individual is handicapped and is not able to engage in activities against the country or politics. [...] The verdict that was issued does not conform to the law and I believe that it was guided by politics. They brought them before the court alongside those accused of being involved in the post-election unrest. I believe that Mr. [Saeed] Mortazavi, the prosecutor at the time, acted as he usually does and tried to build a weighty scenario and engineer a trial to create an untrue picture in the minds of the Iranian people. These people had nothing to do with the post-election protests and were arrested before [those events]. I can clearly say that neither Mr. Ali Zamani (NB Another defendant in the case who was sentenced to death), nor my two clients were members or supporters of that organization (NB The Monarchist Association), nor did they even know about that organization. They were just three young men, and a small child, Mr. Zamani's child, who went to Iraq and planned to go abroad from there. Because of a lack of funds and other problems, [Rouhinejad] and Ahmad Karimi returned to Iran in coordination with the Intelligence Ministry and honestly told the authorities everything that had happened. [...] I hope that the high court judges, whose attitude in security cases so far has been to blindly confirm verdicts without reading the files, will not veer from their consciences, their God, and their beliefs and that they will not submit to the political climate. [I hope] that they will not issue a verdict to please a few individuals but for which they will have to answer tomorrow to the Iranian people and almighty God. (For an in-depth description in Farsi of the regime's bogus case against these individuals and others accused of fomenting violence in support of the Monarchist Association, please click here)
A translation follows the video:
Note: Without being disdainful in any way, it is worth mentioning that Mrs. Karimi has an accent from Azerbaijan province and employs a working-class syntax. I only point this out as class and politics are often mentioned in the same breath by some Iran experts who still maintain the fallacy that the Islamic regime has been a defender of the oppressed and that the opponents of the regime are middle-class Tehran residents.
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Mr. Ahmad Karimi is a young Iranian who is in prison. He has been sentenced to death. He was jailed before the [presidential] election. His mother is on the line with us. Greetings. Mrs. Karimi, why was your son arrested?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
What was that?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Why was your son arrested?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
Because, dear sir, a man fooled my son. He told him, Let's go abroad for work. Can you hear me?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Yes, we can hear you, dear Mrs. Karimi.
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
A man made a proposal, said, Let's go abroad to work. He left with my son. They went there and weren't able to find work. When his daddy died, [my son] came back to Iran. He came back with Intelligence officials. Then he came here and identified himself to Intelligence. Do you have the sound of my voice, Mr. Haji (NB Someone who has gone on the Hajj pilgrimage)?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Yes, we do. Don't worry. Please go on.
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
He identified himself and [they] said, You're free. Go and put your head down and live your life. After six or seven months, they raided the house at midnight, it was before the elections. They raided our house and I felt ill and my child felt ill. They ransacked our house and didn't find anything. They didn't find anything and took my child away. For two months, no one gave me any answers wherever I went. Two months. After two months, my child called and said, Mother, I am all right. I asked, Where are you? He said, I can't tell you. He said, I can't tell you. After hat call, I didn't know where to go. They don't give any response. I go to the prison and they don't tell me anything.
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
You mean you didn't see Ahmad?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
No, they wouldn't give any visits. For five, six months, they didn't give me any answers. After five, six months, Mr. Bahramian... We got Mr. Bahramian as a lawyer. Mr. Bahramian spoke to them and I went with him and I got one visit. They broke our door. He was my breadwinner.
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
How was your child when you saw him? You may observe things with your maternal instincts...
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
He's not bad. He's a bit better. But we're in bad health. I have heart problems, Mr. Haji. I swear to God, I can't stand this. What has my child done? I don't know what he's done. They should give a reason. He's been on trial for two months. After two months of not giving any answers, they took him twice to the examining magistrate. Now they tell me, Your child will be executed. (begins weeping) What should I do? Where should I go, sir? What must I do, Mr. Haji, please God... Wherever I go, no one gives any answers. The Islamic Republic has taken away my bread. He was my breadwinner. My child is innocent.
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
So Ahmad was your family's breadwinner?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
Yes, yes, he's my family's breadwinner. I swear to God, my son-in-law is paying for me now. What should I do? Where can I find money?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
Have you seen anyone to save your child from execution?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
We just got a lawyer. He's human rights. I had no money to get a lawyer. I had no money to get a lawyer. I went to the court twice and they don't respond to me. They give no answers wherever I go. Wher must I go? He's my child. They fooled my child. Mr. Haji, honorable sir, they got a confession from my child. They fooled him. They said, Say these things and we'll give you freedom tomorrow or the day after. We'll free you. He said those things and they gave him a death sentence. I swear to God, I didn't know. The kids are saying, Your child has a death sentence. (starts weeping) What am I to do? My child has been executed (sic). What am I to do? Me and my family's breadwinner... Where should I go, what should I do? Is this the Islamic Republic? Is this law? Is this a government? What am I to do? (weeps) My child has been sentenced to death. What has he done for them to give him a death sentence? His daddy's not here to look into this, he has no older brother to look into this.What can I do?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
What do you ask of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Mr. Ali Khamenei, dear mother?
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
Who's going to take me to Khamenei?
Host Jamshid Chalangi:
He may hear what you're saying here. Or government officials or other officials may hear what you're saying here.
Ahmad Karimi's mother:
I don't know. They won't let me see Mr. Khamanei. The President... the Islamic Republic has taken away my bread, I swear to God. What should I do, where should I go? Why are they executing my child? What has he done? I don't know what he's done. He was arrested before the election. So someone told him, Let's go abroad to work and make money. They left and didn't succeed. His father died and he came back. Intelligence and officials knew he came back. He didn't do anything illegal. He doesn't know about politics. We don't know about politics, I swear to God. He's a carpentry laborer. Is this life? You just destroy someone like this. I swear to God, I have heart problems right now. I have no money to see a doctor. I can't get any money... What should I do, where should I go? He worked as a carpenter and brought money home. What am I to do? Tell me what's going to happen to me, government! The government must release my child. He's innocent.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
CLOSE-UP - Medical center rejects body of protester run over by security forces
Much of the information coming out of Iran is in the form of footage uploaded to the Internet without the benefit of any description or explanation. Each installment in the Close-up series will provide an in-depth analysis of a single video or a series of videos covering one event.
Summary
These videos show a female protester just after she was run over by a car and then her body being rejected by a medical center in Tehran on December 27. Her corpse is crammed onto the back seats of a silver car and driven away.
The videos
Video 1: The body is brought out of the medical center on a stretcher:
Video 2: The face of the dead protester is glimpsed as she is placed in the car:
Video 3: The same scene is filmed from an upstairs window across the street:
Video 4: Most probably showing the same protester just after she was run over by a car.
The circumstances
Frame 1 (0:12) from video 1 shows a sign over the building's entrance. It reads, 'Ammar Day-and-Night Medical Center:'
Ammar is an emergency center connected to the Tehran municipality. It is featured among the network of medical centers of the Sherkateh Shahreh Salem Tehran (Healthy City Company of Tehran), overseen by Tehran City Hall. Ammar medical center is marked with a red arrow in the screen capture below:
Ammar medical center is situated at 419, Behboudi Street, Tehran:
View Ammar medical center, Tehran in a larger map
The date of the videos is almost definitely Ashura, December 27, 2009. The Iranian opposition took advantage of the commemoration of the 7th-Century martyrdom of Imam Hossein to stage protest rallies. Footage of the rallies and the violence of the security forces is widely available on YouTube. At the 2:16 mark on video 3, we hear the cameraman say, 'It took 1,400 years for us to see the real Ashura!' At the 2:37 mark, the crowd begins chanting 'Mourning, mourning, today is a day of mourning,' before loudly shouting, 'Death to the dictator!'
In a separate confirmation of this information, the following text appeared on forums and YouTube after video 2 was posted:
On Ashura day, I had to go towards Behboudi Street. It was around 1 PM, if I'm not mistaken. I saw a black Sonata drive quickly up Behboudi from Azadi Street (NB One of the protest sites in Tehran) and heard a woman screaming. I saw it go towards Ammar Yasser medical center. I made my way over there and saw them bringing a woman out of the car. They said that a police van had run over her on Azadi Street. Then the Sonata left. They brought a stretcher out of the medical center and took the body in. It was clear that she was dead because her limbs were broken and she wasn't moving. They said that she was a 37- or 38-year-old woman and that no one was accompanying her. This is the same woman who was among the martyrs of Ashura and who has not been identified yet. I saw her face. I'm even in the images that you posted. They brought the body out five minutes later and said stop a car and take her to the hospital. They said that they couldn't keep her. We said, Don't you have an ambulance? I think they lied and said no. Finally, a silver Samand (NB Automobile made by Iran Khodro), you can see it in the video, accepted to take her. They managed with great difficulty to put the body in the car and take it away.
A statement released by the Islamic Republic's police last week confirmed that 8 individuals had died during the protests on Ashura day. The police added that two dead individuals, a 31-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman, had yet to be identified. The official statement claimed that the woman had 'either fallen off a bridge or had an accident.'
Video 4, which was posted days after the others, almost definitely shows the same woman, whose corpse was rejected by the medical center, just after she was run over by a police vehicle.
The following is a translation of the comments on the video:
Man: Take her over there. There's a van.
Woman: (inaudible) I don't know her. (NB Corresponds to the account above which states that the woman was not accompanied by anyone.)
Man: You see what these sons of whores are like?
Man: Cover her. What did they do to her?
Man: He ran over her with two wheels, the bastard!
Man: Let's take her before they come back.
Man: She's crushed and you're bringing water? Bring a car and take her away.
Man: Pick her up.
Woman: Wrap her in her coat and pick her up.
Man: Don't move her. She might have broken bones all over. Miss, I'm a doctor. Don't move her.
A comparison between the face of the dead protester in video 2 (frame 2, below) and the partially covered face of the injured protester in video 4 (frames 3-5, below) is inconclusive, although the hair color and thin eyebrows seem to match. However we catch a fleeting glimpse of the dead woman's striped green shirt in video 2 (frame 6, below)and this also matches the shirt of the injured protester leading this observer to conclude that the two videos almost certainly are of the same woman:
Footage of two police vehicles plowing through protesters and killing at least one person on Vali Asr Square has received broad media attention:
However, the woman shown in videos 1 to 4 was killed kilometers to the west of Vali Asr Square. This seems to indicate that far from being an accident or the work of zealous renegades, running over protesters has become the newest officially sanctioned tactic of security forces.
Summary
These videos show a female protester just after she was run over by a car and then her body being rejected by a medical center in Tehran on December 27. Her corpse is crammed onto the back seats of a silver car and driven away.
The videos
Video 1: The body is brought out of the medical center on a stretcher:
Video 2: The face of the dead protester is glimpsed as she is placed in the car:
Video 3: The same scene is filmed from an upstairs window across the street:
Video 4: Most probably showing the same protester just after she was run over by a car.
The circumstances
Frame 1 (0:12) from video 1 shows a sign over the building's entrance. It reads, 'Ammar Day-and-Night Medical Center:'
Ammar is an emergency center connected to the Tehran municipality. It is featured among the network of medical centers of the Sherkateh Shahreh Salem Tehran (Healthy City Company of Tehran), overseen by Tehran City Hall. Ammar medical center is marked with a red arrow in the screen capture below:
Ammar medical center is situated at 419, Behboudi Street, Tehran:
View Ammar medical center, Tehran in a larger map
The date of the videos is almost definitely Ashura, December 27, 2009. The Iranian opposition took advantage of the commemoration of the 7th-Century martyrdom of Imam Hossein to stage protest rallies. Footage of the rallies and the violence of the security forces is widely available on YouTube. At the 2:16 mark on video 3, we hear the cameraman say, 'It took 1,400 years for us to see the real Ashura!' At the 2:37 mark, the crowd begins chanting 'Mourning, mourning, today is a day of mourning,' before loudly shouting, 'Death to the dictator!'
In a separate confirmation of this information, the following text appeared on forums and YouTube after video 2 was posted:
On Ashura day, I had to go towards Behboudi Street. It was around 1 PM, if I'm not mistaken. I saw a black Sonata drive quickly up Behboudi from Azadi Street (NB One of the protest sites in Tehran) and heard a woman screaming. I saw it go towards Ammar Yasser medical center. I made my way over there and saw them bringing a woman out of the car. They said that a police van had run over her on Azadi Street. Then the Sonata left. They brought a stretcher out of the medical center and took the body in. It was clear that she was dead because her limbs were broken and she wasn't moving. They said that she was a 37- or 38-year-old woman and that no one was accompanying her. This is the same woman who was among the martyrs of Ashura and who has not been identified yet. I saw her face. I'm even in the images that you posted. They brought the body out five minutes later and said stop a car and take her to the hospital. They said that they couldn't keep her. We said, Don't you have an ambulance? I think they lied and said no. Finally, a silver Samand (NB Automobile made by Iran Khodro), you can see it in the video, accepted to take her. They managed with great difficulty to put the body in the car and take it away.
A statement released by the Islamic Republic's police last week confirmed that 8 individuals had died during the protests on Ashura day. The police added that two dead individuals, a 31-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman, had yet to be identified. The official statement claimed that the woman had 'either fallen off a bridge or had an accident.'
Video 4, which was posted days after the others, almost definitely shows the same woman, whose corpse was rejected by the medical center, just after she was run over by a police vehicle.
The following is a translation of the comments on the video:
Man: Take her over there. There's a van.
Woman: (inaudible) I don't know her. (NB Corresponds to the account above which states that the woman was not accompanied by anyone.)
Man: You see what these sons of whores are like?
Man: Cover her. What did they do to her?
Man: He ran over her with two wheels, the bastard!
Man: Let's take her before they come back.
Man: She's crushed and you're bringing water? Bring a car and take her away.
Man: Pick her up.
Woman: Wrap her in her coat and pick her up.
Man: Don't move her. She might have broken bones all over. Miss, I'm a doctor. Don't move her.
A comparison between the face of the dead protester in video 2 (frame 2, below) and the partially covered face of the injured protester in video 4 (frames 3-5, below) is inconclusive, although the hair color and thin eyebrows seem to match. However we catch a fleeting glimpse of the dead woman's striped green shirt in video 2 (frame 6, below)and this also matches the shirt of the injured protester leading this observer to conclude that the two videos almost certainly are of the same woman:
Footage of two police vehicles plowing through protesters and killing at least one person on Vali Asr Square has received broad media attention:
However, the woman shown in videos 1 to 4 was killed kilometers to the west of Vali Asr Square. This seems to indicate that far from being an accident or the work of zealous renegades, running over protesters has become the newest officially sanctioned tactic of security forces.
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