1379 was a busy year for the press court. The
graphic 'Summoned' displayed on the IranMania news pages, was
the most used graphic by us during the year.
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Hardly a week went by in 1379 without
somebody of importance being summoned by the Judiciary. In fact the year's
politics was predominantly played out in the courts, where many students,
journalists, intellectuals and politicians appeared.
With the Parliament being dominated by Reformists and the other organs of
power by Conservatives, ironically the courts provided a rare stage where
arguments both for and against the present state of affairs could be heard, if
only for brief moments.
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The "dormitory attack" trial
The first significant court session which was already under way at the
beginning of the new year, was the "The dormitory attack" trial. The
trial was set up to try a handful of security officials and a number of soldiers
accused of storming the Tehran University Campus. The incident which sparked
days of protests on the streets of Tehran. IranMania covered all the 15 sessions
of the trial closely.
| The trial's format was as follows: the state prosecutors were to present the
case against the security personnel who had their own defense lawyers. However
the interests of the students attacked was also represented by a lawyer, and
Tehran University had also appointed its own lawyers. The Judge also played a
big role in the trial questioning witnesses directly himself. |
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This made the line
between prosecution and defense vague and at times the trial seemed to lose its
focus. During the trial it became clear that the state prosecutors had not
prepared the case against the security personnel at all well, and many of the
high ranking officials in the chain of command had not been even called up to
give evidence.
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Mohsen Rahami the students' attorney took the role of the de facto prosecutor
and had to make the best of the evidence and witnesses which were available.
Rahami dramatically addressed the accused saying,
"I ask you, from the individuals you have beaten up and injured, can you
find anyone who is a conspirator, against security or who is a hooligan?"
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He criticised the police at length for "wilfully" attacking the
students in their rooms at Tehran University. He also called on judge Ahmad
Tabatabai to pursue the hearing behind closed doors in order to bring up
political problems in the case. "If the hearing were in camera, I could
identify those people who played a role in handing out weapons for the attack on
the campus," the lawyer added. "Your job was to arrest the students
and not to beat them up," he said to the police officers on trial.
| The main accused in the case was Farhad
Nazari, the police chief who was in charge during the attack. Interior Minister
Abdolvahed Mussavi-Lari has apparently urged the police not to enter the campus,
and University officials had also pleaded with the Police. Nazari denied that he
had given the order to enter the campus. He blamed the pro-reform press for
heightening tension in the build-up to the student protest, singling out
journalist Akbar Ganji in particular. |
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Nazari, who was sacked following the disturbances, said his forces had
arrested students who were chanting slogans hostile to the nation's supreme
religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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In the end he was acquitted along with
most of the accused. One of the officers received a 2 year jail sentence, and
one of the privates a 91 day sentence for apparently stealing an electric razor.
Although justice was in effect denied to the students who were killed and
injured, it must be stressed that the evidence against the accused was very shoddy,
and a close inspection of the trial sessions shows that most courts would have
acquitted the accused.
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Reacting to the verdict, a student organization said,
"The judiciary must say who is responsible for this bloodshed on the
university campus, it must clearly show whose hands were behind this
incident."
Saeed Hajjarian assassination
attempt trial
Saeed Hajjarian, Managing Director of the reformist newspaper
Sobh-e Emrouz (now banned), Presidential advisor and Vice Chairman of the
Tehran City Council was shot in front of the Tehran City Council premises on March 12, 2000 and was seriously wounded.
| The
trial of his assailants began on the 25th of April 2000
and lasted three 1 day sessions. The main suspects all
admitted some kind of involvement in the attempt on
Hajjarian's life. The court passed jail sentences for
the main participants, and the assailant, Saeed Asgar,
was given a 15 year jail sentence. |
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However, the trial left question marks over why the attempt on Hajjarian's life
was made in the first place, and who had ordered his killing. Reformists have
claimed the whole case was a set-up and that the real culprits can be found
among the conservative establishment.
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A black-out on news was imposed on the assassination attempt against
reformist politician Said Hajarian, two reformist dailies, including Hajarian's
own claimed. "Official sources have banned the national media from
publishing unofficial news. For this reason today newpapers were unable to
publish solid, but unofficial news," Sobh-e Emruz, Hajarian's paper, said.
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The Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), headed by Mohammad-Reza Khatami,
brother of President Mohammad Khatami, said "Everything is being done to
ensure a hasty trial of the accused, who in fact are only pawns, and to wrap up
the affair to prevent the real guilty parties from being judged."
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Hajjarian came out of coma and made a steady recovery throughout the year. On
his first day back at work he said, "I'm sorry I haven't been able to do
anything for the people during my convalescence."
His newspaper, Sobhe Emrouz was shut down by the press court.
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The dissident murders trial
Nearly two years after the admission by the Intelligence Ministry that a
series of brutal murders against dissidents had been committed by employees of
the ministry, the trial of the 18 accused men opened behind closed doors before
a military tribunal. Being a closed trial the sessions were not open to the
public or press. The trial which opened on the 23rd of December 2000, was
boycotted by the families of the victims in protest.
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A directive was also issued by the Head
of the Judiciary, advising the Military Court to charge all those who express
strong views about the dissident murder case. One of those who expressed
"strong views" was journalist Akbar Ganji. In a series of articles,
and a in a book, he claimed that he had access to the documents relating to the
dissident muders case. In his articles he had used such expressions as his
'Excellency Red Garmented' and their 'Excellencies Gray' and the 'Master Key'.
He recently stated in the Revolutionary Court that the Master Key is Ali
Fallahian, the ex-minister of information. He also created a furor after linking
former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to the murders.
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Because of his participation in the
Berlin Conference and because of his articles about the killings, he was
arrested and is currently in prison. He was severely attacked by the
conservatives for his statements and his allegations have been denied.
| In January 1999 the Intelligence Ministry stated that rogue agents within the
Ministry had carried out the killings. Throughout the two years between the
admission of guilt by the Intelligence Ministry and the trial, Ganji assured
that the dissident murders case stayed firmly in the public agenda and was not
forgotten. |
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Memorial services also helped to keep the memory of the murders alive. During
one such service on Saturday the 2nd of December 2000 security forces arrested
eight people. Among those arrested were
Sima Sahebi, widow of writer Mohammad Pouyandeh, assassinated in 1999, and
Marzieh Mortazi, wife of reformist dissident Habibollah Peyman.
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The arrests occurred at the end of a
memorial service for liberal writer Majid Sharif at the Ebn-Hassan mosque
in northern Tehran attended by hundreds of persons. During the service, Abdolali
Bazargan, son of former prime minister Mehdi Bazargan, was prevented from
speaking.
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Two weeks earlier, on Tuesday the 21st
of November, police clashed with young people exiting a ceremony marking the
second anniversary of the assassination of nationalist political leader Dariush
Forouhar and his wife Parvaneh.
The intelligence agent named as the mastermind behind the murders, Said Emami,
was reported to have committed suicide in prison. 18 other agents were charged,
with all apart from two of them apparently confessing that they had played some
kind of role in the murders.
Throughout this saga eleased statements from the intelligence
ministry asserted that a network of "rogue" agents was behind the
killings but denied they had been carried out with the knowledge or authorization
of top ministry officials.
| In January 2001 the verdicts came in. Three intelligence agents were
sentenced to death, and five given life terms. The remainder received jail terms
ranging from 10 years to two-and-a-half years and three were acquitted.
Relatives of the murdered dissidents rejected the sentences handed down
affirming that they were seeking truth rather than vengeance. |
|
The families are against the issued death sentences and they were never
seeking such an outcome," said Nasser Zarafshan, defence lawyer for two of
the victim's families, who had himself been sent to jail two months earlier for
revealing facts about the case to the public. "We are not killers. We want
this corrupt thought which cannot tolerate the existence of a (certain) thought
and belief and which inevitably eliminates it, to be destroyed and
uprooted," Zarafshan said, quoting family members.
Trial judge Mohammad-Reza Aghighi said two of the men who got life terms had
implicated the then-head of the intelligence ministry, Ghorbanali
Dorri-Najafabadi, in the killings. The two men now face a separate trial for
making the accusation.
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A month later in reaction to the trial and in support of the victims'
families, some 100 MPs from the 272-seat legislature signed a petition demanding
that the Parliament Speaker Mehdi Karubi order a parliamentary investigation
into the trial of the murders of leading dissidents and intellectuals. Despite strenuous
opposition from the Judiciary, Karubi approved the measure. Addressing the
conservative factions of powers, in a speech broadcast live on radio, Karubi
said, "You want to reduce us to silence!". A few days later the
Judiciary again reiterated its opposition to such a move by Parliament. The
outcome of this saga will be played out in the new year.
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As the mystery of the dissident murders case was not resolved in 1379,
despite a trial, its political outfall is sure to continue in 1380 and it's hard
to see how this matter can ever stop being a thorn for those responsible until it is resolved
comprehensively.
The Berlin Seminar Trial
When in April 2000, IranMania received the news that a Seminar in Berlin was
taking place on the political situation in Iran, with participants including
intellectuals, lawyers and journalists from Iran, we did not see it as particularly
significant. It was interesting but not particularly ground-breaking. After all
the Parliamentary elections had just taken place with a huge landslide for the
reformists, and there were more than 20 major refomist publications in
circulation. Akbar Ganji was more or less writing openly about the dissident
murders, and the news of a seminar in Berlin was not the top issue on everyone's
mind.
What the participants hadn't foreseen was the timing of the conservative backlash,
which took place in April just when the Conference was due to take place.
Newspapers were shut down, editors summoned, results of several Parliamentary
seats overturned, the Tehran results called into question by the Guardian
Council and given this new crackdown it suddenly became clear that the
participants of the Berlin Seminar were now operating in a different political
setting from the one they had anticipated.
| To make matters worse for the Iranian attendees, the MKO had turned up in
large numbers to the conference and duly started to disrupt it from the opening
session. Jeering the cleric Hassan Yussefi Eshkevari and journalist Akbar Ganji
at first, chanting slogans against the leaders of the Iranian government so that
speeches couldn't be heard and generally doing everything to stop the progress
of the discussions. The proceedings of what was supposed to be a discussion on
the way forward for the reform movement turned into a farce and a publicity
campaign for the MKO. What was ironic was that some of those advocating a
democratic system of governance in Iran failed to adhere to the democratic
principles of peaceful debate and the freedom of speech. |
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The farcical events at the Seminar provided an opportunity for hardline
factions to clamp down on a large number of reformist elements in one go. On
Tuesday the 18th of April, State Television broadcast the embarrassing clips of
the seminar. A commentator apologised to viewers for showing
"anti-Islamic" scenes, including a woman dancing with bare arms, and
shots of members of the MKO. Two day later, on Thursday, State Radio reported,
"In light of statements made by participants at the Berlin conference
against the Islamic Republic, the tenets of Islam, and their erroneous
depictions of the Iranian people's beliefs, the case has been referred to the
revolutionary Islamic court and the participants have been summoned."
A week later the participants of the seminar, most of whom had now returned
to Iran, despite knowing that they may face arrest, started appearing in court.
These included two women lawyers Mehranghiz Kar and Shahla Lahiji, journalist
Akbar Ganji, student leader Ali Afshari, Ezzatollah Sahabi a member of the
banned but tolerated Iran Freedom Movement and journalist Hamid-Reza Jalai-Pur.
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Cleric Hassan Youssefi Eshkavari came to Iran later than the other
participants, as the order for his arrest and the serious charges he faced has
been made public. Arriving at Mehrabad Airport, late on Friday night on the 4th
of August, to a rapturous hero's welcome from relatives, and some 100 supporters
and pro-reform deputies of parliament, Eshkevari vowed: "Reforms will
triumph".
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He was taken away by 5 security agents a few hours later charged
with "acting against national security, spreading propaganda against the
state and insulting Islamic values."
Unlike the other participants of the seminar, Eshkevari was tried by the
Clerical Court not the Revolutionary Court and his trial was also a closed trial
with no journalists or members of the public being allowed to attend. On Monday
the 16th of October it was announced that Eshkevari had been found guilty on a
battery of serious charges including apostasy and waging war against Islam. He
had apparently suggested that the wearing of the Islamic veil for women should
be optional. Eshkevari who was ill with
diabetes faced the death penalty
over the charges. It was reported that President Khatami had sharply
criticised the indictment of the pro-reform cleric. Another open critic was
Ayatollah Monatzeri, who in a faxed letter to Eshkevari's wife said, "I
recall he was a learned man, at the service of Islam, and we can't accuse him of
blasphemy or being at war with God."
| At the end of the year on Sunday March
the 18th, some 400 figures of Iran's progressive and liberal movements called
for his release in an open letter. "The eminent Islamic philosopher and
member of the editorial board of the Iran Farda magazine has been detained for
six months, after being tried behind closed doors, with no jury, on charges of
apostasy and Moharebeh", or "war against God", the open letter
said. |
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The group of 400 feared Eshkevari "would become a political hostage
of the conservatives ahead of the presidential election, in order to counter the
democratic process and reforms undertaken by the president and his allies".
The letter was also signed by the son of Mehdi Bazargan, former premier and
founder of the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), and current IFM president Ebrahim
Yazdi. Eshkevari's fate will become clearer in 1380.
Another of the prominent figures to be tried was Akbar Ganji. Ganji had been
arrested in late April after a hearing before the press court over articles he
wrote about the 1998 killings of several intellectuals and opposition leaders.
He implicated then president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani in the murders in articles
he published just before February's parliamentary elections, in which Rafsanjani
was a candidate. But he also faced two other series of charges. One set of
charges related to "his illegal links with a US officer with NATO and
certain important members of the counter-revolutionary opposition in
Turkey," and the other set of charges were over statements he made in the
Berlin Seminar. So all in all he faced 3 sets of political charges.
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He became the figure head of reform for many in Iran and his arrest and imprisonment
was widely expected, it was a matter of when not if. In his first court session
on Thursday the 9th of November, he told reporters that he had been "beaten
and tortured by four people" while in prison. On Saturday the 13th of
January he was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison and a further five
years of exile from Tehran for attending an "un-Islamic" political
conference in Germany.
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The Prosecutor in the Berlin Seminar case requested the death penalty against
a former communist, Khalil Rostam-Khani, 47, who was alleged to have helped in
organising the seminar. A translator for the German embassy in Tehran, Said Sadr,
was also formally charged in court with "waging war against God." He
was also accused of helping to stage the conference and distributing
"counter-revolutionary" propaganda in Iran. In the end, Said Sadr and
Khalil Rostam-Khani, were given 10 and nine year sentences respectively. Student
leader Ali Afshari was give a 5 year sentence. Four others participants of the
seminar were slapped with jail terms ranging from four to five years, while a
fifth was given a three-year suspended sentence. Six people were acquitted.
The Berlin Seminar trial put a few leading reformists in jail. However, many
argued that even if the Berlin Seminar had not taken place these reformist figureheads
would still have been imprisoned on other charges. What's for sure is that
similar political seminars won't be attended by reformist leaders from Iran for
a long time to come.
The Spy Trial
April 2000 saw the start of the trial of 21 Iranians in the city of Shiraz on
charges of spying for Israel. 13 of the suspects were Jewish and the remaining 8
Muslim. The eight Muslims and 3 of the Jews were free on bail during the start
of the trial. The 10 remaining Jews had been in jail since their arrests in the
previous year.
| As soon as the trial started on the 13th of April 2000, Iran came under
strong foreign pressure to release the Jews. Almost every single Western Country
protested to Iran. Iran insisted that it had firm evidence that the group were
involved in spying. On the first day of the trial 4 of the suspects apparently
confessed to spying for Israel. In the end 10 Jews and 2 Muslims were convicted
of spying for Israel. |
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The highest sentence was 9 years in jail for Asher
Zadmehr,
54, a rabbi and language professor who was accused of being the mastermind of an
Israeli "spy ring." Many in the Jewish community in Iran, including
Iran's sole Jewish MP.
The court claimed that
the alleged spy ring was found before the 1979 Islamic
revolution by a Jewish religious leader from Shiraz identified
only as Mr Eshaq, who emigrated in 1991 to the United States.
According to the court, he was succeeded by Asher Zadmehr.
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It alleged that the spy ring
"collected sensitive military information, notably on the radar defences of
the Shiraz and Isfahan regions, the defence industry and the Mobarak steelworks
at Isfahan." On March the 5th 2001, one of the Jews, Ramin Nematizadeh, who
received a 2 year sentence was freed.
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Whatever the facts, the whole saga made more headlines abroad than in Iran
where political events and other trials overshadowed this event.
Other trials and court appearances
1379 saw numerous politicians, journalists and intellectuals appear before
the courts. Too many to mention here, but below some of the more prominent
cases. Please note that many court appearances were resolved without a jail
sentence for the accused.
Emadeddin Baghi - Journalist
| At the end of March, journalist Emadeddin Baghi was summoned to the
revolutionary court for alleging that a murky network of secret agents is
operating inside the police, intelligence services, state media and the elite
Revolutionary Guards, functioning as a parallel power that controls the Islamic
republic. He was accused of criticising Iran's use of the death penalty,
damaging national security and "propagating false news." |
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On Monday the 17th of July 2000, he was sentenced to five and a half years in
jail. Baghi whose closed-door trial began on May 1, repeatedly contested the
court's competence, saying it was not qualified to judge the offences with which
he was charged.
Mostafa Tajzadeh - Deputy Interior Minister
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Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh, a close ally of President Khatami
and responsible for organizing the Parliamentary elections in 2000, appeared
before the courts several times this year. Tajzadeh acted strongly during the
elections in February 2000 rejecting the pressures on him from various factions.
On Sunday March the 4th 2001, he was finally convicted and sentenced to jail for
one year and slapped with a lengthy ban on political activities. Tajzadeh had
also been chosen to organize the Presidential Elections in June. The court found
him guilty of fraud in the Parliamentary elections. Tajzadeh strongly denied the
charges.
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Before the court decision, Conservatives had also fiercely opposed the choice
of Tajzadeh to organise the June presidential elections. If he is successfully
removed from the political scene during 1380, it will be another major political
blow for the reformists.
Ayatollahi Azarmi - Tehran Governor
Tehran governor Ayatollahi Azarmi along
with Mostafa Tajzadeh (see above) was sentenced to 18 months in prison in
addition to a 23-month ban from holding public office, also on charged of
complicity in electoral fraud during the February legislative elections.
Fatemeh Haghighat-Joo - MP
On Sunday the 4th of March, reformist member of parliament Fatemeh
Haghighat-Joo was summoned to court, accused of lying in alleging violence in
the recent arrest of a woman journalist.
On February 25, Haqiqat-Joo criticised the conservative-led judiciary for
"violence" used during the arrest of journalist Fariba
Davoudi-Mohadjer, she told parliament that Davoudi-Mohadjer was "arrested
in front of her house before her children in a regrettable manner."
Fereydoun Verdinejad - IRNA chief
The head of the state-run news agency IRNA said on Friday March the 9th that
he will stand trial before the country's conservative judiciary for allegedly
publishing rumors that pro-reform journalist Akbar Ganji had died in prison.
Verdinejad said IRNA had published reports of Ganji's death on a confidential
wire that prints rumors. He said the state broadcasting agency IRIB had picked
up the dispatch, violating an agreement that information on the confidential
wire not be published.
He also appeared in court at the end of December, to answer allegations in
connection with both IRNA and Iran-e Javan, the now-banned youth magazine he
used to edit.
Mohsen Mirdamadi - MP and Head of the Parliamentary National Security
Committee
Mirdamadi was ordered in February to appear before Tehran's administrative
court in connection with remarks he made recently about the "political and
illegal" summons of other reformist MPs
Ahmad Bourghani-Farahani - MP and former Deputy Culture Minister
On February the 13th 2001, the 42-year-old MP, and former editor-in-chief of
the state news agency IRNA, said he was interrogated by Tehran's revolutionary
tribunal for 45 minutes over his links with the country's main student movement,
the pro-reform Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU).
Elaheh Koulaii - MP
On February the 12th, pro-reform Tehran MP Elaheh Koulaii, close to moderate
President Mohammad Khatami, was also summoned to Tehran's revolutionary tribunal
accused of providing financial aid to the OCU.
Hossein Loghmanian - MP
On January 28th 2001, pro-reform MP Hossein Loghmanian was arrested and
released several hours later after ignoring a court summons. The arrest came
after he had made critical statements about the Judiciary.
Reza Loghmanian - Head of the western Hamedan city council
Brother of MP Hossein Loghmanian, Reza was also summoned to appear before the
city's public court, accused of "disturbing public opinion."
Saeed Montazeri - Son of Ayatollah Montazeri
In early December 2000, Saeed Montazeri, son of Ayatollah Hossein-Ali
Montazeri, who was once the designated successor of Ayatollah Khomeini, was
arrested. He was charged with distributing pamphlets on the mysterious 1998
slayings of reformists and intellectuals. One of his brothers, Ahmed, said Saeed
had actually been distributing books written by his father when he was arrested.
Alamdar Adibi - An official of the Islamic Iran Participation Front
Alamdar Adibi, head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF) in the
western town of Andimeshk was sentenced to 20 lashes and four months in prison
for defaming a conservative candidate for parliament in early September. Two
other reformists were given fines in lieu of prison terms after they were also
convicted of spreading negative propaganda and insults against Isah Keshvari the
conservative candidate who lost in the elections.
Mohammad-Ali Jedari-Forouqi - Lawyer
The defence lawyer for several pro-reform newspapers was arrested in
connection with a US radio interview in late August 2000. Mohammad-Ali
Jedari-Forouqi was jailed on charges of helping the editor of a pro-reform
journal spread "false allegations" about the Iranian courts in an
interview with US radio network Voice of America (VOA). At the time IRNA
reported that Jedari-Forouqi had assisted Faraneh Behzadi, head of the
pro-reform scientific and cultural bi-weekly Danestaniha, with the VOA
interview, which "distorted the system and the judiciary."
Taghi Rahmani
Taghi Rahmani, a member of Iran's progressive opposition, was arrested and
imprisoned Monday 31st of July 2000 in the central town of Shahr-e Kord for
"insulting the supreme leader" Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hamid Reza Zohdi
The publisher of the banned reformist daily, Arya, went on trial Monday 10th
of July 2000 charged with "provoking public opinion, publishing malicious
lies, insulting the state, eroding the regime of the Islamic Republic and
(printing) anti-state propaganda."
Said Pur-Azizi - Head of President Khatami's press office
Said Pur-Azizi was summoned to court in May 2000 over the "lies and
insults" published in the daily Bahar newspaper.
Latif Safari
The head of the banned pro-reform newspaper Neshat, Latif Safari, was
imprisoned on Sunday the 23rd of April.
Ali Akbar Mohtashemi
Ali Akbar Mohtashemi was ordered to appear before the Special Court of Clergy
on April 23 2000 following complaints filed by a cleric in the western city of
Hamedan. Mohtashemi was one of the principal founders of the militant Shiite
Hezbollah movement in Lebanon and has also served as Tehran's ambassador to
Syria.
Mohammad-Reza Khatami - Brother of President Khatami
On Wednesday the 5th of April, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, brother of President
Mohammad Khatami, was formally charged with libel in his capacity as head of the
now banned daily Mosharekat. Khatami told journalists that his accusers included
the police, the state broadcasting company and the watchdog Council of
Guardians, all conservative-dominated bodies.
Many more journalists/editors and reformist figures were summoned or arrested
in 1379. On March 12th 2001, Security forces raided a meeting of opposition
members and reformists, arresting some 40 people just after President Mohammad
Khatami called for more democracy and freedom of expression the day before. Many
of those arrested were released shortly after.
1379 will be remembered for its court sessions by many. Almost every
prominent player in the reform movement came into contact with the Judiciary.
The biggest worry for the reform movement in 1380 could be if the Judiciary
threatens the heart of reformist power, i.e. the Parliament itself.
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Pictorial
