Ebrahim Raisi’s Lies About Iran’s Economy
In a recent TV interview, Iranian regime president Ebrahim Raisi presented economic statistics rejected by experts and the media run by his regime. In what cases are the numbers and figures of Ebrahim Raisi incorrect?
On January 30, in response to the recent increase in the price of goods, including food, Raisi said, “At the beginning of our administration, we faced a budget deficit, and we tried to change the situation by increasing income without printing money and borrowing from the central bank. We had nearly 60 percent inflation, which has now reduced to 40 percent.”
The website Aftab News rejected this claim, saying, “According to the latest report by the Statistics Center, inflation reached over 51 percent in January, and Raisi still insists on reducing inflation by 20 percent.”
According to the official report of the Ministry of Cooperatives, Labor, and Social Welfare, “in 2021, more than 31.5 percent of Iran’s population dropped below the poverty line.”
To Stay in Power, Iran’s Regime Liquidates National Assets
For several decades, Iranian regime supreme leader Ali Khamenei has sold Iran’s resources and wealth for the survival of his rule.
On January 30, under the pretext of “economic growth”, “government support for privatization” and “weakness inefficiency”, Khamenei announced his implicit support for the “Productivity” plan.
The productivity plan is the continuation of the privatization and handing over of state-owned companies to individuals and entities with close ties to the regime.
The seven-member committee
The Supreme Council of Government Branch Leaders was established in 2018. The weightiest decision of this council was the 300-percent increase in the price of gasoline in November 2019, which triggered the largest social protests in Iran’s contemporary history until that time.
Recently, the Council approved a seven-member committee chaired by Vice President Mohammad Mokhber. Other members include the ministers of economy, interior, road, and urbanization; the head of the Planning and Budget Organization, and two members of the parliament and the judiciary. The committee’s role is to identify government property that will be sold to people of interest and deposit the funds to the government body that owns the property.
This decision, coming on the heels of an ongoing nationwide uprising, is remarkably like the 300-percent increase in the price of gasoline in 2019.
The “plan to increase the productivity of government assets” was approved in November 2020 and entered the implementation phase in October 2022 at Khamenei’s behest.
According to Hossein Ghorbanzadeh, the head of the privatization organization, “On November 12, the Supreme Leader approved the plan to increase the productivity of government assets, which was ratified by the Supreme Council of Economic Coordination of Government Branch Leaders.”
According to the plan, “All institutions in charge of the above-mentioned properties are required to follow the approvals of this council.” The plan further states that if anyone who fails to comply with the orders strictly and fully will be punished. The plan also exempts council members from prosecution.
Likewise, the executors of the decisions of this council have the same immunity.
Along with judicial immunity, this seven-member panel “suspended” all “enacted laws” contrary to their decisions.
Cracking down on dissent
Recently, the parliament has been considering adding an article to the Islamic Penal Code.
In accordance with Article 512, “every person who has a social reach, whether real or online, expresses something that has a widespread impact about matters that require the opinion of official authorities that have not yet been announced, in addition to being sentenced to third-degree punishment, will be sentenced to a financial penalty equal to twice the damages caused to the physical integrity of people or public and private property and will be responsible for compensating the damages.”
According to the Islamic Penal Code, these sentences include “imprisonment of more than 10 to 15 years” and “a fine of more than 360 to 550 million rials”.
Therefore, while the country’s economy is suffering from inflation, stagnation, and the gradual decline in the value of the national currency, domestic policy is based on the suppression and elimination of the opposition. Khamenei is thus trying to loot the country’s wealth and oppress people at the same time.
The government claims this plan is meant to compensate for the budget deficit. Even regime-linked media consider it impractical to cover the government’s budget deficit.
“The realization of 1,080 trillion rials expected resources from this plan in the next year is doubtful,” according to the Bazar website on January 28.
Stealing the people’s wealth
Now, does it matter how the property is identified? Who does the pricing and with what qualification? To whom is it sold? What are the conditions of the property after the sale? What will happen to the workers and employees of these organizations? This is the wealth of the people who can barely make ends meet.
The tragedy is such that Ali Nikzad, a member of the Majlis (Parliament), says, “Criticisms against this plan should not be raised in public.”
“The Supreme Council of Government Branch Leaders should not be able to approve anything they want, excluding the 290 MPs and the Guardian Council. How can we look at the eyes of 86 million Iranians and remain silent?” said MP Mohammadreza Sabaghian in an interview with the Mardomsalari daily, published on January 29.
The regime is experiencing difficulties receiving money from oil exports, with a small portion of the revenue reaching the country. Plans like these not only do not solve any economic problems but also exacerbate poverty and corruption.
Of course, the Iranian people’s share of these assets is poverty and misery, and in the future, we must expect a fierce storm of popular protests and uprisings.
Iran’s 2023 Budget Shrouded In Doubt
On January 22, the Majlis (parliament) approved the draft of the 2023 budget bill proposed by regime president Ebrahim Raisi, despite a 4,760-trillion-rial (approx. $105 billion) deficit. There is still a procedure to approve the budget expenditure. It usually takes two months after the approval of the totality of the budget bill by the Majlis.
Previously, MP Mohsen Pirhadi said the proposed budget has an income-expenditure gap of 4,760 trillion rials. The figure is the result of the difference of 14,540 trillion rials in the expenditure part from 9,780 trillion rials in revenue.
The budget bill also explicitly mentions this income-expenditure gap, which is a 58 percent year-over-year increase.
If the current situation persists, the inflation rate next year will be above 40 percent, Pirhadi warns.
Vague oil revenue
The government bill considers the export of 1.4 million barrels of oil per day at an average of $85 per barrel and the exchange rate of 230,000 rials per dollar. It is worth mentioning that the figure calculated above is assuming that each dollar is equal to 450,000 rials, which is approximately the current price of the dollar in the exchange market. Therefore, according to the budget bill, the government will earn about $43.43 billion from oil exports next year. If the situation of oil sales in the next year is similar to this year, it is unlikely that these oil revenues will be realized, and earning a such income should be considered optimistic.Rampant inflation
From the beginning of his administration, Ebrahim Raisi claimed to control inflation. But according to the new report of the Statistics Centre of Iran, inflation in January this year has reached over 51 percent compared to the same month last year. The next year’s budget bill of 51,090 trillion rials has increased by about 40 percent compared to the current year. This figure includes 21,640 trillion rials of the public budget and the remaining 30,970 trillion rials for state-owned companies and banks. Preliminary evaluations show that next year’s budget faces the same problems that have been plaguing the economy in recent years: Incomes that will probably not be realized and expenses that burden the Iranian government and economy year after year. The operating balance deficit of next year’s budget has increased by 58 percent compared to this year.Unpaid wages, growing poverty, rising taxes
Salaries of government employees and retirees will increase by an average of 20 percent. Meanwhile, the inflation rate fluctuates at around 40 percent and above. In other words, the salary of government employees and pensioners will increase by less than half of the inflation rate, and their purchasing power will be reduced. Recently, with the publication of the 2022 poverty monitoring report, the Ministry of Welfare announced that the average monthly poverty line for a family of four in Iran is 77 million rials. But the reality is much worse. Recently, Faramarz Tofighi, the head of the wage committee for the Center of Islamic Labor Councils, announced that the relative poverty line of families in Iran had reached 182.9 million rials. He described Iran’s labor community as a patient who lives with 10 percent of his heart. The total tax revenues predicted in the next year’s budget bill are about 8,390 trillion rials, which shows a nearly 58-percent growth compared to this year’s budget bill. Based on this calculation, the government will earn 42.3 percent of its public resources from tax revenues. The biggest tax pressure in the coming year will be on companies and legal entities. The tax share of legal entities in the next year’s budget bill is 2,960 trillion rials, which has increased by 122 percent compared to this year.The environment will continue to suffer
The lowest share of the budget among the 10 basic issues is the share of “Environmental Affairs” with 0.2 percent of the total budget, which has not changed compared to this year. The examination of the process of changes in Iran’s ecosystem by experts has determined that if the current trend persists, within the next 10 years, a major part of Iran’s ecosystem will be destroyed. However, the regime not only does not allocate any budget for this but also has no plans to restore Iran’s environment.Iran: People of Khoy Still Reeling From 5.9-Magnitude Earthquake
An earthquake with a magnitude of 5.9 struck northwest Iran on Saturday, killing at least three people and injuring more than 1,000.
An emergency official told state TV that it was snowing in some of the affected areas, with freezing temperatures and some power cuts reported. The freezing weather continues to this day and the people of the region have been left stranded with no government aid.
According to the Nasr News website, which covers the news of East and West Azerbaijan provinces, “Following the 5.9-magnitude earthquake, the people of Khoy spent the night in the streets at minus seven degrees (Celsius) and complain about authorities ignoring their situation.”
The government-linked ISNA news agency reported that people had gathered at the local Red Crescent warehouse to receive supplies. Security forces used water cannons to disperse them.
“The depth of the crisis and damages in the earthquake-affected areas of Khoy is high,” said Ruhollah Hazrat Poor, MP from West Azerbaijan Province.
In a video that has been shared widely on social media, a local from the disaster-struck city says, “Where should we go? What should we eat? Who can we talk to? Little children, mothers, everyone are all left in the cold, help us…”
More than 40 aftershocks have been reported after the 5.9-magnitude earthquake in Khoy.
Ali Beitollahi, a member of the academic staff of the Road, Housing and Urban Development Research Center, said that up to 123 villages were damaged by the earthquake. In three cities, nearly 5,000 residential units were damaged.
Some villages have suffered 20 to 50 percent destruction. Electricity has been cut in more than 30 villages. Many earthquake victims have no shelter in the snow and extreme cold. The regime’s entities and Red Crescent did not help the people.
“In total, about 262,000 people, including nearly 78,000 families, were affected by the earthquake,” said the regime’s deputy of the Red Crescent. “On Saturday night after the earthquake, the people, afraid of the subsequent earthquakes, spent the night in the streets despite the unbearable cold.”
After four days, the people of Khoy are still suffering from the damages caused by the earthquake. And the regime is doing nothing to help them. Videos and photos posted online show lines of people out in the cold, seeking food and shelter.
Meanwhile, the regime is turning down offers of aid from neighboring. According to the head of Turkey’s Red Crescent, “After the earthquake, we declared our preparedness to help [Iran]. They said that can handle the situation.”
Iran’s Unsolvable Air Pollution Problem
Air pollution will remain at dangerous levels and will increase for the next few days in most big cities, including Tehran, Karaj, Isfahan, and Mashhad, according to Iran Meteorological Organization. For this reason, schools have been closed for about two weeks and education is held online. Large parts of Iran are struggling with air pollution, gas shortages, and freezing weather.
But at the same time, the regime exports gas and gas condensates and uses mazut to supply the fuel needed by power plants, industries, and refineries to keep its source of income.
Recently, Ebrahim Raisi’s government decided to raise the air pollution standards and index to avoid closing schools.
In an interview with the ISNA news agency on January 23, Minister of Education Yousef Nouri said, “If you look at the global indices of air quality, in other countries they don’t close schools if the index is less than 300. But for us, they set the index to close schools at 150. The closure was like the Covid-19 period, while our pollution indices are below 200. We are going to propose to suspend these indicators in the next government board meeting.”
Last year, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said that important programs regarding air pollution would be implemented by the end of the year.
“Today, important plans regarding the reduction of air pollution were approved, and we are trying to design and implement parts of these plans by the end of 2022,” Vahidi said in November 2021, according to Fars News Agency. “Vehicles account for 60 percent of pollution in big cities. In this regard, it is necessary to put the production of electric vehicles on the agenda with the cooperation of the president’s office for Science and Technology.”
But today, the air situation in Iran’s big cities is much worse than last year.
“With the help of the environmental organization, we determined a new proposal for the government to slightly change the standards so that it is not necessary to close our schools,” Vahidi claimed.
But the Ministry of Health does not agree. In an interview with the Armanmeli website on January 25, Abbas Shahsavani, head of the air health and climate change department of the Ministry of Health said, ” Some days in Tehran, the concentration of suspended PM2.5 particles is more than 10 times the World Health Organization guidelines, which means that the concentration of particulate matter is so high that it is dangerous for the health of people and especially sensitive groups. It is not right to eliminate the problem by simply changing the air pollution index.”
“Directives and orders cannot change air pollution indicators. Respiratory infection is the most common cause of death in children. The annual standard of particles in the country is six times more than the guidelines of the World Health Organization and this means that people’s exposure to air pollution is high. So, instead of changing indicators, we should focus on reducing pollutants and controlling emission sources,” Shahsavani added.
A recent study by the Air Pollution Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences indicates that about 40,000 people in the country die every year due to exposure to a concentration of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in the air. This is equivalent to 10 percent of all deaths.
“But the risk of this disease is higher in children than in other age groups. Some other diseases, including leukemia (blood cancer), are one of the most common cancers in children. Studies show a significant correlation between exposure to traffic pollutants and the risk of leukemia in children. Also, air pollution affects the residents of many Iranian cities in the form of cardiovascular, respiratory, and stroke diseases,” Shahsavani continued.
Is there any plan to deal with air pollution? Obviously, no.
Behzad Ashjaee, the former deputy of the Environmental Organization, told ISNA news agency on January 25, 2022, “There is no special attention to the issue of air pollution in the 2022 budget bill.”
Iran ranks sixth in the world in terms of greenhouse gas emissions. Schools and offices in the capital and some other cities were closed many times during the past weeks due to severe air pollution, and there is no prospect of improving the situation.
The World Must Acknowledge the Iranian People’s Right to Self-defense
Victor Hugo once said: “When dictatorship is a fact, revolution becomes a right.” Throughout history, this has been the story of all great revolutions: the American Revolutionary Wars and the French Revolution in the late 18th century, the Arab Spring in 2011, and the current revolution in the making in Iran.
When the American patriots and the French tasted the bitter and harsh fact of dictatorships with bone and flesh, they exercised their right to revolution and toppled the corrupt regime at any cost.
Thousands laid down their lives and overcame obstacles to achieve freedom and independence. The oppressed nations in the world chose to use their right to self-determination and, most importantly, their right to self-defense.
The right to self-defense is a general principle of law recognized by nations under international law. It could be found in the natural law conceptions of the world’s major religious, philosophical, and cultural traditions. It is consequently a universally shared feature of the world’s foremost legal systems.
According to Oxford Academic, “The right to personal self-defense can already be discerned in a number of areas of international law, including international humanitarian law, international criminal law, the law of the sea, the law of diplomatic relations.”
A modern-day example of a nation using its right to self-defense is the Ukrainian people’s resistance against Russia’s war of aggression. The pictures of young Ukrainians bidding farewell to their loved ones to join the battlefield for their country moved the entire world and revived the value of “resistance” in Europe.
One might argue that what happened in Ukraine was a legal response to a foreign invasion. But shouldn’t we also consider tyrannies that usurped people’s sovereignty as real invaders of a country?
History of humanity is filled with examples of oppressed nations not just using their right to self-defense but also using what many describe as the “right to rebel against tyranny.” Thomas Jefferson, one of the American founding fathers, said that it was not only the people’s right but their duty to overthrow a repressive government.
These laws and theories are not limited to a specific nation or people of a particular race. They are universal. So why wouldn’t Iranian people, who have been suffering immensely at the hand of the totalitarian regime use these rights?
Since usurping power in 1979, the clerics ruling Iran have been using violence to quell a society that rejected their backward ruling from day one. In June 1981, the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ruhollah Khomeini, ordered the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) to open fire on a peaceful protest rally in Tehran, killing and arresting thousands. That night, many Iranian teenagers were sent to the gallows, and the torturers didn’t bother themselves to identify the victims. The pictures of young girls hanged on June 20, 1981, were published in the newspapers on the day after; the Judiciary called on their parents to identify them.
In the summer of 1988, over 30,000 political prisoners were hanged in a matter of a few months. They were sentenced to death in minutes-long kangaroo trials because they wanted freedom and democracy. During the November 2019 uprising in Iran, the IRGC forces killed over 1500 protesters in a few of days.
Since the new protests erupted in Iran in September, Iranian authorities have resorted to violence, beating protesters to death on streets, torturing and raping others in prisons or safe houses. The regime’s brutality has shocked the world.
After decades of witnessing crimes against humanity and being deprived of their basic rights, what is the Iranian people’s choice but to overthrow a vicious dictatorship? Are they not entitled to practice their right to self-defense in the face of the regime?
The Iranian people have not asked for violence. They deem their God-given rights of freedom and dignity. They have asked for change, but authorities have responded with bullets. John F. Kennedy once said: “Those who make a peaceful change (reform) impossible make a violent change (revolution) inevitable.”
The Iranian people are using the right to rebel against tyranny by paying a heavy price. The world applauded Ukrainians and Arab nations when they took up arms and fought for their legitimate rights. History is proud of the revolutions in France and the United States.
As the Europeans are moving forward with designating the IRGC as a terrorist organization, Western powers should also recognize the Iranian people’s right to self-defense against the terrorist regime.
The international community should recognize and allow Iranians to determine their future after a century of dictatorial rule under the Pahlavi and Khomeini regimes. Acknowledging the Iranian people’s right to self-defense against a warmongering regime that is a threat to world peace and security and putting maximum pressure on it strengthens order and stability.
Iran: 60% Of Population Is Poor
The livelihood baskets of the Iranian people are shrinking dramatically. This, in turn, has introduced new concerns to protect the health of people in society’s low-income and middle classes.
For more than four decades, inflation in Iran has raised levels of poverty and led to an increase in the prices of food, clothing, and other consumer and capital goods. Today, these issues have become the norm the daily life of the Iranian people. And near-zero economic growth has only intensified this situation.
After housing, the second biggest household expense is the cost of food. According to a report from the Iranian regime’s statistics centre, the price of food and beverages in December 2022 increased by 63.6 percent, compared to December 2021.
In 2022, around 26.7 percent of the total expenses of urban households were related to food expenses. Around seven food products, that are very important in the household food basket (such as oil and rice), increased in price by more than 100 percent. A further 19 other food products, which mainly included dairy and meat products, faced a 50 to 100 percent price increase last year.
Recently, the World Bank published a list of the top 10 countries that currently have a food security crisis caused by inflation, with Iran placing seventh place on the list.
The population living below the poverty line is a topic that is being discussed among the regime’s experts. They are warning regime officials that the continuation of this situation will only stoke the ongoing protests because of the expansion of a starving nation.
According to published official statistics, back in 1979, when the Iranian regime first came to power, about 20 percent of Iran’s population was below the poverty line, but this statistic began to rise in the following years. According to the latest report of the regime’s Statistics Center in 2021, the population of the poor reached about 52 percent, and in 2022 this has risen to 60 percent.
In the recent report from the regime’s Ministry of Labor, the poverty line for Tehran and similar large cities was set at about 145 million rials ($370) per household. For cities and villages, this figure was half of this amount, averaging 77 million rials ($185).
Many of the regime’s experts are criticizing the government’s calculations, stating that the real poverty line is much higher at around 180 million rials or even more.
The whopping gap between the minimum income of people above the poverty line in Tehran and other cities and marginal places, of course, considering the fixed prices of food, clothing, transportation, and health, is strange to a great extent.
The discrimination in determining the minimum wage in the coming year (Persian Calendar) will intensify labour migration and the evacuation of small cities and villages. The current crisis of marginalization and people living in the slums of big cities will only lead to a super crisis, increasing economic and social damages.
All the while, many workers are now receiving even lower wages, an issue that itself has affected the general poverty line.
The absolute poverty line is for those who are forced to work more than the allowed limit to escape poverty but are still in the poverty trap. Some work 16 hours a day in two or three shifts, but they still cannot free themselves from the savage poverty. The absolute poverty line is also causing other great issues among Iran’s population, such as malnutrition and other acute economic problems and anomalies.
Employees and workers who have a relatively fixed income constitute the largest population of people below the poverty line in the country. 57 percent of the country’s wage earners are minimum wage earners, who currently receive between 50 to 70 million rials. Out of two hundred countries in the world, Iran ranks 183 in terms of the ratio of wages and expenses.
The implications of EU’s terrorist designation of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC)
The European Parliament called on January 18 for the European Union to list Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization for the repression of protesters.
The Iranian regime continues the violent crackdown on protests, including the execution of detained protesters.
The resolution calls for the listing of IRGC, Basij, and Quds Force, in addition to sanctioning supreme leader Ali Khamenei, regime president Ebrahim Raisi, attorney general Montazeri, and IRGC-affiliated foundations.
This resolution also condemned executions in Iran and asked the European Union to ban all political and economic relations with the IRGC.
The impact of IRGC’s terrorist designation
If realized, this designation will have profound political, legal, and economic implications for the main force that maintains the mullahs in power. In addition to the main political and economic bodies, the IRGC controls all the natural capital and mineral resources of the country. If the European Union adopts the appropriate measure, one of the main pillars of the regime will be sanctioned. Designating IRGC as a terrorist organization means that most of the nuclear, regional, economic, and political activities inside and outside Iran, trade, and commerce, export, and import, etc. will be subject to sanctions. In other words, the west holds the mullahs’ regime accountable and isolates it. The next prospect of designating the IRGC is to make harder sanctions and possibly referral of the Iranian regime’s nuclear dossier to the UN Security Council. Undoubtedly, the recent nationwide uprising has made it clear to the whole world that the people want to overthrow this regime. The implementation of the resolution by the EU will have important and comprehensive effects on the uprising.How the regime has reacted
The Iranian regime officials had a panic reaction to the consequences of proscribing IRGC and showed how this listing would effectively downgrade the regime’s power in its totality: In a call with Josep Borrell, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said, “The European Union will shoot itself in the foot by putting the IRGC on the terrorist list.” Amir-Abdollahian called the recent resolution of the European Parliament “emotional,” “sharp”, “unprofessional” and “in conflict with political rationality and civility.” “The listing of IRGC is against international laws and shows the intellectual, moral, and political weakness of the West,” said Interior Minister Ahmadi Vahidi, a former senior IRGC commander. The members of Majlis (parliament), many of whom are IRGC members, warned that listing the IRGC by the European Union could cost a lot for this union. “Europeans should know that sanctioning IRGC costs a lot for them, and they will suffer a lot of losses in this regard,” said MP Esmaeil Kowsari, a former commander of the IRGC Mohammad Rasulullah Corps. “We will respond to their actions; First through our embassies and then we will take actions against their interests.” Ahmad Amir Farahani, a member of the Majlis Presidium, announced, “Certainly, the calamity that has befallen CENTCOM forces in the region and they move around in fear in the region will definitely involve the Europeans as well… In any case, if they do something, we will take countermeasures.” Mahmoud Nabavian, another member of the Majlis, said, “If they sanction the IRGC, we will put Germany, England, France, and the European Union on the terror list, and the defenders of the resistance in the region will know how to face the terrorists. Take this threat seriously.” Rasul Sanayee Rad, the political deputy of Khamenei’s ideological office, also said, “Placing the IRGC in the list of terrorist groups has consequences such as the inclusion of the British Navy in the list of terrorist groups and the opening of the armed forces’ hands, especially the IRGC, to deal with them as terrorists like ISIS.”Iran’s Regime Is Hiding Human Rights Violations In Its Prisons
With more than four months into Iran’s latest round of nationwide uprisings, the brutality of the Iranian regime’s security and judiciary apparatus has caused outrage and condemnation around the world. Politicians, lawmakers, and human rights activists and organizations are calling on Tehran to respect the human rights of civilians and to stop the torture and execution of detained protesters. However, the regime is refraining from coming clean on what is happening inside its prisons and is instead giving falsified reports to conceal the reality of the human catastrophe happening in Iran’s prisons.
The Iranian regime’s judiciary spokesperson claimed to have released a total of 5,200 people arrested during nationwide protests and about 98 percent of those arrested in Tehran province. But he once again refused to provide the total number of arrests in the last four months.
In a press conference on Wednesday, January 18, Massoud Setayeshi, who previously announced the release of 1,200 arrested protesters across the country, said, “Recently, about 4,000 people were granted legal concessions and were released from prisons throughout the country.”
Setayeshi did not give any explanation about the status of the cases of more than 5,000 “released” detainees and did not announce how many were released on bail and are awaiting trial and verdict.
The spokesperson of the regime’s judiciary also said that the number of detainees released in Tehran province is “98.5 percent and it seems to be the same across the country”.
Suspicious deaths and suicide
If this percentage is true, the total number of detainees would be around 6,000 people, which is very different from the statistics announced by human rights organizations. Some human rights sources have reported between 19,000 and 20,000 people arrested during the suppression of nationwide protests in the last four months. Moreover, all those who have announced their freedom have emphasized that they have been released temporarily on bail, and are waiting for a trial or a judicial verdict. According to sources of the Iranian opposition People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), the regime has arrested more than 30,000 protesters since the uprising began in September. The Iranian opposition also reports that security forces have killed at least 750 protesters, including dozens of children. Even the regime’s internal reports contradict the public figures declared by judiciary officials. According to a leaked confidential bulletin issued by Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), 29,400 people had been arrested during the recent protests in Iran. In the past months, several detained protesters decided to end their lives shortly after their release or died under suspicious conditions. The increase in death and suicide among released prisoners has caused widespread reactions in Iran. Some reports indicate that to eliminate opponents, the regime uses chemical substances and psychoactive pills as medicine in prisons and detention centers, which increases the desire to commit suicide in detainees. Also, the regime uses rape as torture against opponents, which has a very destructive psychological effect on them. During these protests, the regime tried to avoid the responsibility of killing the protesters in different ways. In most of the certificates issued by the coroner’s office, the cause of death has been reduced to cases such as “falling from a height, accident, brain and heart strokes, chronic disease, intoxication, and even in one case, being bitten by a dog.”Flawed judicial process
Several lawyers and law professors recently published an open letter to the head of Iran’s Judiciary, protesting the prohibition of selected lawyers from entering political and security cases. They considered this as a clear example of “extrajudicial and arbitrary behavior”. The letter, signed by 45 lawyers and university law professors, refers to the regime’s domestic laws, which emphasize the right to choose a lawyer freely. But an addendum that was added in the 2010s states that in cases related to “internal or external security”, this right is ignored in the preliminary investigation stage, and the defendants are forced to choose their legal defense from lawyers approved by the head of the judiciary. The letter describes this issue as a “legal problem and challenge” that “reduces the validity of verdicts”. The case of Mohammad Mehdi Karami and Mohammad Hosseini, who were recently executed by the regime, are among the cases that provoked many protests. The two were denied the selection of a lawyer until their death sentence was issued. Both were also tortured to make incriminating confessions and were tried in a court where the judge, witnesses, and even their lawyers were chosen to fit the noose around their necks. “Unfortunately, we have seen that during recent arrests, which are mainly political, these arbitrary behaviors have occurred more than in the past,” the letter reads in part.How Internet Censorship Is Damaging Iran’s Economy
While in the last four months, internet access in Iran has been cut off or severely limited, the regime’s Minister of Information and Communications says that this year the production factors of the communications and information technology sector have grown by 13.3 percent and the share of digital economy in the per capita income of the country has also reached 7.2 percent.
Issa Zarepour claims that production in the communication and information technology sector has doubled twice while at least in the last four months, due to the internet shutdown and the expansion of censorship, many online businesses have been eliminated from Iran’s economy.
According to Zarepour, the share of the digital economy in the per capita income has increased from 6.4 percent to 7.2 percent. Zarepour said, “This amount should reach 10 percent by 2025, which I think can be increased to 30 percent in a 10-year horizon.”
Last month, the results of a Jobvision survey from 8,000 people, which was published in Digiato, showed that the digital marketing and SEO job group suffered the most from the recent uptick in internet censorship and restrictions. Also, 23 percent of the participants in the survey reported having lost their jobs.
