Home Blog Page 309

Iran on the International Human Rights Day

Shahin Mahmoudi
-
0
Iran on the International Human Rights Day

In 1948, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named December 10, as the Human Rights Day. Also, 72 years ago, today, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as a cornerstone for building a new world, where leaders respect people’s rights without considering their race, color, creed, and other differences.

However, in our world, there are a few authoritarian states that still violate their citizens’ basic rights in spite of the international community’s will. The Islamic Republic ruling Iran is among these autocratic governments while it responded to any people’s cry for inherent rights with violence.

For instance, the ayatollahs used lethal force to crack down on hundreds of thousands of people who had come onto the streets to protest gas price hikes in November 2019. As a result of brutal suppression, over 1,500 citizens were killed, and at least 12,000 others were detained. The fate of many detainees is still unclear.

In its September 2 report, Amnesty International revealed a part of the torture and other ill-treatments practiced against November detainees. “Widespread torture including beatings, floggings, electric shocks, stress positions, mock executions, waterboarding, sexual violence, forced administration of chemical substances, and deprivation of medical care. Hundreds subjected to grossly unfair trials on baseless national security charges. Death sentences issued based on torture-tainted ‘confessions,’” Amnesty wrote.

However, the Bloody November of 2019 is not the whole story despite international condemnations and calls for an impartial investigation.

On October 18, during the 75th session of UNGA’s Third Committee, which is focused on social and human rights issues, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Iran, Javaid Rehman, said that there is a “clear pattern” of Iranian authorities trying to “silence public dissent over the social, economic and political situation.” In this respect, the UNGA issued its 67th condemnation resolution against the Iranian government for ongoing and systematic human rights abuses.

Nonetheless, the condemnation did not halt Iranian authorities’ crimes against the people. Following the UNGA session, the government increased the suppression and suffocation in society. Iranian officials, including the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, frequently issue warning about the foes’ plan to disrupt the country’s security.

Practically, Khamenei and other authorities pave the path for more oppressive measures under the excuse of ‘security.’ Following the Supreme Leader’s remarks, the State Security Forces (SSF), the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and Basij paramilitary forces affiliated to the IRGC began new round of crackdown on ordinary citizens. In fact, the government tried to nip any protest in the bud on the anniversary of nationwide November protests.

They increased oppressive patrols in cities and towns, arrested citizens for bogus allegations, and even gunned down several young people in board daylight. The IRGC commander-in-chief Hossein Salami also vowed to launch home-to-home searches. He ridiculously claimed that his forces intend to “counter the novel coronavirus” and raid and destroy the “virus safehouses.”

Furthermore, the religious state, particularly judiciary, increased pressure against inmates. From December 10, 2019, to 2020, the Iranian government has totally executed 255 prisoners in different jails across the country, according to human rights groups. In this period, authorities executed at least four underage inmates, eight women, and eight political prisoners.

The Iranian government also arbitrarily killed several citizens in poor provinces such as Sistan and Baluchestan, Western Azarbaijan, and Kurdistan. Border guards violently targeted porters and killed at least 74 of them under the excuse of combating trafficking. There are some juveniles among victims.

The continuation of human rights violations in Iran clearly shows that the ayatollahs do neither respect their own people’s basic rights nor recognize international norms. The current ruling system apparently declared its will to preserve power at all costs. In this respect, the citizens constantly chant the slogan, “They are lying that the U.S. is our enemy, our enemy is right here,” “death to Khamenei,” “death to Rouhani,” and “IRGC, shame on you, get rid of our country.”

Iran: World Record Hold in Domestic Violence

Staff Writer
-
0
Iran: World Record Hold in Domestic Violence

Iran has yet another world record to add to its collection. In addition to being the world’s leading executioner per capita and the world’s foremost state sponsor of terrorism, it is now the country with the highest levels of domestic violence against women.

In fact, sociologist Amanollah Qaraei Moghaddam said that the chair of the Social Aid Association had previously announced that “40 percent of domestic violence in the world is carried out in [Iran].”

Domestic abuse is not an easy thing to deal with, even when the law and society are on the side of female victims, but legal loopholes that negate a woman’s right to safety mean the situation is so much worse in Iran.

The authorities began admitting that violence against women was rising in 2018, but what they likely meant was that reports of such violence were increasing, with 85,420 women filing complaints in 2019.

Fatemeh Ghassempour, head of the Research Center on Women and Family in Tehran, said: “66 percent of Iranian women experience domestic violence in their lifetime.”

This is double the world average, but still likely an understatement of the true problem. The Borna News website, which underestimated the number of cases, advised that only a third of all cases are reported.

Iranian Women Have the Highest Suicide Rate in the Middle East

Social ailments expert Mohammad Reza Mahjoubfar is the one who said that “Iran holds the world record on domestic violence (against women)”, claiming that no house is safe and blaming government mismanagement over the “economic and social consequences of the coronavirus pandemic” for the rise in domestic abuse.

There is a bill to “provide security for women” but it’s incapable of stopping violence and does nothing to protect the rights of women. To protect women, domestic violence must be criminalized, offenders must be punished, and psychological violence should be recognized as violence. In addition, supportive institutions must be set up and more shelters established so that women can actually access them. Otherwise, domestic violence will only grow.

One of the biggest domestic violence issues in honor killings, which are estimated to account for eight murders per day.

“The enforcement of the law against honor killings has been in a way that presently, men have a free hand in carrying out physical, verbal, and psychological violence against girls and women in their families. By relying on existing male-dominated laws that grant them immunity against the implementation of maximum punishment, they commit any crime and murder,” Mahjoubfar wrote.

Another Veil of Crime Against Iranian Children

A Turning Point in Three-Decade Struggle for Justice for 1988 Massacre

Jubin Katiraie
-
0
A Turning Point in Three-Decade Struggle for Justice for 1988 Massacre

In a joint letter, a group of United Nations human rights experts called Iranian authorities to launch an investigation about the perpetrators and individuals who involved in the forced disappearance of thousands of political prisoners in 1988.

“There is systemic impunity enjoyed by those who ordered and carried out the extrajudicial executions and enforced disappearances. To date, no official in Iran has been brought to justice and many of the officials involved continue to hold positions of power including key judicial, prosecutorial and governmental bodies responsible for ensuring the victims receive justice,” seven UN Rapporteurs warned Tehran.

In the summer of 1988, the ayatollahs carried out the massacre based on a fatwa by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini. According to eyewitnesses and reports obtained by prisoners’ family members, over 30,000 political prisoners were massacred during a few weeks.

“Between July and September 1988, the Iranian authorities forcibly disappeared and extrajudicially executed thousands of imprisoned political dissidents affiliated with political opposition groups in 32 cities in secret and discarded their bodies, mostly in unmarked mass graves,” UN experts wrote.

The vast majority of the victims were activists of the Iranian opposition Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI). Members of the Death Commissions, who at the time sent the prisoners to their death, include the regime’s current Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raisi and Justice Minister Alireza Avaei.

UN experts also highlighted the imperative of prosecution of the massacre’s perpetrators. “We call on your Excellency’s Government to urgently conduct a thorough and independent investigation into all cases, to disclose detailed information on the fate of each individual and to prosecute perpetrators,” the letter read.

Amnesty International welcomed this letter by the UN experts and described it as a “turning point” in the three-decade struggle for justice for the 1988 victims. Amnesty also praised the UN Rapporteurs’ initiative as “a push for accountability, on the eve of International Human Rights Day.” 

“UN experts’ communication is a momentous breakthrough. It marks a turning point in the long-standing struggles of victims’ families and survivors, supported by Iranian human rights organizations and Amnesty International, to end these crimes and obtain truth, justice and reparation,” said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for the Middle East and North Africa in this regard.

It is worth reminding that the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) had frequently insisted on an investigation about the massacre of political prisoners in Iran. The opposition reckoned that an international investigation would deter further crimes by the government. Instead, turning a blind eye to the crime emboldens Iranian authorities to commit more crimes as they unprecedentedly used lethal force to suppress peaceful protests in November 2019.

“The time has come for the international community to end three decades of impunity for the clerical regime leaders in Iran and to hold them accountable for their crimes. The time has come for referring the dossier of human rights violations in Iran, particularly the executions of the 1980s and the 1988 massacre, to the UN Security Council. The time has come for Khamenei and his accomplices to face justice for committing crimes against humanity. The time has come for the United Nations to launch an international fact-finding mission on the 1988 massacre in Iran,” said the NCRI President-elect Maryam Rajavi.

“Crime against Humanity is a book containing the names of over 5,000 victims of the 1988 massacre in Iran, also addresses of the tombs and mass graves in 36 cities, names of members of 35 Death Commissions, & lists 110 cities where the massacre was carried out,” Rajavi tweeted on December 9.

Urmia Central Prison Conditions Unbearable

Staff Writer
-
0
Urmia Central Prison Conditions Unbearable

The prisoners held in Urmia Central Prison are facing “unbearable” physical and psychological pressures and it is getting worse every day, according to an informed source. Let’s look at just some of the ways that the inmates are being tortured and attacked by the guards.

Denial of Medication in Urmia Central Prison

For two weeks, inmates with serious conditions have been denied their vital medication and when they protest, they are just given hollow promises.

“Now these patients are having serious problems. The life of some of them is in danger,” the source said.

Coronavirus Protests in Urmia Prison

Jamming Devices in Urmia Central Prison

Political prisoners were moved to the ultra-security ward, where jamming devices were installed, which have caused the inmates to suffer from constant headaches and vomiting. When they protested, the prison’s general manager threatened them with harsher treatment, even though there could be serious long-term damage to their physical and mental health.

Food Conditions in Urmia Central Prison

The food quality in Iranian prisons is low and the quantity limited, but the food available for purchase at the prison shop is unaffordable, with frozen chicken going for 28,500 rials [$1.09] per kilo, compared with 185,000 rials [$0.70] outside.

“The quality of goods at the prison’s shop is very poor but the prices are very high and the prisoners cannot afford it. Most of these inmates are poor people providing for their families and now they are jailed. They have no income but the prison authorities even loot these poor people,” the source said.

On November 25, inmates protested the conditions by setting fire to the wards.

Meanwhile, political prisoners in Evin Prison warned of a potential death tsunami in prisons because of the resurge in coronavirus after the authorities took no action on the pandemic.

“Having a look at prisons’ conditions and how the inmates live in them, it is clear how lethal coronavirus would be in these places. A limited space embedding a great number of inmates, without any preventive sanitary gears or being able to keep social distancing,” they wrote.

“The inmates have no possibility to take care of themselves, they are under various physiological pressures including being worried about their beloveds outside the prison. Under these conditions, a more serious spread of the virus at prisons with bringing about a deadly tsunami,” their letter read.

Crime Against Humanity: Iranian Regime Kills Political Prisoners With the Coronavirus

Signatories included Sina Beheshti, Amir Salar Davoodi, Esmail Abdi, Amin Laqaii, Abdolrasool Mortazavi, Mohammad Ghafari, and Sina Monirzad.

They called for the unconditional release of prisoners to prevent “a catastrophe of coronavirus deaths” and vowed to continue protesting until their goal is met.

Over 7,000 Iranian Underage Girls Married Off

Staff Writer
-
0
Over 7,000 Iranian Underage Girls Married Off

During the past three months, more than 7,000 girls under the age of 14 were recorded as married, according to the Iran Statistics Centre’s quarterly report.

In this report, published on November 30, it was stated that 7,323 girls aged 10 to 14 are registered as married, with one girl married before she turned 10. It further stated that some 130,000 girls under 14 were married between 2016 and 2019, which works out at roughly 43,300 marriages involving underage girls each year.

According to a member of the Cultural Association in Support of Working Children Mohammad Bonyazadeh, the number of child wives in Iran was nearly one million in July 2010. “Official sources put the number of child spouses in the country at between 900,000 to 950,000. This violates the international Convention on the Rights of the Child,” the semi-official ILNA news agency quoted him as saying on July 1.

This does not take into account unregistered marriages and should be considered a minimum due to the government’s secrecy over statistics that make them look bad.

Child marriage, which should also include the thousands of Iranian girls aged 14-18 who are married off each year, causes lasting physical and psychological harm to the minors involved, especially those who become pregnant while underage. Here, we will list just a few:

  • depression and suicide attempts
  • divorce
  • education deprivation
  • early pregnancy-related injuries and deaths
  • poverty continuation

Iranian Deputy Minister of Sports and Youth Mohammad Mehditandgouyan has said that the government has seen an increased number of underage girls applying for marriage loans.

Another Veil of Crime Against Iranian Children

“In recent years, two-thirds of the loan requestees have been underage girls, and this is at times associated with forced marriages,” he said.

While the head of the Women and Family Affairs Department in Markazi province, Zahra Kasayipour, said that in the past six months alone 109 girls aged 14 or under were registered as married, with another 109 underage girls becoming pregnant. She went on to say that 1,157 girls under 18 became pregnant from 2017 to 2019, with 1,055 girls under 15 becoming pregnant from 2016 to 2019.

The Statistic Centre also reports that between 2011 and 2015, there were 95,000 divorces involving women under 19, with 5,760 of them related to marriages involving someone aged 14 or younger.

Child rights activists, worried about increasing rates of marriage for underage girls, highlighted that this will harm the future health of Iranian society and showcases widespread disaster.

The marriage age of 15 for girls is decided by the average “sexual maturity”, although it should be noted that this just means that menstruation has begun. It does not take into account the kind of physical or emotional maturity required to consent to marriage, the kind that only comes from being allowed to finish your childhood in school and surrounded by your peers and not from being married off to a much older man.

Iranian Education Ministry Joined the Mafia

The Vicious Circle of Budget Structure Reforms in Iran

Staff Writer
-
0
The Vicious Circle of Budget Structure Reforms in Iran

Iran’s state-run outlets acknowledge that one of the ongoing disputes in the media is about the budget structure and its reforms. Bijan Abdi one of the governmental economists criticizing the present situation said:

“What was done in the government and the management and planning organization to reform and clarify the budget was a series of words that were of no use to anyone. Words that one thinks are mostly sham, and by presenting forty, fifty pages, they got rid of with useless words.

“The serious problems we had in the budgets of the last two years in the last two governments were that in practice the government did not believe in planning and did not do the rights things, what the parliament approved, while the deviation of the government from the approved budgets and programs is so great, that the lack of a plan for the government does not make much difference,” Radar-e-Eghtesadi website wrote on November 23.

The poor economic situation which of course is intensified by Iran’s global isolation and sanctions, but has other main reasons which are raised from the heart of Iran’s devastated economy, which is caused by the government’s corrupt policies, and has nothing to do with the sanctions and the government’s external conflicts.

Even government experts see sanctions as a secondary issue that has a dual effect when it comes to a corrupt and undisciplined economy like Iran’s.

“Reference to this budget document and review of its various clauses clearly shows that from beginning to end it is full of small and big problems, each of which is the source of one of the most important problems in the economy and of course people’s daily lives. In a way, it is sometimes surprising why these issues exist in the country’s budget but have not been corrected over the years,” Farhikhtegan website wrote on October 15.

Of all the debates over reforming the budget of the Hassan Rouhani government, it is enough to mention the issue of state-owned companies, which account for about two-thirds to 75 percent of the total budget for 2020. This is a number equal to three times the country’s general budget.

A Look at Iran’s 2020-2021 Budget

It may be hard to believe that no one in this country knows how the budget lines and details of the allocations and audits of state-owned companies are done and where the documents are. How much did the members of the Parliament examine these documents and carefully evaluate their figures? How much tax do state-owned companies pay?

“All three of these questions can be answered with a well-known and now termed phrase in the country, ‘almost none’, you may ask what does this phrase mean?

“We say this means that the least transparency, the least oversight, and the lowest tax payments are for the largest part of the budget. The referral to the MPs was followed by only one answer, ‘Basically, the MPs do not have the opportunity to review these sections! If you hear it, you must be surprised, ‘The share of collections that account for 75 percent of the country’s budget is only 3.5 percent of the tax paid,” Farhikhtegan added.

Hiding the Budget Deficit

Whether in the case of state-owned companies or in other cases, the first principle for correcting anything is transparency and revealing all the underlying facts and details.

The first step in reforming the budget structure is that the government does not hide its budget deficit. Haji Babaei, head of the parliament’s program and budget commission, said:

“In order to reform the budget structure, resources and expenditures must be transparent, and everyone who receives money from the budget must have an ID.”

Meysam Pilehforoush, a government economist, also said: “The specification of the non-oil budget deficit is a summary of all the research institutes that have never been heard before.

“Interestingly, some of those currently in charge taught these things at the university themselves, but when asked why they do not do what they taught in the classroom, they say that these reforms have not been done yet and why should we bother? The future generation will be working hard for fundamental reforms!” Mehr News Agency reported on  November 22, 2020.

It has been said many times that, ironically, sanctions and the isolation of Iran from the international system are a favorable situation for realizing the slogan of independence and self-sufficiency.

But even the speakers of these slogans do not believe these words. The state-run media also says about these slogans and their speakers:

“The country’s budget is oil-based and has had major structural problems in recent years, but governments have refrained from reforming it to provide easy revenue from crude oil sales.

“In recent years, especially in 2019 and 2020, when oil revenues declined, policymakers were expected to inevitably move towards structural budget reforms, but unfortunately, each year, the government presented the parliament with excuses, formal and unbalanced budgets, and passed a resolution with unsustainable revenue sources. And harm the economy.

“But the interesting thing is that Mohammad Baqer Nobakht, the head of the Program and Budget Organization, not only believes that dependence on oil has been eliminated and this year’s budget bill was submitted to the parliament with structural reforms (of last year), but instead of accepting the mistakes and shortcomings of the government in this regard, he throws the ball in the parliament court and believes that the reform of the structure should start from the parliament,” Mehr reported on November 15.

The futility and emptiness of the slogan of budget reform have been proven one by one during the decades. To the extent that government experts and policymakers have acknowledged this.

Budget Settlement Reveals Systematic Corruption in Iran

Hadi Sobhanian, Deputy Director of Economic Research at the Research Center of the Parliament, said that we are stuck in a vicious circle of structural reforms:

“A serious critique of the policy-making and implementation system in the country is ‘losing opportunities.’ When the policymaking system does not work in time, it is empty-handed when it needs to be ready.

“Given the dependence of government revenues on oil when the situation is normal, governments have no will or determination to move towards structural reforms. They make a living with the same oil money and do not reform the existing structures because the beneficiaries of the status quo resist the reforms.

“When we move to emergencies such as sanctions or events such as oil price hikes or the outbreak of the coronavirus, the reform options that were normally on the government’s table are removed from the table, arguing that the country is in a special situation. This approach has left the country in a vicious circle of structural reform,” Mehr reported on April 21.

One Meter of Housing, Equivalent to One Year of an Iranian Worker’s Wage

Sia Rajabi
-
0
One Meter of Housing, Equivalent to One Year of an Iranian Worker’s Wage

After much debate and conflict, finally, on April 9, the Supreme Labor Council approved the minimum wages of Iran’s workers without their representatives having a say.

And after the many protests in recent months, the Department of Labor stepped back and accepted to increase the income of the workers by 26 percent. Eventually, the income of a worker’s family with one child reached 27.18 million rials [$105].

The Average Price of a House in Tehran is 270 Million Rials

The Central Bank also published a report on the developments in the capital’s housing market in November of this year. The report states:

“The average purchase and sale price of one square meter of residential unit traded through real estate agencies in Tehran was 271.9 million rials [$1045], which compared to the previous month and the same month last year shows an increase of 1.8 and 118.2 percent, respectively,” Kasb-o-Kar daily wrote on November 26.

Aside from the above-mentioned news, one can guess the possibility of housing purchase by workers and other poor sections of society. That is, of course, if they are not among the millions of workers and toilers who are unemployed and have no salary. One of these countless needs is the cost of medicine and treatment during the coronavirus pandemic.

Iran: Mismanagement and Coronavirus Trigger New Housing Crisis

One-meter House per Year, the Yearly Salary of the Workers

In September of this year, a member of the Parliament revealed: “If a worker saves all his wages during the year and just breathes, he can buy one meter of a house in a year. Where are the oppressed in government decisions?” Alefba daily wrote on September 1.

At that time, according to the Central Bank, the average price per square meter of a residential unit was 230 million rials [$885].

A month later, the price of a house increased again and reached an average of 242 million rials [$930] per square meter. This meant that the price per square meter of housing in September 2020 has increased by about 91 percent compared to September 2019. Now with this significant price increase, how many years should people wait to buy a house?

With a simple calculation, we can say that if the minimum wage of workers is about 27 million rials and the total yearly income of workers is 312 million rials [$1200]. Assuming a worker saves his entire annual salary, he can only buy 1.2 meters of housing.

Therefore, assuming that housing prices and minimum wages remain the same, a worker must save 46 years of his full salary to be able to buy a 60-meter house at a price of about 14.52 billion rials [$55,846].

For a long time, the ill-considered plans of the governments in Iran—from Ahmadinejad to Rouhani—to provide housing have made the insufficient facilities and capital used for construction unusable in practice, and housing has been built in places and situations that has become a public problem.

One of the examples is the “Maskan Mehr” project, which has wasted many of the national resourses and cannot be reversed.

In this regard, a member of the Alborz State Labor Council said: “Land should be allocated in a place where there are basic facilities for living. Why should we build a house on the top of a mountain or give land where there are no roads, water, gas and electricity that takes years to resolve?” ISNA news agency wrote on November 28.

“If we are looking to build social housing and we want members of society to become homeowners, we must reform the infrastructure of housing construction and provide free land and cheap loans so that people can afford housing,” ISNA added

He said that building a house requires money and workers are not able to build with low wages, and added that no worker can buy a house with 28 million rials [$107], even on the outskirts of cities, let alone build a house. The rents paid by workers consume more than half of their wages and earnings, and in many cases, they cannot afford to pay for living costs.

Connex Sleepers, the Other Face of Marginalization in Iran

In connection with this issue of housing, banks could provide the cost of housing construction in the form of appropriate facilities, while we see that these facilities have changed direction in the service of brokers and transactions outside of bank duties.

According to statistics reported by Fars News Agency on November 27: “The share of the housing sector in bank lending facilities has decreased from 17 percent in 2011 to 7 percent in 2019, and only 3 percent of it is allocated to housing construction. While ignoring this major share, banks have spent their facilities on early repayment of loans to the unproductive sector of the economy.”

Due to the change in the form and nature of economic activities in Iran and the move to increase unproductive activities, the banking system in Iran tends to pay short-term facilities and housing facilities are not suitable for bank due to its long repayment period.

Bank lending facilities are generally allocated to quick-return facilities, which are mainly used in unproductive but profitable sectors such as trading and importing luxury goods and buying and selling land, etc.

In this regard, Hossein Raghfar, an economist, said about the impact of the way banks provide facilities: “In the current situation, most of the bank facilities are allocated to quick-return activities, and create the ground for increasing inflation,” Ayyar online website wrote on November 28.

Let us hear the unfinished talk about the deplorable situation of house preparation from the Deputy Speaker of Parliament, who says:

“We currently have 2.5 million luxury homes nationwide, while some are homeless and unable to afford them. 1.5 billion rials [$5770] per square meter to buy a house in Tehran is not wise. The government wasted six years of its life on housing,” Jahan News website wrote on November 26.

Homeless Citizens and Iran’s Housing Mafia

Tehran’s Hostage-Taker State Presses EU to Release Terrorists

Edward Carney
-
0
Tehran’s Hostage-Taker State Presses EU to Release Terrorists

On Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif once again professed his country’s readiness for prisoner exchanges involving Western nationals who have been taken hostage in the Islamic Republic in recent years. Zarif naturally did not acknowledge those individuals’ status as hostages, but with few exceptions, the Iranian judiciary and Iranian state media have failed to substantiate the allegations of espionage or other, vaguer national security crimes that have been used to justify their sentences.

The foreign minister’s commentary on this subject was apparently prompted by recent news that a British-Australian academic, Kylie Moore-Gilbert, had been released from Iranian custody after serving more than two years of a 10-year sentence. The surprise commutation of that sentence coincided with the release of three Iranian nationals from prison in Thailand, where they had been implicated in a 2012 bomb plot that unsuccessfully sought to target Israeli diplomats.

The apparent prisoner exchange is significant for multiple reasons. It may have implications for other Western nationals who remain as hostages to the Iranian regime, and it may also connect one or more of their cases to those of other alleged Iranian terrorists. If Tehran specifically used Moore-Gilbert in order to seek the release of individuals who were involved in an Iranian bomb plot, then it is quite possible that it was motivated in part by the concurrent start of a terror case in Belgium which involves similar state-sponsored terrorism.

In June 2018, an Iranian diplomat and three accomplices attempted to set off explosives at a gathering of Iranian expatriates just outside Paris. But the terror plot was thwarted by multiple Iranian authorities, leading to concerted efforts by Iranian officials to secure the release of that diplomat, Assadollah Assadi. These efforts failed, and the trial for all four terrorist suspects began in an Antwerp court last Friday. Verdicts are expected before the end of the month, but it seems likely that Tehran will still make further attempts to interfere in the outcome.

Trial of Iranian Diplomat and His Accomplices for Bombing Opposition’s Rally

Assadi’s potential 20-year sentence may even help to explain the recent, unexplained arrest of an Iranian-German dual national, Nahid Taghavi. The 66-year-old retired architect has been held incommunicado in solitary confinement at Evin Prison since October 19, and her family’s inquiries into her case have been rebuffed with explanations that no information will be released until after her interrogation is complete.

Tehran has a long history of using coercive and torturous interrogation methods as a means of securing false confessions from individuals whom authorities have decided in advance to convict. This practice has been applied to a wide variety of domestic activists as well as to foreign and dual nationals who stand to help corroborate the regime’s narrative describing constant threats of foreign infiltration and attack.

That narrative has been reflected in countless state media broadcasts and publications regarding persons facing spurious charges of espionage. Moore-Gilbert was no exception and was even made the subject of a ten-minute television package that reaffirmed the allegations against her, even as she was being released. Those allegations specifically relate to spying on behalf of Israel, but the only evidence presented in the broadcast was images of her visiting tourist sites in the country.

Many other such broadcasts have been strengthened by forced confessions. This seems to have been absent in Moore-Gilbert’s case, but Taghavi’s protracted pre-trial detention suggests that regime authorities are hard at work trying to elicit such a confession. Her lack of contact with family members strongly implies that she has also had no contact with a lawyer. And because Iran does not recognize dual citizenship, she will not be granted the German consular assistance she would receive if detained in most other countries.

If Iranian authorities succeed in manufacturing a national security case against Taghavi, they may then attempt to leverage it for influence over the sentencing of the four regime operatives who are currently on trial. Although that trial is taking place in Belgium, the alleged mastermind of the 2018 terror plot was actually arrested in Germany and then extradited to Belgium. It is therefore easy to imagine that Tehran could appeal to Berlin to recommend a lighter sentence for Assadi, in exchange for a promise of less vigorous prosecution of the newly-detained German citizen.

Of course, by swapping Moore-Gilbert for three Iranians imprisoned in Thailand, the Iranian regime has arguably demonstrated that hostages can be used as indirect leverage over countries to which they have no known ties. That being the case, any number of existing hostages could be brought to bear on the Assadi case, or on that of any other Iranian whom the regime wishes to see released.

Zarif’s recent comments about prisoner swaps indicated that there are many such individuals. He explicitly claimed that the prospective targets of prisoner swaps would be those who were “illegally” detained, though he gave no details of who these individuals might be or how Tehran had determined that the charges against them were fabricated. One might suppose that Zarif was simply attempting to project its own practice of hostage-taking upon a foreign adversary, except the foreign minister’s allegation of illegal conduct was broadly applied to courts and law enforcement agencies spanning the US, Europe, and Africa.

Given the recent involvement of the Thai judiciary, it seems as though Tehran means to suggest that Iranians are being illegally detained in Asia, as well. Regardless of the precise extent of Zarif’s allegation, it does not specify who might be coordinating such a far-reaching conspiracy against Iranian nationals. Meanwhile, no such unresolved questions loom over the allegation of hostage-taking by the Iranian regime. It has been squarely focused on traditional adversaries of the Islamic Republic, and it has consistently involved similar national security charges, backed up by similar assortments of manufactured evidence.

In the most extreme cases, Western citizenship has been sufficient grounds for the Iranian regime to levy an accusation of spying for Israel and then secure a death penalty in the face of international outcry. This was the case, for instance, with Ahmadreza Djalali, an Iranian-Swedish dual national and academic who was recently the subject of an urgent call-to-action by UN human rights experts. Djalali had spoken to his wife by phone on November 24 and informed her that he was being transferred to solitary confinement, meaning that his execution was likely imminent.

UNGA Condemns Iran for Human Rights Abuses

It is not clear whether the ensuing international appeals had an impact on the judiciary’s decision-making, but as recently as Wednesday, authorities told Djalali’s family that the implementation of his October 2017 sentence had been “postponed for a few days.” While Tehran has seemingly delayed executions in response to the international outcry in the past, the judiciary rarely cancels them altogether. In fact, repeated delays are sometimes used as a tactic of psychological torture, insofar as they leave all death row prisoners with a pervasive sense of uncertainty about when they might be killed.

In Djalali’s case, the perceived political value of the prisoner makes it perhaps equally likely that his case is being used to intimidate other dual nationals or that his execution is being held back so that he may be used as a bargaining chip in dealings with the whole of Europe. If the latter is the case, then it is quite possible that the latest threat to Djalali’s life was specifically scheduled to coincide with Zarif’s appeal for further prisoner swaps, so that the prisoner’s advocates would be motivated to fully support such swaps.

Proof Iran Is Responsible for 2018 Bomb Plot

Staff Writer
-
0
Proof Iran Is Responsible for 2018 Bomb Plot

On Friday, we saw the first time an Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi was put on trial for terrorism.

Assadi, who was stationed at the Vienna embassy, was arrested for trying to bomb a rally held by the Iranian Resistance in France in 2018, and ever since, the Iranian government has tried every trick in the book to get him released, from false claims of diplomatic immunity to threats of further terrorism.

Of course, the Belgian prosecutor rejected Assadi’s diplomatic immunity, highlighting that he was arrested outside of Austria and that diplomats can be stripped of their immunity by a host country if they are planning mass murder, which is what Austria has done.

Assadi has refused to take part in the trial, claiming that he does not recognize the court, and is represented by his lawyer, hired by the Iranian Foreign Ministry. The real reason that he has not appeared in court is that his masters in Iran ordered him to boycott the trial to avoid answering questions, but the prosecutor explains that this shows that the entire Islamic Republic is responsible for the plot.

Trial of Iranian Diplomat and His Accomplices for Bombing Opposition’s Rally

This was confirmed by evidence revealed in court by Assadi’s accomplices. Amir Sadouni messaged an unindicted agent known as Negar on WhatsApp after meeting Assadi in Luxembourg on June 28 and confirmed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s involvement.

The message read: “He [Assadi] told me that after [the bomb is exploded] he would go see Agha [master, a term used by the regime’s officials and affiliates to address Khamenei] personally.”

In a message sent out at the same time that Assadi’s trial began, Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and the primary target of the plot laid out how she had previously revealed the role of Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani, and other high-ranking officials played in this operation.

“The Supreme National Security Council, presided over by Hassan Rouhani, made the decision to bomb the Iranian Resistance’s annual gathering at the Villepinte, and the regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei approved it. Khamenei, Rouhani, Javad Zarif and the mullahs’ Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi must face justice for decades of crimes and terrorism,” she wrote.

Historical Trial of Iranian Diplomat in Europe

While this is the first time that an Iranian diplomat has been put on trial for terrorism, it is far from the first time that an Iranian diplomat committed acts of terrorism. The government leaders should be prosecuted for this and Western countries should shut down the Iranian embassies, which are used to breed terrorism and espionage.

Historical Trial of Iranian Diplomat in Europe

Staff Writer
-
0
Historical Trial of Iranian Diplomat in Europe

On December 3, the historical trial of Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi in Belgium attracted international media attention. Assadi is the first diplomat to ever be tried in Europe due to involvement in a terror attempt.

Despite the Iranian government’s best efforts, which included bribery, falsely claiming diplomatic immunity, and threatening more acts of terror, the trial of Assadi and his three accomplices for attempting to blow up the 2018 Free Iran rally began on Friday in Belgium.

Beginning the Trial of the Iranian Diplomat Terrorist Assadollah Assadi

Iranian officials’ efforts to get Assadi released, rather than write him off as a rogue agent, has caused a scandal. However, the ayatollahs clearly considered the damage to be worth it for the chance of stopping the trial. It also goes some way to back up the Belgian prosecutor’s assertion that Assadi was not acting of his own volition but on the orders of his government.

Not only will this case see Assadi behind bars for 20 years, if the prosecutor’s recommendation is taken into account, but it will also be a condemnation of the Iranian government and provide the perfect catalyst for all Western nations to re-evaluate their policy on Iran.

The world, especially Europe, will see that the appeasement policy has only emboldened the Iranian government to commit heinous acts of violence in foreign countries, even those who have been over backward to accommodate the ayatollahs.

“So many years of turning a blind eye on the regime’s terrorism have prompted the regime’s diplomat-terrorist to carry out a terrorist operation on European soil, yet claim he claims he has diplomatic immunity and should not go on trial,” the Iranian coalition opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) wrote.

As noted in a Politico article on the subject on November 27, “the case will likely have grave ramifications for EU-Iran relations”. The world will be watching the trial and the EU’s reaction intently, waiting for a signal about how to treat Iran now. They must now choose between justice or trade and they are very unlikely to side with the mullahs after this.

Europe Must Take Iran Terror Threat Seriously

The NCRI recommended that European Countries immediately:

  • designate as terrorist organizations Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC)
  • shut down the regime’s embassies and cultural and religious centers because they are hubs for terrorism and espionage
  • make diplomatic relations contingent with the regime ending their terrorism on European soil

The trial is expected to conclude this month and all four are expected to be given long prison sentences.

1...308309310...3,781Page 309 of 3,781