Assassination of a Tehran physics professor

A Tehran University professor was killed in an explosion outside his home as he attempted to leave for work on Monday. Massoud Ali Mohammadi was a professor of physics and quantum at Tehran University. Tehran Province’s security authorities have suggested this could have been a terrorist act. No one has taken responsibility for this attack and no one has been arrested.

Fact Finding Report’s Shortcoming: What about the Kahrizak Physician and the Mass Graves?

Many believe the report from the Iranian Parliament’s fact finding commission about Kahrizak Detention Center, in which three young detainees died, is a step forward. However, the Iranian Parliament’s minority faction believes that certain important components, such as the suspicious death of Kahrizak’s young physician, and reports about mass graves have not been addressed at all.

Update: Detained Mothers Shuffled Between Emergency Rooms and Detention Center

(10 January 2010) Authorities transferred nine of the 33 detained members of the Mourning Mothers to emergency rooms following their detention yesterday, and later took them to Vozara Detention Center in Tehran, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.

The nine mothers suffer from various illnesses and were taken back to Vozara Detention Center from Sajjad and Firuzgar hospitals in Tehran.

The Three Americans Will be Tried Soon

Although a few weeks ago the Iranian officials announced the trial date for the three Americans who accidentally entered Iranian soil five months ago, the trial never took place. Ramin Mehman Parast announced on Monday that the trial will soon take place but no specific date was given.

In the past five months, the prisoners’ families were not granted permission to call the prisoners. Their lawyer, Masoud Shafii, was also unable to visit them in the past two weeks. The judicial officers have stated that the files are still under investigation. In the past few months, Swiss embassy’s officials, the U.S. intercession in Iran, have only been able to visit the three prisoners twice.

30 Members of Mourning Mothers Detained

(9 January 2010) Security forces attacked and detained 30 members of Mourning Mothers in Laleh Park and surrounding streets in Tehran today at around 4 p.m. local time, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported. Mourning Mothers is a group of mothers whose children have been killed in recent events. More than a hundred police and plain clothes agents attacked today’s gathering and transferred the detainees to the Vozara Detention Center in Tehran.

“No culture permits such violence to be unleashed against mothers. How can this government, which claims to have moral and religious authority, treat mothers who have lost their children in such a way?,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson.

Mesbah Yazdi Provides the Philosophical-Religious Grounds for Execution of Opposition

While several government, military, and religious authorities have spoken at speeches, sermons, and interviews about severe punishment of protesters who were detained on Ashura, demanding that Iranian judiciary issue verdicts of “muhareb” for them, in a recent sermon, Mesbah Yazdi who is the spiritual leader of extremist fundamentalists in Iran called the post-election events “corruption on earth.” According to Iranian laws, punishment for a “corrupter on earth” and “muhareb” is death. It is said that during the serial murders of opposition authors and intellectuals in 1998, Mesbah Yazdi provided motivation and “fatwa” necessary for determining the victims’ “muhareb” state.

Guarantee Safety of Opposition Leaders in Wake of Karroubi Assassination Attempt

(8 January 2010) Today’s assassination attempt against Iranian opposition leader and cleric Mehdi Karroubi bears signs of being organized by official structures, which then coordinated with the official Fars News Agency to control information about the crime, according to a member of Karroubi’s family, who spoke to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

“These observations show that opposition figures are in danger of being eliminated by the Revolutionary Guard and Basiji militias acting incognito, to make the assassinations look like crimes by zealous citizens,” stated Hadi Ghaemi, a spokesperson for the Campaign.

Venezuelan Students Support Students in Iran

Iranian students:

This New Year will be the year of the young liberators, openers of a new cycle of life in the world for the welfare of all citizens, and the routing of our way of doing politics in our spaces.

It will be the consolidation of a movement that has been characterized by being a faithful servant of the principles of university autonomy and the Constitution of the Republic. It will be the year where we will gather the fruits of the fight we have begun and we will show to those who try to silence the voices of the future, we will continue breaking paradigms due to our way of being, people and their messages, for our actions and footprints left behind.

As the strength, commitment and conviction mark our footsteps, the youth can rest easily because we will have hope in the near future, because the fate of our nations have been irrevocably fixed to hope, for people who love their freedom finally succeed in obtaining it.

Judiciary’s High Speed: Five “Muharebeh” Verdicts in Two Weeks

Tehran’s Prosecutor’s Office announced on Thursday that the files of five suspects arrested on Ashura on charges of muharebeh have been completed and forwarded to Iran’s Revolutionary courts. According to this announcement, a branch of the Revolutionary Courts will soon convene to hold trials at which the suspects’ attorneys and district attorneys will be present. [...]

Fear of Imminent Executions of Baha’is

(7 January 2010) Iranian authorities have added new charges against 7 Baha’i leaders detained since 2008, under which they could be executed if convicted, and have arrested at least 12 more members of the religious minority, while desensitizing the Iranian population with propaganda campaigns against the Baha’is, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today. In news reports broadcast nationally, commentators have claimed that recent Ashura demonstrations were masterminded by Baha’is, although no evidence has been produced to support the accusations.

“Iran and the world are again confronted by the specter of Bahai’s being executed, this time on charges trumped up in the context of current widespread political unrest,” said Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign.