Iran’s Crumbling Judiciary

(Muhammad Sahimi | Tehran Bureau | 15 August 2009) – Iran’s judiciary is facing a deep crisis. The Stalinesque show trials alone would be comical if not for the serious and grave nature of them. Dungeons in the Interior Ministry, torture to the point of death, and all around lawlessness have come to characterize the judicial system over the past few weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Iran Reformists Challenge Supreme Leader

An Open Letter to a Senior Clerical Assembly Demands an Inquiry into Whether Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Is Fit to Rule

(Farnaz Fassihi | Wall Street Journal | 15 August 2009) – In a daring move, a group of former reformist lawmakers, now supporters of the opposition, have challenged whether the Islamic Republic’s top man in power is fit to rule. Read the rest of this entry »

Friction among Iran authorities heats up

With street protests quiet, factional disputes intensify. Hard-line clerics call for opposition leader Karroubi to stand trial, and reformist lawmakers want supreme leader Khamenei investigated.

(Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim | Los Angeles Times | 15 August 2009) - Rival camps within Iran’s corridors of power intensified their threats against each other Friday, signaling potentially dangerous clashes within elite circles and the security establishment after the disputed June 12 reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Read the rest of this entry »

Iran’s leader appoints new judiciary chief

(Zahra Hosseinian and Hossein Jaseb | Reuters | 15 August 2009) – Iran’s Supreme Leader appointed Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani as the new head of the country’s judiciary on Saturday, state television reported. Read the rest of this entry »

Iran Tries to Suppress Rape Allegations

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, in a sermon at Tehran University on Friday, denounced claims that protesters had been raped. (Abedin Taherkenareh/European Pressphoto Agency)

(Robert F. Worth and Nazila Fathi | New York Times | 14 August 2009) — Iran’s clerical leadership on Friday stepped up a campaign to silence opposition claims that protesters had been raped in prison, with prayer leaders in at least three major cities denouncing the accusations and their chief sponsor. Read the rest of this entry »

What are the Iranian people asking for?

Leila Zand, Peace with Iran co-founder and FOR Iran Program Director, argues that the demands of the protesters in the streets are part of a larger, 103-year struggle by Iranians for both internal freedoms and autonomy from foreign interference.

(Leila Zand | FOR Peace | 13 August 2009) – When the opponents of Mr. Ahmadinejad announced the possibility of fraud, supporters of the three presidential candidates poured into the streets and demonstrated against the “fraud.”

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Translated Text: The Indictment in the Tehran Trials

(Scott Lucas | Enduring America | 12 August 2009) – From Evan Siegel in Iran Rises, translating the indictment originally published in Fars News. Siegel’s initial comment is that much of the “evidence” appears to rely on Hossein Derakhshan, the blogger detained in November 2008 and initially accused of spying for Israel and the US. Whether or not this is the case, Siegel’s subsequent note that this indictment reads like “whistling past the graveyard”, with the prosecutor “knowing full well…that the precise opposite of what he is saying is true” is on target. Indeed, it reinforces our analysis the day after the first trial, “The indictment and presentation of charges offered no evidence of substantive criminal acts….The “foreign plot” scenario [is] almost laughable, turn[ing] US-based academics into directors of an Iranian insurgency.” Read the rest of this entry »

Iran must open Tehran trial to international observers

Opposition political activists and protesters in court. (Tehran, Iran - 1 August 2009 - AP)

(Amnesty International | 12 August 2009) – With more than 100 people now on trial before Tehran’s Revolutionary Court for fomenting protests against the disputed official result of Iran’s 12 June presidential election, Amnesty International Secretary General Irene Khan has challenged the Iranian authorities to open up the court to international observers. Read the rest of this entry »

Well-informed Larijani congratulated Mousavi on election day, report says

(Borzou Daragahi | Babylon & Beyond | 11 August 2009) Observers have for weeks heard various theories that purport to prove that Iran’s June 12 presidential elections were rigged. They have come from Western think tanks, mathematicians and, of course, supporters of opposition figurehead Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who ran and lost against Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Read the rest of this entry »

Iranian views: Divided country

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has been sworn in as president in the Iranian parliament. But protests over the disputed 12 June election have continued and Iran’s political elite appear divided.

(BBC | 5 August 2009) – Here, four Iranians reflect on the inauguration of the president and the future of the country. Read the rest of this entry »