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No. 1191 August 6, 2019
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Top Regime Official Vows to Exterminate MEK
Last week, two senior regime officials reacted to the principal opposition's growing support inside Iran. Tehran's former justice minister, Mostafa Pourmohammadi, defended the 1988 extrajudicial executions and said: "We have not yet settled the score with the MEK. We will discuss these matters after we eliminate them."
International rights organization Amnesty International condemned Pourmohammadi's comments and said: "These comments, coupled with the appointment, in March 2019, of Ebrahim Raisi, who, like Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, was involved with the mass extrajudicial executions of 1988, to the position of the head of the judiciary, put survivors, family members of those executed and human rights defenders at increased risk of harassment and persecution simply for seeking truth and justice."
Separately, another senior official, Ali Razini, a judiciary official, admitted that extrajudicial executions in summer 1988 were carried out on Khomeini's emphatic order, which was carried out "without being held up by red tape." Khomeini issued a secret edict to hold emergency trials under the pretext of "investigating war crimes." He appointed Ali Razini as head of this court. The victims were residents of western regions of Iran who had supported the MEK.
A female political prisoner criticized the West for continuing to remain silent about the massacre of 1988, many of whose perpetrators, including Pourmohammadi, continue to occupy senior posts.
On July 31, a senior commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) told a state-run TV channel: "[The MEK] has gained huge influence in Albania to the extent that the Islamic Republic's ambassador was expelled from that country."
IRGC commander Naseh added that inside Iran, the MEK "is recruiting. ... With the things that are happening, the youth are being attacted to them."
The state broadcaster sounded alarm bells about the MEK's growing role, especially in cyber space where Iranian youth are active. In a video footage of interviews, one paramilitary Bassij supporter said: "I had no idea they [the MEK] have this ability and backing."
The regime's fears of the MEK and its vow to "exterminate" the movement in the face of its rapid social growth should signal to Western capitals that the desire of the Iranian people and the Iranian Resistance's struggle for overthrow and democracy should be supported.
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Shocking statements by senior official on 1988 massacre
Amnesty International (July 30) - Recent statements by Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, advisor to Iran's head of the judiciary and a former minister of justice, defending the mass extrajudicial executions of 1988 provide shocking confirmation of the authorities' wilful flouting of international human rights law both at the time and now and a stark reminder of the sense of impunity that senior officials linked to the killings enjoy, Amnesty International said today. The organization is particularly concerned about comments by Mostafa Pour Mohammadi accusing those advocating for truth and accountability of "terrorism" and "collusion" with Iran's geopolitical enemies, and warning that they shall face prosecution. These comments, coupled with the appointment, in March 2019, of Ebrahim Raisi, who, like Mostafa Pour Mohammadi, was involved with the mass extrajudicial executions of 1988, to the position of the head of the judiciary, put survivors, family members of those executed and human rights defenders at increased risk of harassment and persecution simply for seeking truth and justice. Current and former Iranian officials must not be allowed to shield themselves from accountability for the mass extrajudicial executions through campaigns of disinformation and threats of reprisals against anyone looking to shed light on them. Amnesty International therefore renews its call on the UN and its member states to speak firmly and openly about the systematic impunity surrounding the crimes against humanity related to the mass extrajudicial executions of 1988. Read more...
Regime official admits extrajudicial executions of opponents
Iran HRM (July 30) - Ali Razini, a judiciary official admitted on July 29, 2019 that extrajudicial executions in summer 1988 were carried out on Khomeini's emphatic order "without being held up by red tape." Deputy of Legal Affairs and Judicial Development of the Judiciary, Ali Razini, considered the trials that led to the extrajudicial executions of thousands of political prisoners as one of Khomeini's last major decisions. On July 24, 1988, Khomeini issued a secret edict to hold emergency trials under the pretext of "investigating war crimes." He appointed Ali Razini as head of this court. The complete text of this secret edict was divulged three months later by the Iranian Resistance. In the following days, however, the court rapidly changed its course and took aim at supporters of the MEK in western Iran. The victims were residents of western regions of Iran who had supported the MEK. Former prosecutor of the Tehran Revolutionary Court told Jamaran website that most of those tried in these courts without observing the formalities were young people and some of their trials did not take more than half an hour. Read more...
Save lives of women political prisoners
NCRI (Aug. 2) - The Women's Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran strongly condemns the brutal beating of four women political prisoners in Qarchak Prison in Varamin. The NCRI Women's Committee draws the attention of international organizations defending human rights and women's rights to the drastic conditions of political prisoners, particularly women, calling for urgent action to secure their release. On Monday, July 29, 2019, four political prisoners detained in the notorious Qarchak Prison of Varamin were badly beaten up by common criminals incited by prison authorities and dispensary officials. One of the victims was reportedly in critical condition. Read more...
Detained activist unconscious after hunger strike
CHRI (July 29) - Activist and freelance journalist Sepideh Qoliyan (also known as Gholian) lost consciousness in her cell on July 27, 2019, while on hunger strike, and was rushed to the clinic in Gharchak Prison, south of Tehran, the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) has learned. "Sepideh fainted in prison when her blood pressure dropped on the fourth day of her hunger strike and [her cellmate] Monireh Arabshahi took her to the prison clinic where she was injected with a serum and then returned to her cell in a wheelchair," an informed source told CHRI on July 28 on condition of anonymity. Read more...
Rights lawyer sentenced to 30 years and 111 lashes
Iran HRM (Aug. 1) - A Revolutionary Court in Tehran has upheld a 30-year prison sentence against Amirsalar Davoudi a human rights lawyer and defender of several political activists. Mostafa Turk Hamedani, the lawyer of Amirsalar Davoudi tweeted on Wednesday, July 30, that a 30-year prison sentence with 111 lashes against Mr. Davoudi has been finalized. "Fifteen years of the sentence is obligatory and implementable," Davoudi's fellow attorney, Turk Hamadani twitted. "We will make our all efforts under the law to urge the head of the Judiciary and Tehran's Attorney General to eliminate the verdict" Mr. Turk Hamedani added. Iranian human rights lawyer and a member of the Iranian Bar association Amirsalar Davoudi was initially sentenced to 30 years in prison and 111 lashes in June on the charges including "insulting officials", "insulting the Supreme Leader" and "spreading propaganda against the system." Read more...
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Political prisoner's open letter on 1988 massacre
NCRI (July 30) - Iranian political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared has written an open letter on the 1988 anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in Iran, criticising the West for their silence on the matter, noting that those responsible still hold positions of power in the regime. She wrote: "Anyone who [remains] silent and fails to speak out against injustices [or] decides to pursue appeasement [betrays] human cognizance and freedom of choice. This destroys the gem that exists in all human beings and distinguishes human beings from all other living creatures. Your concealing of this crime, remaining silent about it, and encouraging the masterminds and perpetrators of the massacre of Iran's valiant children, have emboldened the religious fascism in suppression and warmongering." Read more...
Iranians hold more than 14 protests
Iran News Wire (July 30) - Exasperated by increasing poverty and the arrest of activists, Iranians held more than 14 protest gatherings demanding to be heard by a regime that is responsible for the country's dire economic conditions. A group of defrauded creditors gathered today outside the office of Iran's President to demand their stolen savings. The creditors have lost their money to the Revolutionary Guards affiliated Caspian Credit Institution. The families of students killed and injured in a crash in the Science Department of the Tehran Azad University gathered today outside a court in Tehran to demand justice for their loved ones. They demanded that regime officials responsible for the crash be brought to justice. Read more...
Nurses, teachers hold protests to demand rights
NCRI (Aug. 3) - Nurses working in hospitals of Mashhad held a protest outside the Governor's Office in this capital of Khorasan Razavi province in northeastern Iran, on Saturday, August 3, 2019. They demanded to receive their wages and overtime dues. Nurses have held various protests in different cities across Iran because they do not receive their salaries and wages despite working under harsh and harmful conditions. Women of Nasrabad village in Yazd, held a protest on Tuesday, July 30, 2019, demanding release of protesters to confiscation of their lands. They demanded freedom of the men who had stood up to the plunder and confiscation of their lands. The women gathering outside the Governor's Office in Taft, held a placard which read, "Either stop confiscation of our lands or listen to our grievances, or release those who have been imprisoned in this regard." Read more...
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Sanctions, Nuclear, Missiles & Western Policy |
The Zarif brouhaha
Quod Verum (op-ed, Aug. 3) - The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on July 31st "because Zarif acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran," according to Treasury's official statement. Following this unprecedented designation, Zarif himself tweeted, "It has no effect on me..." After this signal, the network of Tehran apologists/lobbyists quickly geared into "save face mode." Trita Parsi, the disgraced founder of Iran's DC-based lobby group, the National Iranian American Council, tweeted the following: "By sanctioning Zarif, opponents of diplomacy inside Trump's WH continue to create obstacles for diplomacy. ... Zarif himself is known to have very close relations with the IRGC Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani, the IRGC apparatus, Hezbollah and Bashar Assad. ... With time running out for the Iranian regime, we will definitely witness more brouhaha, hysterical/ridiculous remarks in reaction, and all-out panic. Read more...
Regime lashing out in every direction
Newsmax (Lopez op-ed, Aug. 2) - Squeezed hard by U.S. sanctions, the Iranian regime is lashing out in every direction. The convivial mask donned by Foreign Minister Javad Zarif to allow Obama administration negotiators the cover they needed to pretend they were curbing Iranian nuclear and terror behavior has slipped badly. The July 31, 2019, sanctions imposed on Zarif by the Trump administration seem to have touched a nerve with the duplicitous front man, who couldn't restrain himself from a mocking tweet in response. At last met with an American president neither cowed nor wooed by their stratagems, the mullahs are fast abandoning all pretense of benign intent. A regime founded in violent revolution and dedicated to jihad is now reverting to type amidst a show of belligerence, bluster, and broken promises. ... After the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) opposition group first blew the lid off Iran's nuclear weapons program in 2002, the decision was taken at the highest levels of the Iranian regime to pursue the bomb along two separate tracks: an overt one that could be passed off as purely civilian in nature and a covert one where the real work would be done building warheads. Read more...
Trump defense chief sees rising support for US plan
The Hill (Aug. 3) - A U.S.-led plan to police the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz against perceived Iranian aggression will soon gain the commitment of several ally and partner countries, Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters Saturday. Esper said representatives from more than 30 countries attended a conference earlier this week at U.S. Central Command headquarters in Florida to discuss Operation Sentinel, a coalition of nations meant to safeguard shipping lanes in the Middle East. "We had various degrees of commitment, so I think we'll have some announcements coming out soon in the coming days where you'll see countries begin to sign up," Esper said as he was traveling to Australia to attend the Australia-United State Ministerial Consultations. Read more...
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Terrorism, Regional Meddling & Cyberwarfare |
Iranian terrorists demand $80M to stop disaster
Washington Examiner (Aug. 1) - Iranian-backed Houthi terrorists in Yemen are demanding tens of millions of dollars in ransom cash to permit environmentalists to rescue a "structurally deteriorating" offshore oil tanker and prevent a humanitarian disaster that would be far worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill, in a tense standoff that critics are likening to "eco-terrorism." At this point, no one has agreed to pay off the Houthis, though the demand for hard cash is not inconceivable given the scant global blowback the Obama administration received in 2015 when it sent $1.7 billion in cash pallets to Tehran in order to secure freedom for several Americans imprisoned there. Read more...
U.N. report on Yemen says Houthis used human shields
Reuters (Aug. 4) - Yemen's Houthi rebels used civilians as human shields, Islamic State militants in the country received an influx of cash and al Qaeda has improved its roadside bombs, according to a confidential report by United Nations experts monitoring sanctions on Yemen. ... The U.N. report said the Houthis had concealed fighters and equipment in or close to civilians in Al Mukha in the Taiz Governorate "with the deliberate aim of avoiding attack" and in violation of international humanitarian law. The report said the Houthis had diverted about $100 million a month from Yemen's central bank to support the group's war effort and that the foreign reserves of the central bank had dropped to $1.3 billion in June 2016 from $4.6 billion in November 2014. Read more...
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Don't buy Tehran's propaganda that MEK is terrorist
The Los Angeles Times (Letter to Editor, Aug. 3) - This article fails to mention the real source of the Mujahedin Khalq's (MEK) power: its network inside Iran, which has enabled it not only to reveal the most sensitive information on the mullahs' two-decade-long clandestine nuclear weapons program, but also to organize and direct the nationwide protests that erupted in Iran in 2018. In April 2019, Iran's intelligence minister admitted that the regime had arrested operatives from 116 MEK-affiliated teams. Dozens more, according to intelligence officials, were detained in East Azerbaijan province. Tehran has also waged a sophisticated propaganda campaign labeling the group as a "cult," but with no support in Iran. The 1997 blacklisting of the MEK as a terrorist group was "a goodwill gesture" to the Iranian regime's new president, Mohammad Khatami, according to senior U.S. administration officials at the time. And to set the record straight, the MEK was not in any way involved in the killing of U.S. military officers in Iran nearly half a century ago. Finally, how does the article reconcile its observation of "an uptick in attacks against the group by Iran" with an earlier assertion about lack of "popular support or influence?" Read more...
Why the mullahs fear the Iranian diaspora
Arab News (Aug. 4) - To more efficiently shape policies toward the Islamic Republic, it is vital to pay attention to the voices of the Iranian diaspora residing outside Iran for several reasons. ... In addition, the overwhelming majority of Iranians who live abroad want to see a democratic Iran. Recently, thousands of Iranian Americans attended a rally in Washington DC laying out their demands, which included imposing sanctions on Iran's top leaders, particularly the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. They also chanted "Change, change, change. Regime change in Iran." The White House took notice of the rally of the Iranian Americans, as the Vice President Mike Pence said on CBS's Face the Nation Sunday: "What we want to do is stand with the Iranian people, thousands of whom gathered outside the White House on Friday, and thousands of whom took to the streets last year in communities across Iran." The Iranian regime fears the Iranian diaspora because of its influence and hopes of establishing a democratic system of governance in Iran. To pressure the Tehran regime, the international community must listen to the voices of the Iranian diaspora and support them. Read more...
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MP speaks at Anglo-Iranian rally
MPs showed their support at a march and rally for Iranian freedom.
The Times
August 1, 2019
Around 3,000 Iranians demonstrated in central London on Saturday at an event organised by Barnet Anglo-Iranians, supporters of the National Council of Resistance (Government in Exile).
The event was a protest against against the Iranian government's human rights abuses, public hangings, aggression, piracy, hostage-taking, and terror as well, as in support of people's uprising inside Iran.
Hendon MP Dr Matthew Offord, whose constituency is home to the highest percentage of Anglo-Iranians in the UK, spoke at the rally and demonstrated his support for the NCRI. Chipping Barnet MP Theresa Villiers
He said: "Today our response should be firm, held on the principle that the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and the regime of Iran should be held to account to their atrocities.
"These organisations should be proscribed in their entirety under the terrorism act."
This is not the first time Dr Offord has backed UK intervention in Iran's human rights violations. In 2016, he was one of 200 cross-party MP's who expressed their concerns in Parliament, calling for an investigation into the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners, committed by people who still today hold positions of power in the regime.
Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the NCRI, spoke to supporters by video message.
She said: "Your demonstration in London today is the culmination of a series of Free Iran protest rallies that ran from Brussels to Washington, Berlin to Stockholm in a month and a half."
Mrs Rajavi added that the regime understands no language but the language of firmness and determination, and urged the UK and Europe to 'stop paying ransom to the Mullahs,' calling specifically on the new UK government to support human rights in Iran.
During the march, a letter was also presented to Prime Minister Boris Johnson by a representative of the Barnet Angelo-Iranian Community of Youth, on behalf of the entire community, urging him to act.
The march went through Whitehall and Parliament Square and included performances by Iranian singer Marjan among other artists.
Read more...
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About Iran Weekly Roundup:
This weekly is compiled by the US Representative Office of National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI-US). The NCRI is a broad coalition of democratic Iranian organizations, groups, and personalities founded in 1981 in Tehran. The NCRI is an inclusive and pluralistic parliament-in-exile that has more than 500 members representing a broad spectrum of political tendencies in Iran. The NCRI aims to establish a secular democratic republic in Iran, based on the separation of religion and state. Women comprise more than half of the Council's members. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi is the president-elect of the NCRI.
These materials are being distributed by the National Council of Resistance of Iran-U.S. Representative Office. Additional information is on file with the Department of Justice, Washington, D.C.
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National Council of Resistance of Iran - US Representative Office
1747 Pennsylvania Ave., NW, Suite 1125
Washington, DC 20006
Tel: 202-747-7847
Fax: 202-330-5346
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