Iran: First opposition protester sentenced to death
AKI reports:
— “Iranian authorities this week sentenced monarchist Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani to death for his role in the unrest following the contested 12 June election, reformist website Mowjcamp reported on Wednesday. He is the first person to face execution for his role in the protests against alleged fraud that returned hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power in the presidential poll.”
— “There has been no official confirmation of the verdict.”
— “Ali-Zamani had confessed to plotting against Iran’s Islamic system and belonging to the previously little-known Iran Monarchy Committee (IMC), which the theocratic Iranian government regards as a terrorist group.
Reformist website: Iran protester gets death sentence
Category: Reports on Iran and Democracy
Iran: Women’s rights activist sentenced to six months in jail
Iran: Women’s rights activist sentenced to six months in jail
— AKI reports:
— “A women’s rights activist and journalist has been sentenced to six months in jail by one of Iran’s Revolutionary Courts in the capital, Tehran, for having ‘endangered state security’.”
— “Jelveh Javaheri, arrested in June 2008 for protesting in the centre of Tehran in favour of women’s political and civil rights, was subsequently freed from Iran’s notorious Evin prison and her sentence has only now been made public, Iran’s Radiofarda said.”
— “She was charged with ‘acting against national security by spreading propaganda against the state.'”
— “Javaheri had been previously arrested in May and was freed after posting a bail of 75.000 euros. She was the founding member of the Campaign for Equality.”
— “Javaheri is part of a group of Iranian feminists that begun a national campaign two years ago to abolish all of of Iran’s discriminatory laws against women.”
NYC: Many Attend Freedom Protest for Iran
Responsible for Equality And Liberty (R.E.A.L.) also joined this protest
Press Release: Stand for Freedom in Iran
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Marcy Fishman 212-983-4800, ext. 142 Cell: 646-662-0335
GOVERNER DAVID PATERSON, NOBEL LAUREATE ELIE WIESEL, AND FORMER MAYOR RUDY GIULIANI RALLY TOGETHER WITH MORE THAN TEN THOUSAND NEW YORKERS TO STAND FOR FREEDOM IN IRAN
Photos by Michael Priest
Thursday, September 24, 2009, New York, NY — More than ten thousand participants gathered together outside the United Nations Plaza to demand freedom for all Iranians. Such prominent New Yorkers as Governor David Paterson, Elie Wiesel, and Rudy Giuliani showed their solidarity with a range of other elected officials, religious leaders, and representatives of many ethnic communities to send a united message of hope.
More than 40 organizations have come together to create the Stand for Freedom in Iran Coalition, which demands freedom of assembly, expression, and the press; the immediate cessation of human-rights abuses and the release of demonstrators from prisons and protection for minority communities; prosecution of those responsible for the murder of Neda Agha-Soltan and many other victims; full compliance and cooperation by Iran with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and Security Council resolutions, including an end to Iran’s uranium enrichment; and an end to the incitement of genocide and the support of terrorism.
Speakers included New York State Governor David Paterson; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani; New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli; New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr.; New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver; New York City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn; Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel; Canadian Member of Parliament Irwin Cotler; Stuart Appelbaum, president, Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union; J. David Cox, national secretary-treasurer, American Federation of Government Employees; The Very Reverend Dr. James A. Kowalski, dean, Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine; Iranian student activist and former prisoner Hassan Zarezadeh Ardeshir and Iranian political activists Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, Shohreh Nazar, and Roya Teimouri; and former Sudanese refugee and human-rights activist Simon Deng.
“Ahmadinejad is the Number One Holocaust denier in the world,” said Nobel Laureate Elie and called on world leaders to shun him. “He’s unworthy of your attention; he’s unworthy of being your colleague. He’s in fact an enemy of humanity.”
“Thank you all for coming here, for this great cause today,” said New York State Governor David Paterson. “We will not stand for any more of President Ahmadinejad.
“I hope he lives to see the day when he and his kind are held in judgment by a free Iran,” said New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, about Ahmadinejad.
“The regime stands against everything we value,” said Former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani about the toll of the repressive government under Ahmadinejad.
“We cannot remain silent when, in our city, there is a leader of a regime who arrests innocent civilians, imprisons students, brutalizes protesters, tortures dissidents, abuses women, executes children, sponsors terror groups, threatens to annihilate sovereign nations, and violates international resolutions while developing nuclear weaponry,” said Janice W. Shorenstein, president of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. “The Stand for Freedom in Iran Coalition reflects the broad sentiment among Americans of many faiths, ethnicities, and walks of life that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not welcome in New York.”
“We support the right for all people from all nations to have the freedoms we have as Americans,” said John M. Shapiro, president of UJA-Federation of New York. “We publicly condemn the actions of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran as he appears before the United Nations. We cannot tolerate his abuse of his fellow Iranians nor the threat he poses.”
Additionally, there are national rallies being held in Washington, D.C.; Detroit, Michigan; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; St. Louis, Missouri; and Chicago, Illinois; and throughout the world in Vienna, Paris, Germany, Cape Town, Buenos Aires, Holland, and Norway.
Participating organizations include the Progressive American-Iranian Committee; Jewish Community Relations Council of New York; New York City Central Labor Council: AFL-CIO; UJA-Federation of New York; Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union; American Federation of Teachers; United Federation of Teachers; American Federation of Government Employees; NAACP-New York Conference; The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine; National Puerto Rican Coalition; Alliance of Iranian Women; Iran Human Rights Documentation Center; Foundation for Democracy in Iran; Korean American Public Affairs Committee; Turkish American Community in New York; Chinese Community Relations Council; National Inter-agency Task Force on Iran; and more than 40 other non-Jewish and Jewish organizations. For more information, visit www.standforfreedominiran.org.
September 24 – NYC – UN Protest for Iran Freedom
September 24 – NYC – UN Protest for Iran Freedom
— on Thursday, September 24, the group entitled “Stand for Freedom in Iran” will be holding a protest at 12 Noon U.S. Eastern Time in NYC at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, 47th Street and 2nd Avenue
— See more details on flier (PDF) file
— Additional Reports on Iran and Democracy
NYC: UANI Calls on The Essex House to Refuse to Host President Ahmadinejad
For Immediate Release
September 21, 2009
Contact: Kimmie Lipscomb, press@unitedagainstnucleariran.com
Phone: (212) 554-3296
UANI Calls on The Essex House to Refuse to Host President Ahmadinejad
New York, NY – United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) today called on The Essex House hotel to refuse to host President Ahmadinejad and offered the Essex House an opportunity to clarify its role as the host of a banquet for the Iranian delegation and as host for a speech by President Ahmadinejad on September 25, 2009 during his stay in New York for the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
In a letter to Scott Dawson, General Manager of the Essex House, UANI President, Ambassador Mark D. Wallace wrote “UANI calls on the Essex House to clarify and reconsider its decision to host the banquet and address and instead decline to provide such a venue for President Ahmadinejad. By doing business with the Iranian government the Essex House is accepting blood money from a regime that brutally suppresses its own people and that is a danger to global security. Given that other area venues including the New York Helmsley Hotel and Gotham Hall have rejected hosting President Ahmadinejad and the Iranian delegation, the Essex House’s provision of a forum for Ahmadinejad’s propaganda is even more egregious.”
To the extent that the Essex House persists in its plans to host President Ahmadinejad, UANI will call on members of the public to boycott Jumeirah properties.
Following UANI’s campaigns last week, The Helmsley Hotel and Gotham Hall have both cancelled events in which President Ahmadinejad was scheduled to speak.
Click here to send a letter to The Essex House New York
Click here to learn how UANI has partnered with GE against doing business in Iran
# # #
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
The prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran should concern every American and be unacceptable to the community of nations. Since 1979 the Iranian regime, most recently under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s leadership, has demonstrated increasingly threatening behavior and rhetoric toward the US and the West. Iran continues to defy the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the United Nations in their attempts to monitor its nuclear activities. A number of Arab states have warned that Iran’s development of nuclear weapons poses a threat to Middle East stability and could provoke a regional nuclear arms race. In short, the prospect of a nuclear armed Iran is a danger to world peace.
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons. UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.
The Objectives of United Against a Nuclear Iran
1. Inform the public about the nature of the Iranian regime, including its desire and intent to possess nuclear weapons, as well as Iran’s role as a state sponsor of global terrorism, and a major violator of human rights at home and abroad;
2. Heighten awareness nationally and internationally about the danger that a nuclear armed Iran poses to the region and the world;
3. Mobilize public support, utilize media outreach, and persuade our elected leaders to voice a robust and united American opposition to a nuclear Iran;
4. Lay the groundwork for effective US policies in coordination with European and other allies;
5. Persuade the regime in Tehran to desist from its quest for nuclear weapons, while striving not to punish the Iranian people, and;
6. Promote efforts that focus on vigorous national and international, social, economic, political and diplomatic measures.
Iran: “‘Torture, murder and rape’ – Iran’s way of breaking the opposition”
Iran: “‘Torture, murder and rape’ – Iran’s way of breaking the opposition”
— London Times reports:
— “Javadifar is just one among scores of alleged cases of murder, torture and rape unearthed by opposition investigators – cases that a regime claiming to champion Islamic values is doing its utmost to suppress by denouncing the charges as lies, arresting the investigators and seizing their files. The Times has been given access to 500 pages of documents – a small fraction of the total – that include handwritten testimony by victims, medical reports and interviews.”
— “They suggest that security forces have engaged in systematic killing and torture to try to break the opposition.”
— “‘The use of rape and torture was similar across prisons in Tehran and the provinces. It is difficult not to conclude that the highest authorities planned and ordered these actions. Local authorities would not dare take such actions without word from above,’ wrote one investigator, in a coded reference to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader.”
Iran security forces clash with protesters-witness
Iran security forces clash with protesters-witness
— Reuters: “Iran security forces clashed with supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi and arrested at least 10 of them during annual anti-Israel rallies in Tehran on Friday, a witness said.”
— “Reformist former president Mohammad Khatami took part in the rally, but was attacked by hardliners and had to leave after his robe was ripped and his turban fell to the ground, an ally of Khatami who accompanied him told Reuters.”
— London Times reports: “First anti-government protest since July at annual pro-Palestinian rally as rival demonstrators fight on streets of capital”
Iran: Report on Anti-Democracy Imam on Iranian Prison Rapes
Unconfirmed reports by INN state that “Iranian pro-democracy sources” have alleged that Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi has been speaking publicly on the issue of prison rape
— INN reports that Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi spoke to crowd on prison rape “in Jamkaran, a popular pilgrimage site for Shi’ite Muslims on the outskirts of Qom, on August 11, 2009”
— INN reports that this is “[a]ccording to Iranian pro-democracy sources, the gathered crowd heard from Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi and Ahmadinejad himself regarding the issue”
— “Mesbah-Yazdi is considered Ahmadinejad’s personal spiritual guide”
— According to INN report, Mesbah-Yazdi is quoted as stating: “The necessary precaution is for the interrogator to perform a ritual washing first and say prayers while raping the prisoner. If the prisoner is female, it is permissible to rape through the vagina or anus.”
— According to INN report, Mesbah-Yazdi is quoted as stating: “If the judgment for the [female] prisoner is execution, then rape before execution brings the interrogator a spiritual reward equivalent to making the mandated Haj pilgrimage [to Mecca], but if there is no execution decreed, then the reward would be equivalent to making a pilgrimage to [the Shi’ite holy city of] Karbala.”
— According to INN report, Mesbah-Yazdi is quoted as stating: “The child borne to any weakling [a denigrating term for women – ed.] who is against the Supreme Leader is considered illegitimate, be it a result of rape by her interrogator or through intercourse with her husband, according to the written word in the Koran.”
— August 13, 2009 – Reuters: “Iran cleric says obeying Ahmadinejad like obeying God”
— “A senior Iranian cleric seen as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor said obeying the head of government was like obeying God, the moderate Etemad-e Melli newspaper said on Thursday.”
— “Firebrand cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi believes the authority of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei comes from God, not from the people.”
— “Mesbah-Yazdi has long held that democracy and elections are incompatible with Islam.”
— Similar report from MEMRI
— November 17, 2006: Ayatollah who backs suicide bombs aims to be Iran’s next spiritual leader
— Supports suicide bombings on his web site
Iran: Tehran, fourth ‘mass trial’ against opponents of the regime
Iranian man to be stoned to death despite “moratorium”
Iranian man to be stoned to death despite moratorium
— Daily Telegraph reports:
— “An Iranian man convicted of adultery is to be stoned to death despite a moratorium being agreed by the judiciary last year.”
— “Naghi Ahmadi was sentenced to death by stoning in June last year in the northern city of Sari, after he visited a married woman’s home in the night while her husband was away working in another city, the Sarmayeh newspaper reported”
— “A year ago the judiciary said it would scrap the punishment in Iran’s new Islamic penal code”