Iranian official defiant against international condemnation of Human Rights violations by Iran

Iran official: Clinton 'inconsistent'

February 17, 2010

The Secretary General of Iran's High Council for Human Rights, Mohammad Javad Larijani, on the AMANPOUR. set

By Tom Evans; Sr. Writer, AMANPOUR.

(CNN) - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's policy on Iran is "dubious, inconsistent, and naive," one of Iran's most influential officials declared Tuesday.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, a member of a powerful political clan in Iran, rejected an assertion by Clinton on Monday that the Revolutionary Guard is supplanting the Iranian government, and Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship. One of Larijani's brothers is speaker of the Iranian parliament and another is head of Iran's judiciary.

"On the one hand she (Clinton) is worried about democracy in Iran, on the other hand she's offering the most generous military help to states which don't run a single election," Larijani told CNN's Christiane Amanpour just after Clinton had completed a three-day tour of Arab countries in the Persian Gulf.

Larijani said the Revolutionary Guard, which has extensive business interests in Iran, is answerable to legal structures of the state.

"The Revolutionary Guard is part of our defense system, they have a legal status, they have a legal command, and they are legally answerable to Parliament," he added.

Larijani, whose title is secretary general of the Iranian High Council for Human Rights, also rejected Western criticism of Iran's rights record, declaring that his country is "the greatest and ... only democracy in the Middle East."

He said he explained Iran's position in full this week to the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland, where the U.S., Britain, France and other nations strongly attacked Tehran's record, as they stepped up pressure for new international sanctions against Iran over its nuclear ambitions.

"It is true that the United States and a number of Western countries aired their criticism toward us, but it was mostly a kind of cliche," Larijani said.

"But on the other side, a lot of nations also supported and commended our position," he added - a reference to countries including Cuba, Venezuela, and Sri Lanka.

Despite the government's massive crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators since the disputed presidential election in June last year, Larijani said Tuesday that no one is jailed because of protests in Iran.

"The only reason for jailing is the violence which was attached to the protests, a violence which got the life of more than 20 policemen and 13 civilians and also damaged the properties and also people's life and health," he asserted.

"I think the beating of our police is much less than the New York and Los Angeles police ... the violence in Tehran was much less that the violence in Paris.. (which) was in flames for three months."

He also rejected criticism of Iran's policy on executing people who, he said, were engaged in violence. "Those who indulge in terrorist activities, they are pursued by the law. They will face a very harsh sentence, if it is proved by the court."

Larijani acknowledged that official wrongdoing and unlawful acts do occasionally happen in Iran, but insisted the authorities take quick action to address problems when they are identified. He cited the example of what happened after the deaths of three protesters who were jailed at the Kahrizak Detention Center in Tehran. One of those who died was the son of a leading conservative politician.

He said the prosecutor-general, Saeed Mortazavi, who was linked to those deaths by a parliamentary committee could now face further investigation by the judicial authorities.

"Nobody will replace the court and their final decision," Larijani asserted.

Credits: Amanpour/CNN: Iran official: Clinton "inconsistent"

United Nations calls on Iran to release political prisoners

Iran rejects U.N. call to free political prisoners

GENEVA (Reuters) - Iran rejected calls to release all political prisoners and accept an international inquiry into violence after last June's contested presidential elections, an official U.N. report said.

WORLD (Editing by Louise Ireland and Jonathan Lynn) Feb 17, 2010

The Islamic Republic also refused to end the death penalty and said it would not make torture as an offence under its laws, according to the report on a discussion of its rights record in the world body's Human Rights Council.

In the discussion, held on Monday as part of the Universal Permanent Review (UPR) process which all U.N. members undergo every four years, it said many recommendations, including one from Chile urging guarantees of political and civil rights for all, including dissidents, were already in effect.

In Wednesday's report, approved by the 47-member Council, Iran had already declared it was an open democracy under the rule of law, pledged it would comply fully with international rights pacts and ensure that torture was eliminated.

The Council also registered Iranian promises to ensure religious freedom, freedom of expression and the right to demonstrate peacefully.

Critics of the UPR system, including many activist NGOs, say it gives too much room for countries to fend off detailed criticism on specific issues and allows them to make vague promises of future action.

"The proof of this pudding produced today will be in the eating," said one European diplomat asking for anonymity in referring to the Iran report. "We have seen promises like this before, but not much action to follow them up."

Despite agreeing to a Netherlands recommendation to "take measures to ensure that no torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment takes place," Iran rejected another from Spain to sign the U.N. anti-torture pact.

And it rejected a U.S. proposal that it allow the U.N. special investigator on torture, Austrian lawyer Manfred Nowak, to visit the country and have access to detention facilities -- although it has accepted a visit next year by Human Rights High Commissioner Navi Pillay.

Asserting earlier that the Iranian media was free and that the state did not block access to the Internet, it dismissed recommendations to "end severe restrictions on the right to free expression" and to stop harassment of journalists.

The Council has no mechanism to enforce implementation of pledges made in the UPR process, although countries are expected to report back on what they are doing.

Credits: Reuters: Iran rejects U.N. call to free political prisoners

Over 65 reporters face spying charges in Iran: rights group

(AFP) – Feb 16, 2010

UNITED NATIONS — More than 65 journalists, bloggers and writers have been detained in Iran since last June's disputed presidential polls and could be tried on charges of "spying" for the foreign media, a New York-based media rights group said Tuesday.

"The picture (in Iran) is pretty gloomy," Robert Mahoney, deputy director of the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) told a press conference here as he presented a worldwide 2009 survey titled "Attacks on the Press in 2009" and highlighted the detentions in Iran.

Maziar Bahari, an Iranian-Canadian correspondent for Newsweek who was jailed in Iran in June and released four months later, also told reporters that more than 100 journalists, bloggers and writers had been arrested at different periods since the elections, including the more than 65 who were still behind bars.

"They can all be accused of spying for the foreign media," he said, noting that spying carries the death penalty in Iran.

"The government has no respect for the privacy of individuals," Bahari said. "The strategy of the Iranian government is to make everyone's life, especially journalists' lives, insecure."

And in an alarming development, Mahoney said Iranian authorities were now using online social networks such as Facebook to target journalists and dissidents.

"The Iranian government is now using (Facebook) to go after and find dissidents and journalists, mining their data, seeing who their friends are,' he added. "They are turning the technology that should liberate the press against the press. This is a worrying trend."

Mahoney said the CPJ was "monitoring more and more closely the government's attempt to censor and filter content online, to surveille journalists, to get into their contact books and generally try to disrupt their ability to use the internet as a tool for freedom of expression."

Last week, the United States also accused Iran of trying "a near total information blockade" to deal with anti-government protesters, calling the move unprecedented.

Based on US monitoring of networks and other information, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said it appeared that "Iran has attempted a near total information blockade."

He added that his statement was based on US monitoring that showed the phone network was taken down, text messages blocked, satellite television jammed and the Internet "throttled."

Credits: AFP: Over 65 reporters face spying charges in Iran: rights group

Iran steps up security before Islamic Revolution rally

Tehran sentences another activist to death and several others are arrested ahead of national day demonstrations 


Ian Black, Middle East editor
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 10 February 2010

Large numbers of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards have been deployed across Tehran, claim opposition sources, before tomorrow's anniversary of the Islamic Revolution. Photograph: Behrouz Mehri/AFP/Getty Images

Iranian security forces are deploying in strength in Tehran and across the country to head off what opposition supporters hope will be massive protests to mark tomorrow's anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

New arrests were announced today after another death sentence was handed down for a convicted "rioter" and large numbers of Revolutionary Guards and Basij militia arrived in the capital from outlying areas, opposition sources reported.

Official preparations to deal with the latest bout of internal unrest coincide with mounting international tensions after Barack Obama accused Iran on Tuesday of trying to build a nuclear weapon and warned it would face new sanctions within weeks.

The regime has repeatedly accused opposition supporters of serving foreign interests.

Green movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims he, not incumbent hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, won last June's presidential election, has called for peaceful protests during state-sponsored events marking the 31st anniversary of the 1979 revolution – the most important date in the official calendar.

"We are closely watching the activities of the sedition movement and several people who were preparing to disrupt the 11 February rallies were arrested," the Fars news agency quoted Tehran's police chief, Esmail Ahmadi-Moghaddam, as saying. "If anyone wants to disrupt this glorious ceremony, they will be confronted by people and we too are fully prepared."

Tomorrow's events will take place behind a media blackout, with the few foreign journalists in Tehran operating under severe restrictions. Some 60 Iranian journalist are under arrest, and internet communications have been largely shut down.

For the first time loudspeakers have been mounted along the main route of likely protests to drown out opposition slogans. The main official rally will see Ahmadinejad address tens of thousands of government supporters in the capital's Azadi (Freedom) Square. Mousavi has not announced his plans but Mehdi Karroubi, another defeated presidential candidate, said he would take part.

Obama's strong words on the nuclear issue raised the stakes in the confrontation between Tehran and the international community, though there are serious doubts about whether China, one of the five permanent members of the UN security council, will back punitive measures.

"What we are going to be working on over the next several weeks is developing a significant regime of sanctions that will indicate to them (Iran) how isolated they are from the international community as a whole," Obama told reporters in Washington. But the head of Iran's atomic energy organisation, Ali-Akbar Salehi, insisted that an offer to enrich Iran's uranium abroad was "still on the table".

Western governments have focused on the nuclear issue but continuing domestic turmoil is attracting closer interest. Possible targets for new sanctions include the central bank, the Revolutionary guards (who control the nuclear programme), shipping firms and the energy sector.

Scores of people have been killed and hundreds wounded in protests since the June election. In the most recent flare-up, eight people died in clashes between police and protesters on 27 December when opposition supporters used the annual Shia Ashura ceremonies to stage anti-government rallies. Two opposition leaders, Mohsen Aminzadeh and Behzad Nabavi, were jailed this week.

Credits: The Guardian: Iran steps up security before Islamic Revolution rally