سياوش اردلان، مصاحبه با زرافشان، جداري فروغي, رئيس دانا و لاهيجي
Summary of Today's BroadcastRFE/RL Persian ServiceThursday, August 08, 2002 - US Vice President Cheney on Iran - Lawyer for the relatives of serial murder victims goes to jail - Russia's Caspian maneuvers and Iran-Russia relations - Hamedan court detains ranking reformist professor Aghajari - Tehran revolutionary court threatens IRNA over FMI - Reporters Day: no trace of the Taliban killers of IRNA reporter - Reporters Day: reporters shun awards ceremony in protest - Documentary film on female convicts - Khatami fails to reform economic structure US Vice President Cheney on Iran * In a speech yesterday at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club, Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran was a major source of terrorism bent on destroying the Middle East peace process. He said the US supports democratic aspirations of the Iranian people. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) Nasser Zarafshan to Begin Jail Term after Street Arrest * Zarafshan, lawyer for the families of the dissidents murdered in 1998 by intelligence ministry "rogue" agents, was arrested yesterday afternoon on a Tehran street, three weeks after an appeals court confirmed the five-year jail sentence and 50 lashes handed to him earlier by a Tehran military court. Zarafshan's 10-year-old son Mazdak, who visited his father in prison today, tells RFE/RL that his father's morale was high as he was being taken away for medical examination. Zarafshan's lawyer Mohammad-Ali Jedari Forughi, says the lashes portion of the verdict will come at the end of the jail term. He tells RFE/RL that using a clause in the trial law, he has filed a protest with the prosecutor general, which may get the order vacated but cannot stop its implementation. Leftist activist and Tehran University economics professor Fariborz Raisdana tells RFE/RL that writers and university professors plan to separately write to officials and to the public to condemn Zarafshan's jailing. Paris-based human rights activist Abdolkarim Lahiji says Zarafshan and five other lawyers were jailed and their license was suspended in violation of laws. The international human rights organizations will highlight Tehran's human rights violations in contacts with the EU governments to ensure that human rights would not be dropped from the planned EU-Iran September negotiations. In an interview with RFE/RL recorded three weeks ago, Zarafshan says he is willing to go jail if that is the price to pay for pursuing the serial murders case, despite warnings he says he received from the authorities. (Siavash Ardalan) Russia's Caspian Sea Military Maneuvers and Russia-Iran Relations * Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov presided today over the third phase of Russian military maneuvers in the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan took part in the maneuvers by sending ships; Iran and Azerbaijan sent observers, while Turkmenistan refused any involvement. Russia has refused Iran's request to send four war ships. The maneuvers send a message to the Caspian littoral countries, especially Iran which disagrees with Russia's formula for dividing the Caspian resources. Russian officials told the US that the long-term Russia-Iran agreements for military and economic cooperation are not definite. Washington-based international law expert Bahman Aghai-Moghadam tells RFE/RL that projects like building a north-south corridor from Moscow to India, Iran-India gas pipeline and six new nuclear power plants depend on future political and economic developments. Russia competes with Iran in international energy markets and sides with the west on the need to block expansion of Iran's influence in Central Asia. Russia would not support Iran and neither would Iran defend Russia if either comes under threat, he adds. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) Police Arrests Critic of Clerical Rule * Tehran University professor Hashem Aghajari, a board member of the leftist Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (MIRO), was arrested Thursday on the order of a Hamedan court for having "insulted" Islam and the clergy in his mid-June speech in that city. In his controversial speech, Aghajari questioned the Shiite principle of religious emulation. Tehran University political science professor Sadeq Zibakalam tells RFE/RL that he hopes the judiciary will not link Aghajari's speech to MIRO and move to ban MIRO, as it did with the dissident Freedom Movement of Iran party. If this trend takes hold, he says, the next target would be the pro-Khatami Participation Front, Mosharekat, the largest voting block in the Majles, headed by President Khatami's brother, Mohammad Reza. (Mehdi Khalaji) Revolutionary Court Threats IRNA over FMI Statement * The Tehran Revolutionary Court said in a statement that the official news agency IRNA broke the law by publishing a statement by the dissident Freedom Movement of Iran, which was ordered to dissolve by the court. Arizona-based journalist Dariush Sajjadi, a former IRNA reporter, tells RFE/RL that after the closing of the reformist Nowruz, IRNA is the only news outlet left for the reformists and may be the next target in the conservatives' move against reformist press. (Mehdi Khalaji) No Trace Yet of the Killers of IRNA Reporter in Afghanistan * The brother of Mahmud Saremi, the IRNA reporter who was killed along with 11 Iranian diplomats four years ago when Taliban stormed Iran's consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, tells RFE/RL that he has no news of any efforts about finding the killers. The anniversary of Saremi's death is remembered in Iran as Reporters Day. (Siavash Ardalan) Reporters Shun Official Reporters Day Awards Ceremony * Tehran's opera house, Vahdat, was empty yesterday during the journalists' award ceremony, says Tehran-based journalist Roya Maleki. She tells RFE/RL that unlike previous years when the ceremony was attended by a full house, journalists shunned this year's event in protest against the closing of the reformist newspapers and also in protest against the award jury, which was made up of newcomers, some of whom had nominated themselves for the award. Also yesterday, on the occasion of the Reporters Day, the union of professional journalists asked the judiciary in a statement to stop the arbitrary summons and interrogations of journalists. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Documentary on Women's Prison in Theatrical Release * "Women of Prison," a documentary film about female convicts, is the first social documentary to receive permission from the culture ministry for theatrical release, says women's rights activist Manijeh Hekmat, the film's director. She tells RFE/RL that many women convicted for murdering their husbands say social and legal limitations on women drove them to crime. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Khatami Government and Structural Reform * Structural reforms have been the greatest failure of the Khatami government. The closed, state-run economy, which relies heavily on oil income, has remained virtually unchanged. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris) RFE/RL Roundtable: Foreign Policy Three analysts discuss Tehran's foreign policy and US-Iran Relations * Paris-based political commentator says an outcome of the regime's tension with the US is Iran's failure to protect its interest in the Caspian. Tehran should abandon its blind enmity with Israel and leave the decision on the future of Palestine to Palestinians. * Tehran-based reformist cleric and political commentator Ahmad Qabel says the conservatives who run Iran's foreign policy suffer from confusion and disarray, which leads to the loss of valuable opportunities to mend relations with the US. * Former IRNA reporter Dariush Sajjadi, who lives in Arizona, says US believes an Islamic dictatorship in Iran would serve its interests in Iran and the Persian Gulf better than a democratic system. (Mehdi Khalaji) ARTS AND IDEAS Daily Internet Report * Two public art Internet pieces in New York and Sao Paolo mix global, and private and public experiences. (Behnam Nateghi, New York) Daily Medical Advice (Dr. Mansur Moslehi, Los Angeles) Daily Book Review * RFE/RL's Tehran-based book critic Kamran Fani reviews "Mademoiselle Katy," a collection of Persian short stories by Mitra Eliasi. Review of Iran's Constitutional Movement * On the 96th anniversary of the constitutional revolution, Oxford University professor Homayoun Katouzian, author of several books on Iran's contemporary history, discusses the reasons the movement failed in its goal of establishing a constitutional democracy in Iran. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian) Today in History (Golamreza Mirzasaleh, Tehran) Weekly soccer news and commentary (Mehrdad Masudi, London) Joy (Shadi) * Los Angeles-based DJ Afshin Gorgin plays a selection of Persian pop songs. Weekly Los Angeles Report * Young Iranians in Los Angeles tell RFE/RL about their studies, their fun, and their dreams. Also, a report on Bob Dylan's concert in LA. (Fahimeh Barati) WORLD * Iraqi opposition leaders gather in Washington for meeting with US officials. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) * Kurdish Iraqi leaders express concern over their role in a post-Saddam Iraq, writes the Los Angeles Times.(Jamshid Zand) * Most Arab newspapers run Saddam Hussein's speech without comment. Kuwaiti newspaper called Saddam's rhetoric adventurous. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) * The Palestinian delegation in Washington to visit CIA Director George Tenet. (Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * Rain and flooding across Europe. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
بعداز ظهر ديروز (چهارشنبه) ناصر زرافشان، وكيل بازماندگان محمدمختاري، يكي از قربانيان قتل هاي زنجيره اي، در خبابان بازداشت و روانه زندان شد تا حكم 5 سال زندان و 50 ضربه شلاق كه سه هفته پيش به تائيد دادگاه تجديد نظر رسيد، به اجرا گذاشته شود. اتهام او افشاي اسرار دولتي عنوان شده بود. مزدك پسر ده ساله ناصر زرافشان پس از ملاقات با پدر خود امروز در زندان، در مصاحبه با راديو آزادي مي گويد: روحيه او خوب بود ولي به علت اينكه قبلا به بيماري هاي متعدد دچار بود، او را براي معاينات پزشكي به پزشكي قانوني بردند. محمدعلي جداري فروغي، وكيل مدافع زرافشان مي گويد: حكم شلاق معمولا پس از سپري كردن دوران محكوميت در زندان اجرا مي شود. وي مي افزايد اميدوار است اعتراض وي به حكم براساس آئين دادرسي به شكستن آن منجر شود، ولي اين اعتراض مانع ار اجراي حكم نمي شود. فريبرز رييس دانا، اقتصاد دان در تهران در مصاحبه با راديوآزادي مي گويد: دانشگاهيان و روشنفكران آماده اند در نامه هاي جداگانه نسبت به اين اقدام غير قابل قبول و آزار دهنده هشدار دهند. دكتر عبدالكريم لاهيجي، نايب رييس فدراسيون جامعه دفاع از حقوق بشر در پاريس، در مصاحبه با راديوآزادي مي گويد: طي دو سال گذشته 6 وكيل دادگستري صرفا به دليل انجام وظيفه وكالتي مورد پيگرد قرار گرفتند. وي مي افزايد دولت ايران بايد به اين قضاياي شرم آور خاتمه دهد، در غير اين صورت بايد مطمئن باشد كه سازمان هاي بين المللي حقوق بشر اجازه نخواهند داد كه اتحاديه اروپا به مسئله حقوق بشر در ايران توجه كافي نكند. ناصر زرافشان، در مصاحبه اي كه قبلا با راديوآزادي انجام داد، مي گويد عليرغم تهديدها، خود را از پرونده قتل هاي زنجيره اي كنار نكشيد و اكنون آماده است كه هزينه آن را بپردازد.
Summary of Today's BroadcastRFE/RL Persian ServiceThursday, August 08, 2002 - US Vice President Cheney on Iran - Lawyer for the relatives of serial murder victims goes to jail - Russia's Caspian maneuvers and Iran-Russia relations - Hamedan court detains ranking reformist professor Aghajari - Tehran revolutionary court threatens IRNA over FMI - Reporters Day: no trace of the Taliban killers of IRNA reporter - Reporters Day: reporters shun awards ceremony in protest - Documentary film on female convicts - Khatami fails to reform economic structure US Vice President Cheney on Iran * In a speech yesterday at San Francisco's Commonwealth Club, Vice President Dick Cheney said Iran was a major source of terrorism bent on destroying the Middle East peace process. He said the US supports democratic aspirations of the Iranian people. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) Nasser Zarafshan to Begin Jail Term after Street Arrest * Zarafshan, lawyer for the families of the dissidents murdered in 1998 by intelligence ministry "rogue" agents, was arrested yesterday afternoon on a Tehran street, three weeks after an appeals court confirmed the five-year jail sentence and 50 lashes handed to him earlier by a Tehran military court. Zarafshan's 10-year-old son Mazdak, who visited his father in prison today, tells RFE/RL that his father's morale was high as he was being taken away for medical examination. Zarafshan's lawyer Mohammad-Ali Jedari Forughi, says the lashes portion of the verdict will come at the end of the jail term. He tells RFE/RL that using a clause in the trial law, he has filed a protest with the prosecutor general, which may get the order vacated but cannot stop its implementation. Leftist activist and Tehran University economics professor Fariborz Raisdana tells RFE/RL that writers and university professors plan to separately write to officials and to the public to condemn Zarafshan's jailing. Paris-based human rights activist Abdolkarim Lahiji says Zarafshan and five other lawyers were jailed and their license was suspended in violation of laws. The international human rights organizations will highlight Tehran's human rights violations in contacts with the EU governments to ensure that human rights would not be dropped from the planned EU-Iran September negotiations. In an interview with RFE/RL recorded three weeks ago, Zarafshan says he is willing to go jail if that is the price to pay for pursuing the serial murders case, despite warnings he says he received from the authorities. (Siavash Ardalan) Russia's Caspian Sea Military Maneuvers and Russia-Iran Relations * Russian defense minister Sergei Ivanov presided today over the third phase of Russian military maneuvers in the Caspian Sea. Kazakhstan took part in the maneuvers by sending ships; Iran and Azerbaijan sent observers, while Turkmenistan refused any involvement. Russia has refused Iran's request to send four war ships. The maneuvers send a message to the Caspian littoral countries, especially Iran which disagrees with Russia's formula for dividing the Caspian resources. Russian officials told the US that the long-term Russia-Iran agreements for military and economic cooperation are not definite. Washington-based international law expert Bahman Aghai-Moghadam tells RFE/RL that projects like building a north-south corridor from Moscow to India, Iran-India gas pipeline and six new nuclear power plants depend on future political and economic developments. Russia competes with Iran in international energy markets and sides with the west on the need to block expansion of Iran's influence in Central Asia. Russia would not support Iran and neither would Iran defend Russia if either comes under threat, he adds. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) Police Arrests Critic of Clerical Rule * Tehran University professor Hashem Aghajari, a board member of the leftist Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (MIRO), was arrested Thursday on the order of a Hamedan court for having "insulted" Islam and the clergy in his mid-June speech in that city. In his controversial speech, Aghajari questioned the Shiite principle of religious emulation. Tehran University political science professor Sadeq Zibakalam tells RFE/RL that he hopes the judiciary will not link Aghajari's speech to MIRO and move to ban MIRO, as it did with the dissident Freedom Movement of Iran party. If this trend takes hold, he says, the next target would be the pro-Khatami Participation Front, Mosharekat, the largest voting block in the Majles, headed by President Khatami's brother, Mohammad Reza. (Mehdi Khalaji) Revolutionary Court Threats IRNA over FMI Statement * The Tehran Revolutionary Court said in a statement that the official news agency IRNA broke the law by publishing a statement by the dissident Freedom Movement of Iran, which was ordered to dissolve by the court. Arizona-based journalist Dariush Sajjadi, a former IRNA reporter, tells RFE/RL that after the closing of the reformist Nowruz, IRNA is the only news outlet left for the reformists and may be the next target in the conservatives' move against reformist press. (Mehdi Khalaji) No Trace Yet of the Killers of IRNA Reporter in Afghanistan * The brother of Mahmud Saremi, the IRNA reporter who was killed along with 11 Iranian diplomats four years ago when Taliban stormed Iran's consulate in Mazar-i-Sharif, tells RFE/RL that he has no news of any efforts about finding the killers. The anniversary of Saremi's death is remembered in Iran as Reporters Day. (Siavash Ardalan) Reporters Shun Official Reporters Day Awards Ceremony * Tehran's opera house, Vahdat, was empty yesterday during the journalists' award ceremony, says Tehran-based journalist Roya Maleki. She tells RFE/RL that unlike previous years when the ceremony was attended by a full house, journalists shunned this year's event in protest against the closing of the reformist newspapers and also in protest against the award jury, which was made up of newcomers, some of whom had nominated themselves for the award. Also yesterday, on the occasion of the Reporters Day, the union of professional journalists asked the judiciary in a statement to stop the arbitrary summons and interrogations of journalists. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Documentary on Women's Prison in Theatrical Release * "Women of Prison," a documentary film about female convicts, is the first social documentary to receive permission from the culture ministry for theatrical release, says women's rights activist Manijeh Hekmat, the film's director. She tells RFE/RL that many women convicted for murdering their husbands say social and legal limitations on women drove them to crime. (Mahmonir Rahimi) Khatami Government and Structural Reform * Structural reforms have been the greatest failure of the Khatami government. The closed, state-run economy, which relies heavily on oil income, has remained virtually unchanged. (Fereydoun Khavand, Paris) RFE/RL Roundtable: Foreign Policy Three analysts discuss Tehran's foreign policy and US-Iran Relations * Paris-based political commentator says an outcome of the regime's tension with the US is Iran's failure to protect its interest in the Caspian. Tehran should abandon its blind enmity with Israel and leave the decision on the future of Palestine to Palestinians. * Tehran-based reformist cleric and political commentator Ahmad Qabel says the conservatives who run Iran's foreign policy suffer from confusion and disarray, which leads to the loss of valuable opportunities to mend relations with the US. * Former IRNA reporter Dariush Sajjadi, who lives in Arizona, says US believes an Islamic dictatorship in Iran would serve its interests in Iran and the Persian Gulf better than a democratic system. (Mehdi Khalaji) ARTS AND IDEAS Daily Internet Report * Two public art Internet pieces in New York and Sao Paolo mix global, and private and public experiences. (Behnam Nateghi, New York) Daily Medical Advice (Dr. Mansur Moslehi, Los Angeles) Daily Book Review * RFE/RL's Tehran-based book critic Kamran Fani reviews "Mademoiselle Katy," a collection of Persian short stories by Mitra Eliasi. Review of Iran's Constitutional Movement * On the 96th anniversary of the constitutional revolution, Oxford University professor Homayoun Katouzian, author of several books on Iran's contemporary history, discusses the reasons the movement failed in its goal of establishing a constitutional democracy in Iran. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian) Today in History (Golamreza Mirzasaleh, Tehran) Weekly soccer news and commentary (Mehrdad Masudi, London) Joy (Shadi) * Los Angeles-based DJ Afshin Gorgin plays a selection of Persian pop songs. Weekly Los Angeles Report * Young Iranians in Los Angeles tell RFE/RL about their studies, their fun, and their dreams. Also, a report on Bob Dylan's concert in LA. (Fahimeh Barati) WORLD * Iraqi opposition leaders gather in Washington for meeting with US officials. (Homayoun Majd, Washington) * Kurdish Iraqi leaders express concern over their role in a post-Saddam Iraq, writes the Los Angeles Times.(Jamshid Zand) * Most Arab newspapers run Saddam Hussein's speech without comment. Kuwaiti newspaper called Saddam's rhetoric adventurous. (Farideh Rahbar, Cairo) * The Palestinian delegation in Washington to visit CIA Director George Tenet. (Jamshid Chalangi, Cairo) * Rain and flooding across Europe. (Shahram Mirian, Cologne)
بعداز ظهر ديروز (چهارشنبه) ناصر زرافشان، وكيل بازماندگان محمدمختاري، يكي از قربانيان قتل هاي زنجيره اي، در خبابان بازداشت و روانه زندان شد تا حكم 5 سال زندان و 50 ضربه شلاق كه سه هفته پيش به تائيد دادگاه تجديد نظر رسيد، به اجرا گذاشته شود. اتهام او افشاي اسرار دولتي عنوان شده بود. مزدك پسر ده ساله ناصر زرافشان پس از ملاقات با پدر خود امروز در زندان، در مصاحبه با راديو آزادي مي گويد: روحيه او خوب بود ولي به علت اينكه قبلا به بيماري هاي متعدد دچار بود، او را براي معاينات پزشكي به پزشكي قانوني بردند. محمدعلي جداري فروغي، وكيل مدافع زرافشان مي گويد: حكم شلاق معمولا پس از سپري كردن دوران محكوميت در زندان اجرا مي شود. وي مي افزايد اميدوار است اعتراض وي به حكم براساس آئين دادرسي به شكستن آن منجر شود، ولي اين اعتراض مانع ار اجراي حكم نمي شود. فريبرز رييس دانا، اقتصاد دان در تهران در مصاحبه با راديوآزادي مي گويد: دانشگاهيان و روشنفكران آماده اند در نامه هاي جداگانه نسبت به اين اقدام غير قابل قبول و آزار دهنده هشدار دهند. دكتر عبدالكريم لاهيجي، نايب رييس فدراسيون جامعه دفاع از حقوق بشر در پاريس، در مصاحبه با راديوآزادي مي گويد: طي دو سال گذشته 6 وكيل دادگستري صرفا به دليل انجام وظيفه وكالتي مورد پيگرد قرار گرفتند. وي مي افزايد دولت ايران بايد به اين قضاياي شرم آور خاتمه دهد، در غير اين صورت بايد مطمئن باشد كه سازمان هاي بين المللي حقوق بشر اجازه نخواهند داد كه اتحاديه اروپا به مسئله حقوق بشر در ايران توجه كافي نكند. ناصر زرافشان، در مصاحبه اي كه قبلا با راديوآزادي انجام داد، مي گويد عليرغم تهديدها، خود را از پرونده قتل هاي زنجيره اي كنار نكشيد و اكنون آماده است كه هزينه آن را بپردازد.
