Summary of Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiWednesday, May 12, 2004
<b>Judiciary Chief Blasts Courts and Police for Rights Violations</b>
• Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Sharoudi repeated his recent criticism of courts, judges and law enforcement officials for mistreatment of suspects, prisoners and defendants. People's kids are being beaten in police precincts, he said. “Where in the law it says police can do whatever they please,” he asked, “where is judicial supervision, where is respect for fair laws?” He said the judiciary's handling of the death in custody of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi imposed a heavy cost on Iran in the international arena. Shahroudi's comments are for foreign consumption and should not be taken too seriously, because, who, other than Shahroudi himself is ultimately responsible for the abuse and maltreatment about which he complains, Paris-based human rights advocate <b>Abdolkarim Lahiji</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Shahroudi's comments mean that we are faced with a total lack of law and order in Iran, a chaotic system, in which the real power is in the hands of those who under the regime's own laws have no legitimacy. In the absence of rule of law, there are no guarantees, he adds. In addition to the political prisoners we hear about, due to the activism of their relatives or friends, there are tens of other prisoners, especially in provincial prisons, about whom we hear nothing, he says. In the case of Zahra Kazemi's death in custody, he adds, the judiciary is directly responsible, and now, the same person who has been allegedly involved in the fatal interrogation, is in charge of prosecuting the case.
<b>Montazeri Sees another Revolution Coming</b>
• “Either officials change their methods and give freedom to the people, and stop interfering in elections, or the people will rise up with another revolution,” dissident cleric Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri told <i>New York Times</i> columnist Nicholas Kristof in Qom. “There is no freedom, repression is carried out in the name of Islam, and that turns people off. . . . All these court summonses, newspaper closings and prosecutions of dissidents are wrong. These are the same things that were done under the shah and are now being repeated. And now they are done in the name of Islam and therefore alienate people,” Montazeri said.
<b>Austrian Rights Activist Criticize Official Delegation's Visit to Tehran</b>
• The three-day trip to Tehran of a delegation headed by Austria's Vice President came under criticism in Vienna from human rights activists and Green party MPs, who said the visit boosted the conservatives who took the Majles in last February's elections by banning their reformist rivals from standing for election.
<b>Ebadi: Rights Abuses Not Justified by Cultural Relativism</b>
• The Islamic Republic has been violating human rights for the past 25 years, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi said during a speech in Toronto for PEN members. Cultural relativism does not justify violations of human rights, she added.
<b>Guards' Occupation of New Tehran Airport Complicates Tehran-Ankara Relations</b>
• The non-payment of $20 million in damages to the Turkish-Austrian company, which was booted by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) out of the new Tehran international airport, has put another wrinkle in the crumpled Tehran-Ankara relations. The IRGC's armored personnel carriers occupied the airport and blocked its runways last Saturday, a few hours after the airport began operations after 35 years of construction. The armed forces joint command headquarters said in a statement that the airport's service contract with TAV, the Turkish-Austrian company, was a security risk. The guards sent the company's workers packing. Reportedly, Turkish foreign minister Abdullah Gul sent a note to foreign minister Kharrazi on the matter.
<b>Kuwait Warns Iran on Ties with Shiite Dissidents</b>
• Kuwait's interior minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah said meetings at Iran's embassy between Iranian officials and leaders of dissident Kuwaiti Shiite groups could harm bilateral ties. “Kuwait totally rejects meetings between Iranian officials and Kuwaiti personalities,” the minister said on Wednesday about the meetings that reportedly have taken place a while ago. Foreign ministry yesterday summoned Kuwait's Charge d'Affairs to complain about Sabbah's comments, and also to reciprocate Kuwait's summoning of Iran's top embassy officials to protest against the meetings.
<b>Guardians Council Rejects Division of Khorasan Province</b>
• The Majles bill to divide the vast Khorasan province into three provinces met with resistance from the Guardians Council, who found some aspects of the bill un-Islamic and unconstitutional. The Guardians Council said the bill fails to define proper financial resources for the new provinces it seeks to create. Mashhad University professor <b>Mohammad-Hossein Papoli-Yazdi</b>, who has been in charge of one of the studies used by the government to draft the bill, tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the powerful endowment of the shrine of Imam Reza, one of the largest economic cartels in the Middle East, opposes the division of the Khorasan province, and so long as it continues with its opposition, the Guardians Council will find reasons to reject the bill. (Jamshid Zand)
<b>Amnesty International Campaigns for Jailed Journalist Hedayat</b>
• An appeals court in Tabriz endorsed a lower court's 18-month jail sentence for independent journalist Ensafali Hedayat, and rejected Hedayat's request for release on medical furlough. The Amnesty International will ask its members to write to Iranian authorities to ask them to release Hedayat, in consideration of his stomach illness, London-based AI spokesman on Iran's cases <b>Drewery Dyke</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. Denying prisoners medical treatment has become a pattern in Iran, he adds. Hedayat was arrested three months ago, a day after he returned home from Berlin, where he attended a gathering of exiled anti-regime secular and non-monarchist activists. (Shahran Tabari, London)
<b>Islamic Student Activists to Hold Annual Meeting Next Week</b>
• The association of the Islamic student councils (Dafter-e Tahkim-e Vahdat) will hold its annual meeting next week at the electricity school of Tehran's Allameh Tabatabai University. The election of a new central council is on the agenda of the meeting, member of the Daftar's central council <b>Mehdi Aminzadeh</b> tells <b>Radio Farda</b>. During the meeting, the members will discuss “democracy and republic, from idea to reality;” formation of a student parliament and the need for new political alliances, he adds. Planning for demonstrations to commemorate the July 9, 1998 police attack on student dorms will be drafted by the new central council members, he says. He adds that the judiciary will not execute history professor and Islamic activist Hashem Aghajari, who was once again sentenced to death by a Hamedan court, “because the judiciary knows it cannot pay the price.” (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian)
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نازي عظيما (راديو فردا): رئيس قوه قضاييه، محمود هاشمي شاهرودي براي چندمين بار در چند روز گذشته زبان به گله و شكايت از وضع دادگاهها و اجحافاتي كه ضابطين دادگستري به مردم مي كنند گشود و گفت: بچه هاي مردم را در كلانتريها كتك مي زنند. آقاي شاهرودي با اشاره به پرونده خانم زهرا كاظمي مي پرسد اين پرونده براي ايران هزينه بالايي داشته و چرا بايد اين همه هزينه پرداخته شود. رئيس قوه قضاييه كه به لحاظ موقعيت و مقام خود قاعدتا بايد مطلع ترين فرد درباره اين پرونده باشد، سئوالاتي طرح مي كند كه قاعدتا بايد خودش پاسخ آنها را بداند. فريدون زرنگار نگاهي دارد به گفته هاي امروز آقاي محمود هاشمي شاهرودي.
فريدون زرنگار (راديو فردا): آيت الله محمود هاشمي شاهرودي، رئيس قوه قضاييه جمهوري اسلامي امروز در همايش سراسري قضات دادگستري كل استان تهران با اشاره به شمار بالاي پرونده ها در دادگاهها و ناتواني قوه قضاييه به رسيدگي سريع به آنان به طور بي سابقه اي از نيروي انتظامي انتقاد كرد و گفت: تخلفاتي در آگاهيها و كلانتريها و در رابطه با نقل و انتقال افراد به زندانها انجام مي شود كه باعث تضييع حق مردم مي شود. رئيس قوه قضاييه در سخنراني خود پرسيد كجاي قانون آمده است كه نيروي انتظامي هر كاري بخواهد مي تواند انجام دهد؟ پس كو نظارت دادسرا، كو اجراي قوانين عادلانه؟
از دكتر عبدالكريم لاهيجي، نايب رئيس فدراسيون جهاني حقوق بشر و رئيس جامعه دفاع از حقوق بشر در ايران مي پرسم: اگر رئيس قوه قضاييه گله و شكايت از بي قانوني مي كند، چه كسي جز وي مي تواند جوابگوي اين پرسشها باشد؟ دكتر لاهيجي مي گويد اين گفته هاي آقاي شاهرودي بيشتر مصرف خارجي دارد و بنابراين نبايد چندان جدي گرفته شود.
دكتر عبدالكريم لاهيجي (نايب رئيس فدراسيون جهاني جوامع دفاع از حقوق بشر): به اعتقاد من مشكل ايران و مردم ايران عميقتر از اين صحبتهايي است كه امروز هاشمي شاهرودي كرده. به لحاظ اين كه در ايران ما با نبودن حكومت به معناي مدرن كلمه روبرو هستيم. آن چيزي كه در جمهوري اسلامي طي 25 سال گذشته بوده، حكومت هرج و مرج و خان خاني است. حادثه اخير فرودگاه يكي از نمودها و نمادهاي چنين حكومتي است كه در آن اهرمهاي واقعي قدرت، آنهم قدرت فراقانوني در دست كساني هست كه در چهارچوب قانون اساسي جمهوري اسلامي مشروعيت ندارند و به اعتقاد من بخشنامه ها و اظهارات اخير هاشمي مصرف خارجي دارد، به لحاظ اين كه معاون او محمد جواد لاريجاني طي ماههاي اخير به اتحاديه اروپا، به مجموعه غرب مي خواهند بفهمانند كه قدرت واقعي در ايران در دست چه كسي است وبنابراين اينها هستند كه مي توانند ايران را قانونمند كنند، مي توانند شكنجه را منع كنند. بنابراين نشان مي دهد كه جمهوري اسلامي هيچ چيزي به جز متاسفانه حكومت شخصي، حكومت گروهي و حكومت غير قانوني و فراقانوني متاسفانه تظاهر واقعي ديگري ندارد. با نبودن حكومت قانون هيچگونه تضميني وجود ندارد. من اينجا خاطرنشان مي كنم كه مساله زندانيان متاسفانه در ايران بيشتر روي كساني پرتو مي افكند كه خانواده ها و اطرافيان آنها مي توانند فعاليتهايي را بكنند، چه در داخل جامعه ايران، چه در خارج از طريق سازمانهاي حقوق بشر. ما مي دانيم كه در ايران دهها زنداني هستند بخصوص در شهرستانها، بخصوص در شهرهاي دورافتاده كه اصلا نه اسمي از آنها در جايي است و نه حقوقي دارند كه مورد رعايت قرار گيرد، در كلانتريها، در زندانهاي مخفي، در زندانهاي زير كنترل سپاه پاسداران، بسيج و غيره. مورد زهرا كاظمي كه حالا آقاي شاهرودي پس از يك سال باز دارد تجديد مطرح مي كند، كاملا نمايانگر وضعيتي است كه حتي قوه قضاييه مسبب آن است. براي اين كه وقتي كسي در پرونده زهرا كاظمي عامل اصلي قضيه است، او بوده كه دستور بازداشتهاي غير قانوني داده، او بوده كه در همه بدرفتاريها شركت داشته، بازجوييها در شرايطي كه زهرا كاظمي خونريزي مغزي كرده بوده، نه تنها او را به دكتر و طبيب نمي برند، در بيمارستان بستري نمي كنند و باز بدرفتاريها ادامه پيدا مي كند، اين شخص همچنان در يك سال گذشته نه فقط دادستان تهران و انقلاب است، كه مي دانيد اخيرا هم به عنوان رئيس دادسراي نمونه مورد تقدير و پاداش قرار گرفت. آيت الله محمود هاشمي شاهرودي رئيس قوه قضاييه جمهوري اسلامي، براي چندمين بار در چند روز گذشته زبان به گله و شكايت از وضع دادگاهها و اجحافات ضابطين دادگستري به مردم گشود و گفت: بچه هاي مردم را در كلانتريها كتك مي زنند. وي با اشاره به پرونده قتل زهرا كاظمي، گفت اين پرونده براي ايران هزينه بالايي داشت. دكتر عبدالكريم لاهيجي، فعال حقوق بشر در پاريس، در مصاحبه با راديوفردا مي گويد گفته هاي آقاي شاهرودي بيشتر مصرف خارجي دارد و نبايد چندان جدي گرفته شود. وي مي افزايد متاسفانه در ايران بيشتر روي زندانياني پرتو مي افكنند كه خانواده ها و اطرافيان آنها مي توانند فعاليتهايي بكنند، چه در داخل جامعه ايران، چه در خارج از طريق سازمانهاي حقوق بشر، اما در ايران دهها زنداني هستند، به خصوص در شهرستانها، که اصلا نه اسمي از آنها در جايي است و نه حقوقي دارند كه مورد رعايت قرار گيرد.
