Summary of the Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiFriday, January 31, 2003
<b>Opposition Activist Sahabi Complains Against Repeat Inerrogation</b>
* In a letter to the heads of all three government branches, nationalist-religious coalition member Ezatollah Sahabi complained about being harassed, followed and questioned by a team of judiciary interrogators who had held him jail for one year on subversion charges. He wrote that the interrogators repeatedly summoned him to a room in the Shahid Mahalati judiciary complex with questions about his relation to the pollsters who were accused of spying for the US. He said they threatened to implicate him in the judiciary's case against the pollsters, even after he said he did not know any of them. Sahabi wrote that only death would end the continued harassment. A Tehran Islamic revolutionary court tried Sahabi six months ago and released him on bail. No verdict has been issued. Tehran-based lawyer Nemat Ahmadi tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the Mahalati judiciary complex has no jurisdiction over Sahabi or the pollsters' case. He said in his letter Sahabi reminds President Khatami, judiciary chief Shahrudi and Majles speaker Karrubi that he had been appointed by Ayatollah Khomeini to the Revolutionary Council that ran Iran after the 1979 revolution and was one of the authors of the Islamic regime's constitution. (Bahman Bastani, Maryam Ahmadi)
<b>Montazeri Blasts Guardians Council</b>
* In his first meeting after release from five years of house arrest, senior dissident cleric Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri criticized the Guardians Council's vetting of the election candidates, and said that voters, when they are able to decide in freedom, would elect good people to the Majles. (Jamshid Chalangi)
* The US State Department spokesman and head of the British parliament's foreign relations committee called Montazari's release a positive development. (Mina Ahmadi)
* Montazeri's release was a small victory for the reformists, writes the Frankfurter Allgemeine. (Shahram Mirian)
<b>Signs of Iran's Cooperation with the US on Iraq</b>
* As the US prepares for a possible attack on Iraq, the Islamic regime finds itself on the verge of a difficult choice between two enemies. Iranians, as deputy Majles speaker Mohammad-Reza Khatami has pointed out, would celebrate the fall of Saddam's regime, but the presence of the US forces on Iran's borders worries Tehran. The conservative Friday prayer leaders across the country warned today of a possible US attack on Iran. But reformists have advised against provoking the US. Maybe for that reason, signs of Iran's cooperation with the US have begun to appear. Tehran cancelled the planned visit of the Iraqi foreign minister Naji Sabri last week, and welcomed Iraqi opposition leaders to Iran on their way to the upcoming conference to be held in northern Iraq. Foreign minister Kamal Kharrazi said Iran could not afford to remain indifferent to the regional developments. (Maryam Ahmadi)
<b>Judge Hangs Four Young Men for Rape</b>
* Before presiding over the public hanging of four young man convicted of rape and robbery, judiciary chief of the central province Gholamreza Khalaf-Rezai said despite the criticism of human rights organizations, the Islamic Republic considers death penalty necessary for purification of the society. (Amir-Mosaddegh Katouzian)
<b>MPs Call for an End to Discrimination Against Sunni Clergy</b>
* In a letter to President Khatami, 151 MPs called for an end to what they termed discrimination against the Sunni clergy. Marivan MP Abdollah Sohrabi tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the MPs want the government organization that pays financial assistance to the Shiite clergy provide stipends for the Sunni clergy as well. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
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مهندس عزت الله سحابي، عضو ائتلاف ملي مذهبي، در نامه سرگشاده خود به رهبران سه قوه جمهوري اسلامي فشار هاي يك تيم بازجوئي قوه قضائيه عليه خود را برشمرد و براي رهائي از آنها خواستار اعدام و مرگ شد. سحابي كه به اتهام تبليغ عليه نظام و براندازي در زندان 59 سپاه پاسداران بازداشت شده بود، نوشت در تمام يك سال بازداشت در سلول انفرادي، تحت بازجوئي هاي طولاني بود كه از بعدازظهر تا صبح روز بعد ادامه داشت. وي نوشت اگرچه با وثيقه 200 ميليون توماني آزاد شده است همان تيم بازجوئي او را مكرر به مجتمع قضائي شهيد محلاتي، احضار كرد و از او اطلاعاتي در پيوند با اعترافات پرونده نظر سنجي مطالبه كرد و او را به تشكيل پرونده اتهامي تازه اي تهديد كرد. سجابي نوشت «بنده آماده رفتن به زندان به هر كجا و هر مدت مي‌باشم وليكن چون قطع دارم، كه در زندان هم آقايان دست از سر من برنخواهند داشت طالب مرگ و اعدام مي‌باشم.» نعمت احمدي، حقوقدان در تهران، در مصاحبه با راديوفردا مي گويد مجمتع محلاتي به مجتمع قضائي كاركنان دولت كه پرونده نظر سنجي در آن مطرح است، و همچنين به محل سكونت سحابي كه لواسان است، ارتباطي ندارد. وي احضار مجدد سحابي به اين مجتمع توسط همان تيم بازجوئي را يك بدعت قضائي مي داند. وي مي افزايد سحابي در اين نامه به روساي سه قوه يادآوري كرده است كه يكي از برگزيدگان آيت الله خميني براي عضويت در شوراي انقلاب بود كه هيچكدام از آنها در آن عضويت نداشتند و مي افزايد از جمله تدوين كنندگان قانون اساسي جمهوري اسلامي نيز بود.
