Summary of the Iran Stories in Today's BroadcastsBehnam NateghiSaturday, February 01, 2003
<b>Foreign Ministry Spokesman Says Iran Shares US Grief Over Shuttle</b>
* Foreign ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi offered Iran's condolences to the families of the American and Indian astronauts who lost their lives this morning in the Columbia Space Shuttle's tragic disintegration. In addition to the six American astronauts one Israeli pilot died in the accident. (Ali Sajjadi)
<b>Dissident Cleric Montazeri Returns to Center Stage</b>
* After five years of living invisibly under house arrest, dissident senior cleric Grand Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri returns to the battlefield of Islamic politics, writes Elaine Sciolino in the New York Times. Ayatollah Montazeri considers himself in the "reformist" camp of President Mohammad Khatami. But while Mr. Khatami is a conciliator, Ayatollah Montazeri is overtly hostile to the conservative clerical establishment, she adds. (Homayoun Majd)
* On the first day after his release, Ayatollah Montazeri criticized the Guardians Council's vetting of applicants for candidacy in the Majles and presidential elections. Washington-based political activist Mohammad Borqei tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that Montazeri's criticism indicates that the government's practice today is far from the laws that had been approved in the early years of the revolution. (Ali Sajjadi)
<b>Guardians Council Member Responds to President Bush on Democracy and Elections</b>
* Former judiciary chief Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, a member of the Guardians Council, rejected President Bush's call for free elections in Iran. Speaking at the official Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran University, Yazdi said there have been at least two elections per year since the revolution, and that people do have the right to vote. Tehran University professor Qasem Sholeh-Saadi tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that the intervention of un-elected officials and institutions has taken democracy out of the democratic processes. He adds that the conservatives block access to elected office by vetting the candidacy applicants, and reject the bills approved by elected officials. He says they have left no breathing room for institutions representing the people's sovereignty. (Maryam Ahmadi)
<b>Teachers Continue Month-Long Strike</b>
* Teachers of two school districts in Tehran continued their month-long strike after police disrupted a gathering of teachers in Tehran last month. Head of the teachers' trade association (Kanoon-e Senfi-ye Mo'aleman) Abbas Marufi tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that in addition to higher pay, teachers demand the removal of schoolmasters who degrade them and act like policemen. The teachers, he adds, want to have a say in the appointment of schoolmasters. He says the teachers of school district 15 go to work but refuse to teach, and district 8 teachers have joined them. He says the interior ministry has repeatedly denied teachers' organizations permission to hold demonstrations, and the police find themselves in the difficult position of having to suppress teachers' gatherings by force. He says Ramezan Shams, deputy director of the House of Teachers (Khane-ye Mo'aleman), another trade advocacy group, was arrested and held for 15 days in jail after the January 1st demonstration of teachers in Heydarnia stadium under the Hafiz Avenue bridge in the center of Tehran. The representatives of Tehrani teachers and the teachers of the capital city's surrounding towns, he adds, had voted for the demonstration. After that demonstration, the education ministry sued the teachers' trade association (Kanoun-e Senfi-ye Mo'aleman-e Iran) for spreading lies. He adds that nothing has been done for teachers since the large demonstrations of teachers six months ago which ended with promises of support from the government officials. (Mahmonir Rahimi)
<b>Workshop Studies Alternatives to Jail Sentence</b>
* In the two-day educational workshop on alternative punishments to jail, attended by judges and public policy advocates, head of the law and administration university Mir Mohammad Sadeqi said jail sentences for lesser crimes should be replaced with other forms of punishment. Tehran-based lawyer Mohammad-Hossein Aghasi tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that punishments in Iranian law are based on the Islamic penal code, which offers no alternative to jail. He says in addition to criminals, Iranian courts punish bad debt and default on prenuptial agreements with time in jail. (Mohammad Hossein Aghasi)
<b>Officials Respond to Dissident Sajabi's Plea</b>
* Vice President for legal affairs Mohammad-Ali Abtahi and Majles speaker Mehdi Karrubi said they were deeply concerned after reading nationalist-religious dissident Ezatollah Sahabi's plea. In a letter to the heads of the three government branches, Ezatollah Sahabi hoped for death as the only relief from the incessant harassment by a team of judiciary interrogators who have followed him everywhere since his release on bail six months ago. Sahabi, along with more than 30 nationalist-religious activists, was tried on subversion charges after spending more than one year in solitary confinement, during which, he says, he was subjected to grueling daily interrogation. (Jean Khakzad)
<b>100 MPs Call for Ratification of the International Anti-Torture Convention</b>
* One hundred MPs called for the ratification by Iran of the international anti-torture treaty. Iran's constitution bans torture as a means of obtaining confessions and information from suspects, but the Guardians Council rejected a Majles bill that defined the forms of torture to include sleep deprivation and beating in prison. Paris-based human rights advocate Abdolkarim Lahiji tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that Iranian officials who negotiated last month in Tehran with the EU human rights delegation were hoping that with the approval of that bill in the Majles, there would no obstacle left to Iran's ratification of the treaty. He adds that Iranian authorities interpret the phrase "except legal punishment" in the first article of the treaty to mean such Islamic punishments as flogging and dismemberment, whereas this qualification has been added to allow ratification of the treaty in countries that practice death penalty. International human rights organizations, the EU and the UN human right commission, he adds, consider such punishments torture and covered by the treaty, and the federation of human rights organizations plans to once more bring the matter to the attention of the EU officials prior to their upcoming meeting with Iranian representatives in Athens. (Alireza Taheri)
<b>24th Anniversary of the Islamic Republic</b>
* On the 24th anniversary of Ayatollah Khomeini's return to Iran, helicopters showered flower petals on marchers in the official demonstration in Tehran, but few signs of joy were visible, according to news agency correspondents. More than the regime's anniversary, people in Iran are concerned with social and political restrictions and the torture and jailing of advocates of freedom and human rights. (Fariba Mavedat)
<b>MKO to Defend Saddam in Case of US Attack</b>
* A member of the Patriotic Union of the Iraqi Kurdistan told the German news agency DPA that members of the Iraq-based Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO) are being trained under Iraqi officers to defend Saddam Hossein in case of US attack. (Alireza Taheri)
<b>Next Year's Budget's Deficit Problem</b>
* Tehran-based economist Ali Rashidi tells <b>Radio Farda</b> that President Khatami's budget bill for the upcoming fiscal year, which the Majles is discussing now, increases spending by 21 percent but would cause a deficit of 10 percent by the end of the next fiscal year, due to income shortfalls. (Fereydoun Zarnegar)
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سفينه فضاپيماي كلمبيا در حاليكه از سفر 16 روزه خود به زمين بازمي گشت، 15 دقيقه به وقت فرود در پايگاه فضائي كندي در فلوريدا، در آسمان تگزاس منفجر شد و 7 سرنشين آن، از جمله دو سرنشين زن و يك سرهنگ فضانورد اسرائيلي، جان خود را از دست دادند. رئيس جمهوري آمريكا در پيام تلويزيوني به مناسبت سقوط فضاپيماي كلمبيا گفت ملت آمريكا عزادار است. وي افزود: آرماني كه آنها خود را وقف آن كردند ادامه خواهد يافت. رئيس جمهوري آمريكا گفت در عصري كه پرواز فضائي يك امر عادي شده است، ناديده گرفتن خطرات سفر با موشك و دشواري هاي گذركردن از لايه اتمسفر كه حرارت فوق العاده ايجاد مي كند، ساده شده است. اين فضانوردان با وقوف به هدف شريف زندگي خود با اين خطرات روبرو شدند. وي تاكيد كرد: همه آمريكائيان به خانواده هاي اين زنان و مردان مي انديشند كه پيوسته از احترام و قدرداني اين كشور برخوردار خواهند بود.
