The Green Brief #30 (July 16) – RePost

The Green Brief #30 (July 16)

Protests / Unrest

1. Several families of political prisoners continued their protest in front of the Islamic Courts in Tehran for the freedom of their loved ones.

2. Students in many universities in Iran are refusing to take part in exams in a show of protest against the election. Dozens of security forces’ personnel have been stationed at Amir Kabir University to quell any further protests that might be held there.

3. Workers of Iran-Barak Company are continuing their strike in protest of the election. The company is located in Rasht City and over 220 people work there – most of them women.

4. In Shiraz during protests on July 9th, one protester served Basijis with iced home-made juice. Reportedly, the juice also contained strong laxatives sending dozens of Basijis back to their barracks.

Opposition

5. It has now been confirmed that Mahdi Karoubi will be attending the Friday prayers along with Mousavi. Earlier the Etemaade Melli newspaper – a media outlet close to reformists – reported that Mohammad Khatami, Mahdi Karoubi, Hashemi Rafsanjani and Nategh Noori will not be participating in Ahmadinejad’s inauguration ceremony to be held on August 2.

6. Following the meetings of Mousavi and Karoubi with families of detained or martyred protesters, Khatami today also visited the families of detained political prisoners, Nabavi, Hajjarian, Abtahi and Tajzadeh. It was also reported that members of BARAN Council also held a meeting with Khatami.

7. In a letter released today, several prominent Shi’ite scholars declared their support for Ayatollah Ostadi, the Friday prayer Imam of Qom. Ostadi had announced that he would not longer lead Friday prayers.

8. Azam Taloghani, the daughter of Tehran’s first Friday prayers’ Imam, asked the Assembly of Experts to do more in order to help people get their rights. She claimed that Iran’s political system was in danger and that the government was indiscriminately imprisoning and killing peaceful protesters.

9. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said today that the French government was going to recognize Ahmadinejad as Iran’s legitimate president as doing otherwise would be counter-productive and useless. Speaking to the French parliament, He said that France, however, will continue to strengthen ties with and support the democracy movement in Iran.

(A French citizen who speaks French clearly did a bit of very HELPFUL work and revised this for us and wrote me an email explaining what had actually happened. Here’s a link to her email: http://tinyurl.com/mzdrst – I must say that I trust her judgment very much)

10. Iran on Thursday summoned the French ambassador to Iran and criticized the ‘unacceptable’ and ‘repressive’ brutality of the French police against protesters in France on July 14. According to a report published by IRNA, the Foreign Ministry called France’s human rights condition deplorable.

Government / International

11. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made a trip to Mashhad today and spoke at the Imam Reza Shrine in the city. He delivered a speech calling the Iranian election of the freest in recorded history. He continued to denounce foreign intervention in Iranian affairs and called on Western nations to apologize for interfering in its affairs. He also said that the Iranian nation had disappointed the West by voting for him and that even though Iran wanted negotiations, it had been cleared that the West didn’t.

12. The crowd gathered at Imam Reza Shrine was mostly composed of government employees, security forces personnel and people who’d been brought to Mashhad by buses from the countryside. It has been confirmed the number of clerics who attended the speech was extremely low. Ayatollah Va’ez Tabasi – one of the senior-most clerics of Mashhad – didn’t even greet Ahmadinejad into the city. It is worth mentioning that he had come out to greet every president before Ahmadinejad who had come to Mashhad after their reelection.

13. Outside, massive preparations were in place to ensure the President-Select’s security. The door of the shrine remained closed for much of the speech. His speech comes at a time when Gholam Reza Aghazadeh – the head of Iran’s nuclear program – tendered his resignation yesterday which was promptly accepted by the government. Aghazadeh led the agency for more than a decade and is a close associate of Hashemi Rafsanjani and Hossein Mousavi.

Arrests / Releases / Deaths

14. It has been reported that prize-winning Iranian photojournalist Majid Saeedi has been arrested and is in detention since July 11. Other than Saeedi, at least six other photojournalists have been arrested in the past few weeks – including Satyar Emami who was arrested on the same day as Saeedi. A French-Iranian cameraman Saeed Mohavedi is among the arrested journalists.

15. Four Tehran University students were also abducted by unknown people from their homes. Iranian lawyer Mohammad Ali Dadkhah has also been arrested by security forces. The whereabouts of the all of these detainees is unknown. It has also been confirmed that three students of Tabriz University who had gone missing a week ago are now in government detention.

16. Saeed Hajjarian’s wife and son were arrested today as well. His wife was released after a few hours of interrogation, but his son remains in custody. It’s worth mentioning that his son was previously detained, kept in jail for several days and was released later. Political Mohsen Mirdamadi was able to briefly contact his family today and tell them about his detention after a month of being custody.

17. Four professors of Ghazvin University have also been arrested. Their names are Dr. Raeesian, Dr. Imani, Dr. Davish and Dr. Fazli. Later reports indicated that they might have been released but I cannot fully confirm this at this point.

18. A staff member of the French Embassy with dual Iranian and French citizenship who had been arrested on Saturday was released today by security forces. However, her computer and some of her personal belongings were confiscated.

19. Reports indicate that even though Evin Prison is overflowing with detainees, more and more people are being brought in to be housed there. A protester who was released recently from the prison said that he was told daily that they would execute him in a couple of days.

(As promised, I feel much better today, thanks for all the concern. Still very depressed about this, though: Israel’s Back Yard.)