NiteOwl’s GreenBrief #53

The Green Brief #53 (August 13 – Mordad 22)

I’m NiteOwl AKA Josh Shahryar – twitter.com/iran_translator on twitter. I’m a journalist and a human rights activist and NOT Iranian. This is a compilation of news from Iran that I’ve gathered through twitter and Iranian sites that were advertised on twitter. Remember, this is all from tweets. (My work is released under Creative Commons (CC).)

These are the important happenings that I can positively confirm from Thursday, August 13 – Mordad 22.

Protests / Unrest

1. Unconfirmed reports suggest that the Green Movement might attend the Friday prayers. (The Friday prayers will probably be over when most readers get this brief). There are also rumors that Mousavi will be attending the Friday prayers. Nothing can be confirmed at this point.

2. Reports from Evin confirm that 30 detainees have announced they will be holding a hunger strike starting Saturday. They have warned that the authorities need to pay attention to their plight. This was reported to Amir Kabir News Agency by a detainee, who had just been released from Evin. The news has also been forwarded to the Iranian government and to the parliamentary commission, set up to assess the condition of detainees.

International Protests / Events

3. Fatemeh Khezrie, 44, has been holding a hunger strike in front of the US Embassy in London, with others, for the past 17 days. Her condition is deteriorating as she has refused to take a fluid drip.

Full Story: Hunger striker Fatemeh Khezrie seriously ill outside US embassy in London | UK news | guardian.co.uk

4. A Swiss-Iranian Green-supporter, who we affectionately call the Epic Protester, has been protesting in front of the Iranian Embassy in Bern for the past two months non-stop, generating quite a lot of buzz. There is a blog dedicated to his efforts which you can reach here:

Epic Protester

And you can read his interview here: Interview with the Epic Protester � Epic Protester (Courtesy of @Nedjarsen)

5. Amidst the stories of brutality being circulated, there are also some heart-warming instances of human compassion. One Hearts View is one such project that a world citizen is undertaking. Visit and comment at: One Hearts View: Iran wanted me to bear witness…and I have.

6. For a list of protests that are being planned in Germany, please visit this link: http://tinyurl.com/nbzacj] (English and German)

(If you, your friends or your organization are holding events, protests or doing something else related to the Iranian election internationally, please send me an email with details and I will give you coverage. (Will only cost you 10 million dollars!) My email is: dbosca@gmail.com

Opposition

7. Partially confirmed reports suggest that the Supreme (Iranian Dictator) Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s brother, Hadi Khamenei – an eminent cleric in his own right and a supporter of Mousavi – has traveled to Mashhad. Hadi Khamenei has been holding meetings with freed detainees for the past few weeks and on his trip to Mashhad, has reportedly held a closed door meeting with Ayatollah Mousavi Aradabeli about the current situation in the country. Information about what happened during the meeting has not yet been disclosed.

8. Nasrullah Torabi – a reformist MP – today asked the government to present evidence about the alleged death of nine Basijis. He was speaking about Karroubi’s claim that detained protesters had been raped at detention centers when he changed the subject and asked the government to provide documents of every allegation it has also made. According to Torabi, if Karroubi is supposed to provide evidence about his claims, then why was the government not providing evidence for their claims?

9. An Aide for Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, today told PressTV that the Ayatollah had not sent any letter of congratulations to Ahmadinejad. As reported yesterday, an alleged letter of congratulations to Ahmadinejad by Shirazi was being circulated for several days which, as reported yesterday, is a FAKE.

10. Mahdi Karroubi is soon to present Ali Larejani with evidence about the instances of the rape of detainees. Larejani said he will review the evidence. It has also been reported that witnesses are also willing to testify about these incidents to the parliament.

11. Karroubi stated, in an interview today, that his letter to Rafsanjani had been sent to Hashemi Shahroudi – the Judiciary Chief – who had ordered the contents of the letter be reviewed. Karroubi also added that Dari Najafabadi – Iran’s Attorney General – has contacted them and might send people to Karroubi, to ask him about the allegations of rape and forward that information on to government officials.

Karroubi also criticized government officials – mainly Larejani and Burojerdi – for calling the allegations false without forming a commission to investigate the allegations. He added that even though people’s voices were being forcefully silenced, he would never stop speaking the truth in this matter or other matters.

Karroubi further said that detainees had been tortured to death at Evin and other detention centers. He also added that some prisoners had been forced to take off their clothes and were ‘ridden’ by the guards. (This is like riding a horse or a donkey and is considered an act of extreme disrespect in the Middle East.)

12. There are unconfirmed reports circulating that a number of important members of the Iranian parliament have sent a letter to Rafsanjani asking him to review the 111th article of the constitution. This article concerns the replacement of the Supreme (Iranian Dictator) Leader. The letter alleges that, in his capacity as the Supreme Leader, Khamenei is responsible for the unrests and illegal clamp down on citizens, following the election. Full confirmation is not yet available.

Government / International

13. Ali Larejani today blasted Western countries and said they had interfered in Iran’s internal affairs. He specifically targeted the US and France and called their comments on Iran’s affairs a sign of failed diplomacy. He called upon them to assess the consequences of their actions.

14. PressTV published a report on Khamenei today: [Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei has advised officials to obtain further “insight” to differentiate between friends and foes in the aftermath of the June 12 election. “If I was to give you one advice, it would be for you to increase your insight [into state affairs],” the Leader said in a meeting on July 27, his remarks were released on Wednesday.

Ayatollah Khamenei, meanwhile, urged officials present at the meeting to abandon their personal agendas and set aside their political affiliations to uncover the truth behind the events. “If you do not have deep insight, if you cannot distinguish your friends, if you cannot spot your enemies, then your attacks, dialogue and your actions may target your friends instead of your enemies,” the Leader added.

15. Ahmad Khatami against urged the government to prosecute Mahdi Karroubi for defamation against the regime.

16. Partially confirmed reports indicate that Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad is soon to make a visit to Tehran.

17. Germany summoned the Iranian ambassador to Berlin on Wednesday, to protest against the show trials of 100 people on charges related to the post election protests and unrest. Andreas Peschke, a spokesperson for German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said the action was coordinated with other EU States.

18. AKI – [United Nations human rights experts voiced serious concern on Thursday over accusations of torture and rough interrogation tactics used against protesters jailed during the recent unrest in Iran following its disputed presidential election. “No judicial system can consider as valid a confession obtained as a result of harsh interrogations or under torture,” stressed Manfred Nowak, the UN’s special rapporteur on torture. Nowak said he had brought more than 300 cases of alleged torture and ill-treatment to the attention of Iranian authorities. The allegations came from ex-detainees as well as relatives and lawyers of people still being held, Nowak said. The UN rights experts said they continue to receive reports of people dying in custody, and whose families are given false or contradictory information regarding the cause of death.]

Arrested / Released / Killed

19. Reports indicate, so far, at least three dozen members of Iran’s Artash – the main army besides the IRG – have been arrested during the unrest following the election.

20. The detention of Iranian mountaineer Kazem Faridian has now been confirmed.

21. Kianoosh Asa’s brother Kamran Asa has clarified that their other brother, Daneshvar Asa has not been arrested. According to Kamran, Daneshvar has been interrogated several times, but is still free.

22. Including Hamid Chobineh, reports indicate that about 20 other detainees have been released in the past two days or so. The names of other detainees could not be confirmed at this point.

23. The prosecution of seven Baha’i leaders will commence next week on the 18th. The accused have been imprisoned for months and have limited, to no access to lawyers for their defense. Here is a report on an event from yesterday held in San Francisco to highlight their plight and to the human rights situation in Iran. (Courtesy of @dakster9): Mideast Youth – Thinking Ahead � Evening in Support of Iranian Baha’is in San Francisco

24. Two members of the parliament’s committee to assess the condition of detainees have met with Tajzadeh, Abtahi and Atrianfar. According to one of the members, Farhad Tajari, Tajzadeh is alive and well – contrary to rumors of his death.

25. Lara Setrakian’s report about a victim of rape in Iran’s prisons.
(courtesy of @LaraABCNews): A Protester’s Purported Account of Rape in Detention – larasetrakian

26. Mohsen Armin – a member of the Combatant Clerics Association has released a confession in order to make sure that if he is arrested, any forced confessions obtained from him could be nullified. Full confession: IRAN: Activist issues preemptive retraction of future confession | Babylon & Beyond | Los Angeles Times

27. The Association of Defenders of Human Rights of Iran has released a statement calling all confessions obtained from detainees unreliable and without legal merit.

Miscellaneous

28. Iran has issued a commemorative stamp for Ahmadinejad’s reelection. The stamp bears his likeness and other symbols, including a symbol recognizing 40 million votes.

29. Khamenei’s giant poster, greened by protesters: YouTube – ‫لکه سبزی بر صورت خامنه ای بزرگراه کردستان تهران‬‎

*Correction: Yesterday we erroneously reported that Ali Larejani had personally dismissed that the rape of detainees had occurred in Iranian detention centers. @sp4rrowh4wk corrected the statement and his correction is accurate which I post here:

@sp4rrowh4wk: (Parleman, Fars and others) report [that] he said the committee itself had found no truth to the allegations. He further stated [that] he would turn over the evidence he had (from Karroubi, et al) to the Majlis as a whole, making for a very public investigation of these terrible events. Ali Larijani also asked others to come forward with their evidence many are beginning to do so.

To Helpers

– Thank you for the generous donations to Anonymous to keep their servers running for the month of August.

– Info on republishing the Green Brief: For Bloggers, News Sites and Forum who want to republish the Green Brief Plesae Read! – Why We Protest – IRAN

– Information on Tor: Tor Browser Bundle

– Discuss/Annotate: http://aic.openmsl.net/wiki/index.php/Green_Brief_53; Create it if it doesn’t exist.

– (A list of all the Green Briefs: The Green Briefs

– A hearty thanks to Sahar joon and S joon for helping me out with proof-reading and very valuable tips. Also, a BIG THANKS to all the translators who’re spending their precious time on getting this to as many people as possible.