Saturday, November 25, 2006

Clashes at Tehran Polytechnic

Three students from Amir Kabir university, Abbas Hakimzadeh, Ali Azizi and Majid Tavakoli, staged a sit in at the university entrance today. They were protesting at the decision to ban them from continuing their education. The three are involved with student publications which have been critical of the university management and President Ahmadi-Nejad's government. Their criticisms have resulted in the decision to
ban them from studying at the university.

The campus security threatened to forcefully remove the three students and this resulted in a spontaneous human chain by other students to protect the three. Campus marshals tried to break up the gathering by physically attacking the 200 students who had formed the human chain. One injured student was taken to hospital.



Friday, November 24, 2006

Evil Putin Silences Another Opponent

'...You may succeed in silencing me but that silence comes at a price. You have shown yourself to be as barbaric and ruthless as your most hostile critics have claimed...' from Alexander Litvinenko's last public statement.

Islamic Republic's biggest supporter, President Vladimir Putin, has managed to silence yet another one of his opponents. Will Putin get away with yet another murder, as he did with the invasion of Chechnya and the murder of so many Chechens and so many Russian dissidents and journalists?

Will the likes of Michael Moore, follow up on Litvinenko's claim that Putin deliberately bombed the block of flats in Moscow to justify the full-scale military mobilisation against Chechnya?

Well I recall no marches and no protests by the politically active groups in Europe, against the invasion of Chechnya or any other one of Putin's crimes. I heard no cries by the "anti-war" crowds when the Chechen mountain village of Dzumsoy was razed to the ground and the Russian troops killed every civilian, burned down every house and even spared no cattle.

The inconsistency of the European Left is despicable. The fashionable thing to do for them is to be anti-American and anti-Bush. After all, its safer to be anti-Bush than anti-Putin.

And look at the audacity of the evil Putin, and how he dismisses the accusations against him in a press conference in Helsinky:
"Meanwhile, as far as I know, in the medical report of British doctors, there is no indication that this was an unnatural death. There is none. That means, there is no reason for discussion of that kind. "

Not an unnatural death? Litvinenko's death is now known to have been caused by polonium-210 . High levels of radiation from Polonium-210 have been found in a trail of places last visited by Litvinenko, from the Sushi place in Piccadilly to Barnet Hospital in North London, and Putin claims this was not unnatural death?

My fear now, is how long will it take for Putin's henchmen to teach their colleagues in the Islamic Republic how to use these new methods for eliminating dissidents.

Litvinenko's last public statement finishes by saying :
"You may succeed in silencing one man but the howl of protest from around the world will reverberate, Mr Putin, in your ears for the rest of your life."
Somehow with what I know of the Western media, sadly I doubt this.


Thursday, November 23, 2006

8th Commemoration of Forouhars

last year any public commemorations of the slain Iranian dissidents, Daryoush and Parvaneh Forouhar were banned by the Islamic regime, and so their daughter, Parastoo, held the commemoration in their house. Crowds came to the house and overspilled on to the streets nearby. Large screens displayed the commemoration and pictures of the Forouhars to those in the streets.

This year even a commemoration at the Forouhar's home was banned by the authorities.

Eight years on, the regime is still petrified, even by the memory of the Forouhars and their popularity amongst the people of Iran.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

UCLA Student and Sabzevar Student

The incident of the Iranian student , Mustafa Tabatabaii-nejad, being tazered at UCLA has created a lot of strong feelings amongst some Iranian ex-pats. Mostly the kind of ex-pats who always remain silent about Islamic Republic crimes and bury their heads in the sand and say "I am not political". The sort that stay silent when a pregnant woman is executed in Iran but God forbid if something happens in America, they will be up in arms. In fact at the same time the Iranian-American student was tazered in UCLA, another Iranian student,Towhid Ghafarzadeh Nadi, was murdered in Sabzevar by a Baseej student. His "crime" was that he was talking to his wife at the bus stop and thus he was disturbing the religious sensitivities of devout Muslims!

One of the emails I had from one of such ex-pats said "excessive force was used against some one who at the most was doing a civil disobedience". Civil disobedience against what? against a college rule which stipulates students studying late at the library should show their student ID cards? A rule designed to protect the students from outside intruders. Is that such a bad rule?

The IRI has also jumped on the bandwagon and condemned the human rights abuse of the Iranian-American student at UCLA, along with some other IRI sponsored TV stations in the US.

So far I have not heard an explanation as to why the tazered student at UCLA did not show his ID card and resisted the police when they tried to move him. The courts will decide the rights and wrongs of the incident.Until then I can't have much sympathy with Tabatabaii-nejad or other Iranian ex-pats who are trying to make this a national issue. Instead my sympathies lie with Towhid's wife in Sabzevar who witnessed her husband being murdered at the bus stop over nothing.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Bus Drivers Leader Arrested Again

Mansour Ossanlou, the leader of Iran's bus drivers was once again arrested on Sunday. Ossanlou was walking along with his deputy, Ibrahim Madadi, when they were approached by plain clothes agents. Madadi asked the plain clothes agents for their IDs and arrest warrant, which resulted in the plain clothes agents beating him up.

Ossanlou was huddled into an unmarked car and taken away. Ossanlou's wife was later contacted by officials and notified that her husband was taken to Evin prison.

Ossanlou was released on bail three months ago while his file remained open. His imprisonment sparked off a wave of solidarity actions by other trade unionists across the world, including a protest outside the Iranian embassy in London.

Pro-Islamic Republic Socialist Workers Party in UK, was one of the few left wing organisations which refused to take part in the protests outside the Iranian embassy in London.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

Iranian Refugees in Moscow


I read about the heart wrenching plight of this family on Ardeshir Dolat's weblog. Watching the video of the mother describing the plight of the family is even more disturbing. I curse every day those who have reduced the children of Cyrus to such misery. I have no first hand knowledge of this family. My information comes from Ardeshir Dolat's weblog and the video on youtube. However I do believe that we owe much of our misery to our proximity with the Russians.

When I travel through East Europe, I can still sense the hatred the people of East Europe feel towards the Russians. We too, have much justification to despise the Russians. Ever since their ambitions to reach warm waters of the Persian Gulf, we have suffered from their interference and meddling in our affairs.

It was the Russians who tore away large chunks of Iranian territory from the Greater Iran.
It was Colonel Liakhov, the Russian commander of the Iranian Cossak brigade, along with other Russian officers, who set the artillary fire against the newly formed Iranian parliament. It was the Russians that attempted to quash the constitution and abolish parliamentary government in Iran. It was the Russians that invaded Iran during the WWII and then wanted to tear away Azaerbijan from Iran. It was their puppet Tudeh Party and their co-operation with the clerics in Iran that helped bring about the theocracy in 1979, and ever since then, they have been the biggest supporter of the Islamic Republic. Even when the Islamic Republic turned on the Tudeh Party, the Soviets ignored the plight of their long time lackeys and turned the other way.

So many of our best sons and daughters were tricked by the promise of a Soviet Euthopia, and lost their lives for nothing. Even those Iranian allies of the Soviet politbeaureu who fled to the Soviet Union, suffered enormously at the hands of those who they had once served with such loyalty.

Yet despite all the Russian support for the Islamic Republic, we Iranian ex-pats, never stage demonstrations outside the Russian embassies. Perhaps this heart wrenching video of this Iranian family will remind us of all the misery we have suffered, at the hands of our northern neighbours. Russians have never understood humanity and human rights, no matter who they have in power.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

The Responsiveness of the British Police

While the British Metropolitan police were quick to raid Safa Einollahi's house and suspect him for "terrorist" activities, or shoot Jean-Charles Menendez, the innocent Brazilian, five times in the head, they seem to be some what more lethargic in moving against the real threats against this country.

A group called Vigil, have infiltrated one of the most extremist groups in Britain, the radical al-Muhajiroun group, headed by Omar Bakri Mohammed, yet they claim the British police are just not interested in their evidence.

One academic, who is a member of Vigil, contacted the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist hotline saying he had more than 100 hours of material from the chatroom only to be told to contact his local police station.

"The anti-terrorist office showed no sense of urgency to get this information," he said.

It has also been emerged today that a senior executive officer, Abid Javid, in Immigration and Nationality Directorate which processes tens of thousands of asylum and visa applications every year, is a member of the fundamentalist Islamic group Hizb-ul Tahrir which believes in a worldwide Islamic state under Shariah law.

I have seen tens of genuine asylum applications by bonafide secular Iranian political activists refused by the Home Office, and yet unsavoury characters determined to break up the very fabric of this society keep pouring in. I always suspected infiltration in the Home Office by Islamic radicals and have written about it in the past. Today's news confirms my suspicions.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Ayatollah Taheri's Warning

Ayatollah Taheri, who resigned from leading Friday prayers in Isfahan, four years ago, warned Iranians yesterday that "They want to replace the republic with the khilafat" in the next "Assembly of Experts". In his statement, he clearly referred to Messbah Yazdi, as someone who took no part in the revolution, yet his sect appear to be taking over the entire establishment.

While Khatami still beats the drums of the Islamic Republic during his world tour lectures, Ayatollah Taheri four years ago stated in his resignation letter:
"I could not close my eyes to "tangible realities, and witness the stifling pain and unbearable suffering of people who were seeing the flowers of virtue being trampled, values collapsing, and spirituality being destroyed."
"When I remember the promises and pledges of the beginning of the revolution, I tremble like a willow thinking of my faith
,"

Meanwhile Durham university is in the process of opening a new centre for Shii Studies with financial support from Mesbah Yazdi. An Ayotllah whose statement "If anyone insults the Islamic sanctities, Islam has permitted for his blood to be spilled, no court needed either" made headline news in Iran, is funding a British university!

So far two ex-diplomat/current smuggler/terrorists, who studied at Durham University have been arrested. Professor Anoushirvan Ehteshami, a British-Iranian academic who has been based at Durham for years, is the facilitator for absorbing Islamic Republic officials into Durham university as students.

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Khatami Myth Busters

As expected, ex-Islamic Republic president, Mohammad Khatami, wooed and dazzled some British academics, diplomats, think tanks and church figures with his usual clever ploys of nice smiles and pretty phrases during his UK tour. It is sad to see that after all these failed Khatami years, some in the British establishment, still have such illusions about Khatami.

Below are some points which may help bust those myths.

Myth 1) Khatami himself is a nice person

Khatami did not come from nowhere. You can not be vetted as a presidential candidate by the Guardian Council and not have a history of collaboration.
Before serving as president, Khatami was the Supreme Leader's supervisor in the repressive Kayhan Institute. He was the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance during the repressive years of 1982 - 1986 and then a second term in 1989 - 1992. Khatami was also a member of the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution.

If there is any doubt about Khatami's commitment to the Islamic Republic, perhaps the gullible Western admirers of Khatami should read his public praise for the butcher of Evin, Lajevardi. A vile character who was responsible for the torture and execution of thousands of Iranian political prisoners including pregnant women and children. Yet the nice kind hearted reformist Khatami praised Lajevardi at his funeral, as a "valiant servant of the people and a devoted soldier of Islam."
Khatami also showered similar praises for the maniac hanging judge Ayatollah Khalkhali, the butcher of Kurdistan and a mental case who enjoyed strangling cats for fun.

Nice people do not praise mass killers.


Myth 2) - Khatami was elected by more than 20 million votes

This myth is often regurgitated in a way as if there are normal democratic elections in Iran. The fact is that not everyone can stand as a candidate in IRI elections. The candidates are closely vetted and approved by the people. Iranians were given a choice of 4 approved candidates. Even then the Supreme Leader told the people which one to vote for - Nateq-Nouri, Supreme Leader's favourite candidate. The vote for Khatami by the Iranian people, was their way of showing their disapproval to the Supreme Leader, within the narrow options they had available.

Myth 3) Khatami allowed students to protest against him

This was a myth that was repeated by Khatami himself in several of his lectures during his UK tours. Khatami's audience just did not have the knowledge to challenge him on this. Yet this is so baseless. A massive crackdown followed the student protests in July 1999, where 2000 protesters were arrested in just one day and some long term sentences were handed out to the likes of Ahmad Batebi (15 Years) and Akbar Mohammaadi (12 Years - recently killed while in prison). Khatami however refers to a meeting on Iran's National Student Day, where he was heckled by the students throughout his speech. It is true apart from a few scuffles that happened in the hall, no one was arrested on the day, but they were arrested later!
Names of those who heckled Khatami and were later arrested are known.
See: IranvaJahan Report

Myth 4) - Khatami is a reformist

Western supporters of Khatami always stumble when they get asked to name one single reform set in motion by Khatami. They generally try to attribute a youthful and less revolutionary atmosphere in Iran to Khatami. Yet the truth is that Khatami did not set any reforms in motion.
During the Khatami years, Iran was witnessing a technological revolution in communication and a profound demographic change. More and more Iranians were purchasing satellite dishes, despite the official ban. The internet took off in Iran and became an alternative source of information to the mundane state propaganda. Internet Cafes became part of the youth culture where they would meet and contact each other.

As well as the technological change, there was a demographic change taking place too. Earlier Islamic Republic birth control policies and the 8 year war against the Iraqi aggression, had resulted in a youthful population. 70% of the Iranian population were under 30. They had enough of the Islamic Republic restrictions, empty promises and rhetoric. The youth was at the point of explosion and the regime knew this.

Far from being a reformer, Khatami put the brakes on all the zeal for change in the young population. He disappointed those who had supported him and pinned their hopes on him, time and time again. Khatami failed to stick up for his closest supporters. He failed to safeguard freedom after speech. His eight years in power turned all the enthusiasm of the youthful population, who were hungry for change, into apathy and hopelessness.

If the Iranian women pushed back their scarves even further and wore more colourful clothes, it was not because of Khatami, it was because the clerics could not hold people back. Khatami should not take any credit even for such cosmetic changes.

The reformist parliament which seated Khatami's supporters, failed to pass basic reforms past the veto of the Guardian Council.
Such as:
- Raising the age of marriage for girls in Iran from 9 to 12.
- Allowing unmarried girls to study abroad
- Press liberalisation bill
- Ban on torture

Khatami was no reformist, he was a shrewd trusted establishment figure, who cunningly put the brakes on a society which desperately desired change.

Myth 5) - Khatami stands for inter faith dialogue

The mind boggles at such naive suggestions by some academics and church figures. It is so far from the truth, one wonders at the academic qualifications of those who make such statements. Far from any inter faith dialogue, the Islamic Republic is a religious apartheid, where the rights of citizens are according to their faith or lack of it.

Before I go on to the treatment of other faiths in Iran and during Khatami's presidency, lets just consider the fate of Ayatollah Boroujerdi, who is a high ranking Shiite cleric. Boroujerdi was banned from holding public sermons during Khatami's time. He was arrested with his followers after some bloody clashes outside his house. Boroujerdi's crime is that he wants a non-political Islam. There are many other dissident Shiite clerics in Iran too who are suffering terrible fates because they have not toed the state line.

Khatami lectures his Western audience about inter faith dialogue but he can not even hold a dialogue with the people of his own faith let alone other faiths.

Treatment of other faiths in Iran is even more abysmal. Sunnis Muslims are not even allowed to build a mosque in Tehran.
Sufis in Iran are violently suppressed.
Christian converts are murdered as apostates and the Bahaii are persona non gratis in Iran.

Myth 6) Khatami supports dialogue amongst civilisations

Khatami's concept of dialogue is that he holds nice sermons for selected audiences in the West who are fooled by his smiles and poetry. If Khatami really believed in dialogue, he would have met the two Iranian refugees in London who applied for his arrest because of the horrific tortures they suffered in prison when Khatami was president.

Khatami lectures the West on human rights abuses in Guantanamo etc. yet he fails, and so do his passive audiences, to make the distinction between holding foreign suspected terrorists and detaining your own citizens for just thinking differently from the state sponsored ideology.

When human rights abuses take place in democracies, the media and others write and speak out against such abuses. When such abuses take place in the Islamic Republic of Iran, they are not talked about. When Khatami cleverly dodges the human rights abuses that took place during his time and refers to examples outside Iran, he is not comparing like with like.

Myth 7) Khatami Did not know about human rights abuses during his presidency

This is such a lame excuse and sadly one used by the Metropolitan police who refused to arrest him. It is impossible for Khatami not to have known about human rights abuses in his time, and he is part of the collective responsibility that led all the abuse.

There are numerous cases of human rights abuses which got international publicity during his presidency. Like the case of Iranian born, Canadian photo-journalist, Zahra Kazemi, who was beaten up and raped in prison.

Morris Copithorne's report of human rights abuses in Iran itself shows the tip of the iceberg when it comes to human rights abuses that took place during Khatami's presidency.

Even the non-political abuses of human rights, such as the execution of the 16 year old teenage girl, Atefeh Sahaleh for "crimes against chastity", must have been known to Khatami. These crimes all happened during his 8 years as president.

And surely Khatami should have at least read the horrific letter of conditions in Iran prisons and the extent of torture applied by no less than the head of the judiciary in Iran himself, Ayatollah Shahroodi.

Witness to Zahra Kazemi's Murder is Executed

According to news received from human rights activists in Iran, Madhan Javadolmanshi, one of the prisoners who claimed had witnessed the murder of Iranian born photo-journalist, Zahra Kazemi, was secretly executed back in August this year.

Madhan was in prison for more than 10 years on charges of espionage. One of the political prisoners who met Madhan in prison, said Madhan told him, he had heard two of the prison guards by the names of Moussa and Niazi, take part in the horrific beating of Zahra Kazemi, which led to her death.
He claimed to have heard Zahra Kazemi repeatedly plead with the guards during her ordeal, not to hit her on the head.

Latest on Batebi

After the missed opportunity to save Ahmad Batebi by the St.Andrews Association who were unwilling to take a single step in solidarity with a jailed fellow student, the suffering of Ahmad Batebi and his family continues.

Batebi was shortly allowed 48 hours leave from prison before Khatami received an honorary PHD from St. Andrews. Ahmad Batebi's family had to come up with property title deeds worth more than £100K as bail money for his brief leave from prison. Yet after Batebi's return to prison, he is still kept in solitary confinement and his demands to be transferred to section 305 of Evin prison along with other political prisoners has been ignored. The authorities have also refused to release the bail money put up by Batebi's family, despite his return to prison.

Batebi's wife, Somayeh Beinat, has also been threatened with imprisonment if she continues to talk publicly about her husband's situation.

History will remember a spineless St. Andrews Association President, Tom D'Ardenne, who refused to stand up for a student colleague serving 15 years jail for lifting a bloody T-shirt of a comrade in a rally during Khatami's presidency. Instead the president who endorsed the arrest of 2000 students in one day got an honorary PHD from St. Andrews university with the full backing of the university association.

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Welcoming the Belarus President

Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said that Iran's nuclear program is peaceful and doesn't aim to produce atomic weapons.

Photo shows Iranian judiciary minister rushing through to welcome President Lukashenko, while taking care not to mess up the line up in the guard of honour for President Lukashenko.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Reply to Laura Rozen

I have been meaning to reply to Laura Rozen's article against Fakhravar in motherjones.com, but just haven't had time until now.

I actually think Laura Rozen is not so much against Fakhravar himself, but just wants to have a dig at the neo-cons. Callously for Rozen, Fakhravar for her, just happens to be a dispensable casualty. After all Fakhravar is not fighting American imperialism, he is just a pro-democracy activist who wants the same rights for his nation that Laura Rozen has got. I do not understand why Rozen is jealous of this?

Rozen dismisses Fakhravar's claims that he was on the shortlist for a literary prize, the Paulo Coelho award, and says there is no evidence that such an award exists—a point first raised on the blog “Moon of Alabama”. By the way the blog of "Moon of Alabama" has also been quoted by Hossein Derakhshan (Hoder). Again I don't think there is any doubt for any genuine Iranian activist that Hoder is an Islamic Republic agent, who has managed to fool many anti-Neo-Con people like Rozen. Just do a search on Hoder on this blog to see how time and time again Hoder has defended the Islamic regime and tried to stain Iranian dissidents from Ganji to Jahanbegloo. By the way its very easy to gain the trust of the likes of Laura Rozen, just put on an intellectual gesture, say a few words against Bush and neo-cons, and hey Bob's your uncle or Laura is your auntie as the case may be here.
Any way Rozen is wrong that this prize does not exist, here is the Paulo Coelho award that Rozen so adamantly says does not exist. I have checked Fakhravar's claims for having been shortlisted for the prize and that the publishing house has exclusive rights on Persian translations of Paulo Coelho's books in Iran. I just hope none of the people there get in trouble because of Rozen's lack of initiative to dig for truth.

Rozen then mentions Ahmad Batebi, having distanced himself from Fakhravar on his blog. Rozen may not know this, but detained dissidents in Iran have often appeared on state TV, to recant after having suffered extreme duress. For Iranians, these forced confessions no longer have any credibility. We all know the human tolerance for pain and deprivation is limited, what matters is not what people are forced to say under duress but what they said when they were free to say. Rozen and her comfortable armchair revolutionaries just do not seem to grasp this. They think dissidents in despotic countries have the same freedom as her in expressing their true opinions.

Lastly Rozen tries to go for Fakhravar's jugular by quoting Nasrin Mohammadi. Fakhravar has pictures of himself with Nasrin's brother, Akbar Mohammadi, another victim of the Islamic Republic, and yet another Iranian dissident whom Rozen never tried to publicise his plight while he was still alive and resisting the Islamic regime's henchmen. When I was in US, Nasrin rang Fakhravar on his mobile. Fakhravar was helping her other brother Manouchehr while he was stranded in Turkey. Fakhravar was too humble to even mention the Rozen article to Nasrin, so I grabbed the phone from him and asked Nasrin myself. I have known Nasrin ever since her brothers were imprisoned. Nasrin was in so much distress because of Rozen's article and swore to me that the email about Fakhravar to Rozen was never sent by her.

In fact today, she copied me on her email to Rozen, which prompted me to find time and finally reply to Rozen. See email below.

Finally my last words to Laura Rozen and the likes of her in the West is this. I understand you are anti neo-con, Perle and Bush etc. This is your privilige which living in a democracy entitles you to, but why try to sacrifice our comrades who have suffered so much? And if you do not want the Iranian pro-democracy activists to associate themselves with the neo-cons, then try to help them yourselves. Win them over, write about their plight, mention the brutality of the religious apartheid in Iran. Until that happens, I can't blame Iranian activists for accepting help from wherever it comes.
I remember an ANC military official was once put under pressure for accepting funds and arms from Communist countries. The ANC guy did not deny it, he said "Their help is enabling us to fight Apartheid, if you help us we will gladly accept your help too."

Nassrin's email to Laura Rozen which I was copied on:

"Hi Laura
Iam writing to you about an article published in Mother Jones against Fakhravar.
You wrote something on my behalf.
I would like to inform you that my E-mail was hacked and is destroyed. those are not from me.
Those are not my words.
Please call me at --- if you have any questions

with respect
Nasrin Mohammdi
"

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Inter Faith Dialogue



While Khatami dazzled and wooed some of the British academics, think tanks, diplomats and journalists with his lovely words about inter faith dialogue, Iran's Ministry of Interior has ordered officials throughout the country to step up the surveillance of Iranian Baha'is focusing in particular on their community activities.


The Ministry has requested provincial officials to complete a detailed questionnaire about the circumstances and activities of local Baha'is, including their "financial status," "social interactions," and "association with foreign assemblies," among other things.

Over the last two years, at least 129 Baha'is have been arrested, released on bail, and are now awaiting trial throughout the country. The bail demands have been high, in most cases requiring the Baha'is to hand over considerable sums of money, deeds to property, business or work licenses.


See translation of the document.

28 Murdád 1385 [19 August 2006]
Islamic Republic of Iran
Number: 70878/43
Ministry of the Interior

In the Name of God

To the honourable political-security deputies of the offices of the Governors’ General of the country

Greetings,

Respectfully, we have received reports that some of the elements of the perverse sect of Bahaism are attempting to teach and spread the ideology of Bahaism, under the cover of social and economic activities. In view of the fact that this sect is illegal and that it is exploited by international and Zionist organizations against the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, we therefore ask you to order the relevant offices to cautiously and carefully monitor and manage their [the Bahá’ís’] social activities. In addition, complete the requested information on the enclosed form and forward it to this office for its use by 15 Shahrívar [6 September 2006].

Siyyid Muḥammad-Riḍa Mavválízádih [Seyyed Mohammad-Reza Mavvalizadeh]
Director of the Political Office
[Signature]

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

British Police Try to Arrest the Plaintiff Against Khatami

British police today tried to arrest Safa Einollahi as soon as he arrived to join other protesters against Khatami outside Chatham House, but other protesters fought with the police and prevented them from taking Safa away.

Safa is one of the two Iranian refugees who had applied to the Met Police to have Khatami arrested under Section 134 of the Criminal Justice Act 1998. This Act requires the arrest of any individual, regardless of nationality, where there is evidence that they committed, condoned or colluded with acts of torture. The legislation has a universal jurisdiction, and therefore covers torture committed by Iranians against Iranians in Iran. Section 134, which incorporates the UN Convention Against Torture 1984 into UK law, also holds high state officials responsible if they fail to stop torture.

Safa was arrested and detained in 1999 during the student protests in Iran. During his arrest, Safa was raped by bottle on two occasions. As a result of such inhumane acts, Safa suffers from long term physical and pscychological injuries.

In a more sinister move, the Metroplitan police also entered Safa's house last night and interrogated him. Asking him questions like "What other friends do you have in Britain who were previously detained in Iran."

Sue Wilkinson from the Metropolitan Police, yesterday replied to the application made by Sabi & Associates lawyers who were acting on behalf of the two Iranian refugees and refused to issue an arrest warrant saying there was insufficient evidence that Khatami personally committed such acts of torture or ordered them to be conducted.

Khatami has not attempted any dialogue with the two refugees who suffered such horrific treatments during his presidency, while on his UK tour.

Extending Love Profusely

"One can live within the religious, geographical and political borders but they must extend love profusely.

"Borderless friendship will save the whole world." - Khatami at St. Andrews

The above sound bites were said by Khatami in his speech at St. Andrews. I am so fed up answering all the silly points raised in defence of Khatami by gullible stupid people that I can not even be bothered to write about them any more. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Below are two pictures of the reality in Iran. Here is what happens to love in a park in Iran, this is what happens when love is extended on a park bench, before it is given a chance to be extended beyond borders. A simple cuddle on a park bench leads to interrogation and arrest.