February 25
U.S. State Department human report on Iran
February 25, 2000 (U.S. State Department) -- The [Iranian] government's
human rights record remained poor; although efforts within society to make
the Government accountable for its human rights policies intensified, serious
problems remain. The Government restricts citizens' right to change their
government. Systematic abuses include extrajudicial killings and summary
executions; disappearances; widespread use of torture and >>>
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February 23
* Khamenei pardons students jailed for "blasphemous" play
TEHRAN, Feb 23 (AFP) - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
has pardoned two students jailed for publishing an allegedly blasphemous
play in a university magazine, press reports said Monday >>>
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February 21
* Iran upholds death sentence on student leader in riots
TEHRAN, Feb 21 (AFP) - Iran's courts have upheld the death sentence
on a student leader found guilty of instigating deadly riots in Tehran
last year, a newspaper reported Monday. The courts upheld the sentence
against Akbar Mohammadi, one of three students sentenced to die for their
role in July's disturbances, the Asr-e-Azadegan paper said.
February 17
* Karbaschi puts new paper on streets
TEHRAN, Feb 17 (AFP) - A new daily established by the capital's former
mayor, Gholamhossein Karbaschi, hit the streets of Iran Thursday, on the
eve of crucial parliamentary elections. "Who will the people vote
for tomorrow?" read the banner headline of Ham-Mihan (Compatriot),
leaning clearly towards support of the moderate centrists of the Executives
of Construction party, which Karbaschi heads >>>
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February 15
* BBC radio programmes 'jammed' in Iran
LONDON, Feb 15 (AFP) - The BBC World Service is accusing the Iranian
authorities of jamming some of its Persian language programmes in Iran
ahead of Friday's legislative elections. Farsi radio Director Bakir Moin,
pointed the finger at "certain conservative forces" for interfering
with the BBC's programmes since the beginning of February and making them
inaudible or running a different radio station on the BBC's wavelength
>>>
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February 14
* Bomb attack at house of Iran's ex-intelligence chief: paper
TEHRAN, Feb 14 (AFP) - A bomb attack rocked the home of former Iranian
intelligence chief Ali Fallahian, who is a conservative candidate in this
week's parliamentary elections, overnight Sunday, a newspaper said here
Monday >>>
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February 13
* Reform paper back on newsstands
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - A newspaper returned to newsstands Saturday after
a self-imposed weeklong suspension meant to calm anger generated by its
political cartoons satirizing a cleric. Azad newspaper published cartoons
last month that depicted hard-line cleric Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi as a crocodile
and a fat thug, sparking three days of protests. The reformist newspaper
apologized, saying the cartoons were not intended to be offensive >>>
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February 10
* Karbaschi to launch new daily on eve of elections
TEHRAN, Feb 10 (AFP) - The former mayor of Tehran, a close ally of President
Mohammad Khatami who was jailed for corruption, said Thursday he will launch
a new newspaper on the eve of next week's elections. Gholamhossein Karbaschi,
whose tenure as the capital's mayor ended with a prison sentence that other
reformers alleged was a political frame-up, said his new daily would debut
next Thursday, the day before the polls >>>
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* Cartoonist freed on bail after court appearance
TEHRAN, Feb 10 (AFP) - An Iranian newspaper cartoonist held on charges
of insulting a prominent religious conservative was ordered freed on bail
Thursday after he appeared before a judge of the press court, his lawyer
said. Nik Ahangh-Kosar of the reformist newspaper Azad, was remanded in
custody in Evin prison on the orders of Judge Said Mortazavi on February
5 after his cartoons stirred a storm of protests from conservatives
>>>
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February 9
* Head of Iranian reformist daily hospitalised with "mental
troubles"
TEHRAN, Feb 9 (AFP) - The director of a reformist daily who was due
to appear in court Wednesday accused of publishing "insulting"
cartoons of a leading cleric has been taken to hospital with "mental
troubles," Tehran court officials said. The lawyer of Mohammad-Reza
Yazdapanah Fadai, director of Azad, gave the court a medical certificate
saying Fadai had gone into Iranmehr hospital for "mental trouble and
depression" on Tuesday >>>
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February 7
* Iran reformers hit back at conservative cleric with defamation
action
TEHRAN, Feb 7 (AFP) - Iran's reformers hit back Monday at a conservative
cleric who is the complainant in a libel prosecution against a leading
cartoonist, demanding that he too be dragged before the courts for slandering
them in his sermons >>>
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February 6
* Culture minister insists he has no plans to quit
TEHRAN, Feb 6 (AFP) - Iran's Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani, who
has been the focus of a major protest campaign by religious demonstrators
over a newspaper cartoon, said Sunday he had no plans to step down >>> FULL
TEXT
February 4
* Iran students vow to keep up protest until culture minister sacked
QOM, Iran, Feb 4 (AFP) - Several hundred Iranian theology students vowed
Friday they would not end their sit-in at a mosque here until the government's
moderate pro-reform culture minister is removed from office. The students,
who began gathering at the university mosque in the holy city of Qom on
Wednesday night, are demanding the dismissal of Culture Minister Ataollah
Mohajerani over a newspaper's caricatures of one of their teachers >>> FULL
TEXT
February 3
* Religious students protest at newspaper cartoons
TEHRAN, Feb 3 (AFP) - Some 1,000 Iranian theological students demonstrated
Thursday in the holy city of Qom after a reformist newspaper published
cartoons which they said ridiculed one of their teachers, press reports
said. The demonstrators marched from the theological college to the city's
main mosque, calling for the resignation of reformist Culture Minister
Ataollah Mojerani, whom they blamed for the "cultural depravity"
of the country >>>
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