Human Rights
Jan 4-8, 1999 / Dey 14-18, 1377
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LATEST NEWS ON INVESTIGATIONS INTO RECENT MURDERS IN IRAN... click here
* Khamenei: Inquiry must
go on
* Iran author seeks stay in Norway for security
Recent
* Government under pressure to deepen reform
* Iranian writer seeks asylum in Norway
* Foruhar's children demand international probe
* Secret services badly shaken
* US praises Iran murder arrests
* Iran releases Montazeri backers
* Arrest of secret agents boosts Khatami
* (AUDIO) "Huge blow" to hardliners
* Iran officials arrested in slayings
* Hardline weekly banned
* Low participation mars first local polls
* Writers can organize - Mohajerani
* Banisadr details "terror network"
* Iran rejects outside probe into killings
* Open letter: Human Rights in Iran
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Friday
January 8, 1999
* Khamenei: Inquiry must go on
Jan 8, (BBC) - Iran's spiritual leader has said
the investigation into the killings of dissident politicians and intellectuals
should continue. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei described the killings as part
of a bigger plot by foreigners. He asked how anyone who cares for the Islamic
Republic could kill harmless opponents. He referred to two politicians
who were stabbed to death, Dariush and Parvaneh Foruhar, as former friends
and later opponents who were harmless ... FULL
TEXT ... ALSO AUDIO
OF KHAMENEI'S SPEECH
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* Iran author seeks stay in Norway for security
OSLO, Jan 8 (Reuters) - An Iranian author, two of whose colleagues were
among a number of dissidents recently killed in Iran, is seeking to stay
in Norway, a Norwegian group for freedom of expression said on Friday.
Mansour Koushan, fearing his life could be at risk if he goes back to Tehran,
``will apply for permanent residence in Norway,'' said Carl Morten Iversen,
head of the Norwegian Forum for Freedom of Expression ... FULL
TEXT
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Thursday
January 7, 1999
* Government under pressure to deepen reform
TEHRAN, Jan 7 (AFP) - The admission that Iranian intelligence agents
were involved in the murders of dissidents has shocked the nation and provoked
calls for structural reform of the government, notably the secret services.
The revelations Tuesday that renegade agents at the intelligence ministry
were behind the recent murders of several writers and opposition leaders
have led to a public outcry and highlighted the need for institutional
changes and establishing the rule of law ... FULL
TEXT
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* Iranian writer seeks asylum in Norway
Jan 7, (BBC) - An Iranian writer who went to Norway to attend a conference
on freedom of expression has sought political asylum there. The writer,
Mohammad Ali Kushan, had been invited by the Norwegian Forum for the Freedom
of Speech ... FULL
TEXT
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* Foruhar's children demand international probe
TEHRAN, Jan 7 (AFP) - The son and daughter of Daryush Foruhar, an Iranian
dissident recently murdered along with his wife, insisted on Thursday that
an international investigation be conducted into the murder of their parents.
"It took the intelligence ministry weeks to admit the truth that was
clear to all from the first day," said Arash and Parastu Foruhar in
a statement faxed to AFP ... FULL
TEXT
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Wednesday
January 6, 1999
* Secret services badly shaken by role in murders
TEHRAN, Jan 6 (AFP) - Revelations of the involvement of intelligence
agents in the murders of dissident intellectuals are seen as a blow to
Iran's dreaded secret services and a potential boost to President Mohammad
Khatami's efforts to carry out reforms. In a stunning admission, the intelligence
ministry said Tuesday that "some renegade, irresponsible and misguided
colleagues" carried out the high-profile kidnappings and killings
of several liberal writers early last month. The announcement was welcomed
by others here as a sign of the ministry's "courage," given its
long tradition of secrecy and repeated complaints that the secret services
have overstepped their mandate and acted above the law ... FULL TEXT
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* US praises Iran murder arrests
Jan 6, (BBC) - The United States has welcomed the arrest in Iran of
intelligence agents said to be responsible for the assassination of several
liberal writers and intellectuals. The arrests were announced on Monday
by the Intelligence Ministry, and were praised by Iranian President Mohammed
Khatami. Supporters of the reformist president are now calling for the
resignation of Intelligence Minister Qoorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi ...
FULL
TEXT
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* Iran releases backers of dissident cleric-magazine
TEHRAN, Jan 6 (Reuters) - Iranian authorities have released four backers
of dissident Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri who were detained for protesting
against the senior cleric's house arrest, a weekly magazine reported. The
moderate weekly Aban said Hadi Hashemi, Montazeri's son-in-law, and Abbas
Ali Fateh, an official at the senior cleric' office, were among the freed.
It did not elaborate. Fateh was reportedly held last month along with six
students of Montazeri who had distributed pro-Montazeri leaflets ... FULL
TEXT
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Tuesday
January 5, 1999
* Arrest of secret agents boosts Khatami
TEHRAN, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The admission on Tuesday by Iran's secret
police that its own agents were involved in the murders of dissident intellectuals
marked a stunning victory for President Mohammad Khatami and his campaign
for the rule of law. ``This confirms what many in Iran have long suspected
but no official would say publicly -- that hardline (Islamic) elements
inside the system were involved,'' said one political analyst, who asked
not to be identified ... FULL
TEXT
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* (AUDIO) "Huge blow" to hardliners
BBC Middle East Correspondent Jim Muir says the revelation is a huge
blow to the hardline faction in its current power struggle with the reformers
... REALAUDIO
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* Iran officials arrested in slayings
Tuesday, January 5, 1999, TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran has arrested a number
of Intelligence Ministry officials in the slayings of five dissidents,
the ministry acknowledged Tuesday -- a rare admission of official complicity
in the killings of government opponents. The ministry announced ``with
regret'' that ``a few of our colleagues -- irresponsible, devious and obstinate
persons -- were among those arrested.'' ... FULL
TEXT
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Monday
January 4, 1999
* Hardline weekly banned
TEHRAN, Jan 4 (Reuters) - An Iranian court on Monday banned a hardline
magazine for insulting a late senior Moslem cleric, and a tabloid which
printed pictures of former White House intern Monica Lewinsky, Iran's news
agency IRNA reported. It quoted senior Culture Ministry official Issa Saharkhiz
as saying the special press court had issued the ban against the leading
hardline weekly Shalamcheh for accusing the clergyman of having had ties
to the secret police under Iran's late ruler Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
who was deposed by the 1979 Islamic revolution ... FULL
TEXT
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* Low participation mars first local polls
TEHRAN, Jan 4 (Reuters) - More than 325,000 candidates have applied
to run in Iran's first local elections, but low participation in the countryside
and among women threatens to undermine the democratic experiment, Iranian
analysts said. Interior ministry officials told state television on Monday
327,000 candidates had signed up by the deadline on Sunday to run in the
February 26 polls to about 200,000 seats on city, town and village councils
... FULL
TEXT... Also see HAMSHAHRI'S
POLITICAL SECTION
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* Writers can organize - Mohajerani
Tehran, (Hamshahri) - Writers have a right to set up an association,
says Culture Minister Ataollah Mohajerani ... FULL
TEXT IN PERSIAN
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* Banisar details "terror network"
Jan 3, 1999 - Former president Abolhassan Banisadr has issued
a statement detailing the "terror network" responsible for the
recent wave of murderers of dissidents in Iran... FULL
TEXT
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Iran rejects outside probe into dissident killings
TEHRAN, Jan 1 (Reuters) - Iran's top judge on Friday rejected calls
for an international investigation into killings of Iranian dissident intellectuals,
saying enemies were trying to portray the Islamic republic as an unsafe
country. ``The enemy is trying to pave the way for foreigners to enter
the country and say there is no security here,'' judiciary head Ayatollah
Mohammad Yazdi said in a Friday prayers sermon broadcast on Tehran radio...
FULL
TEXT
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* Open letter: Human Rights in Iran
December 4, 1998, (Alliance for Defense of Human Rights in Iran) The
Islamic Republic of Iran, through the use of systematic terror and intimidation
of opponents has lost its legitimacy to be the representative of the Iranian
people. We believe that the volatile situation in Iran demands immediate
attention by the international community. We are hereby requesting that
the United Nations send a fact-finding mission to Iran to investigate Human
Rights abuses and the political murders in Iran ... FULL
TEXT
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