January 13
Iran hands down jail terms over controversial German conference
TEHRAN, Jan 13 (AFP) - Iran on Saturday handed down long jail terms
to several leading reformists over an "un-Islamic" conference
in Germany that prosecutors charged was aimed at overthrowing the clerical
regime. The verdict will surely further strain relations with Germany,
Iran's largest trading partner, as German press reports said Chancellor
Gerhard Schroeder had called off a planned visit to the Islamic republic
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Akbar Ganji gets 10 years in prison
TEHRAN, Jan 13 (AFP) - Journalist Akbar Ganji has been sentenced to
10 years in prison and a further five years of exile from Tehran for attending
an "un-Islamic" political conference in Germany, sources told
AFP Saturday. Interpreters Said Sadr and reformist Khalil Rostam-Khani,
were given 10 and nine years respectively for attending the conference
last April, a family of one of the accused said >>>
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Iran Journalist Sentenced to Prison
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran's leading investigative journalist has been
sentenced to 10 years in jail and five years in internal exile for attending
a conference in Germany that authorities said harmed Iran's image, his
lawyer said Saturday. Journalist Akbar Ganji was among 16 people tried
on charges of ``undermining Iran's security'' for participating in the
conference last year on reforms in Iran. >>>
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Schroeder not planning to visit Iran, govt says
BERLIN, Jan 13 (Reuters) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder does
not have concrete plans to visit to Iran following President Mohammed Khatami's
state visit to Germany last year, a spokeswoman said on Saturday. The
spokeswoman declined to comment on a report in the German news magazine
Der Spiegel saying Schroeder had cancelled for the time being a proposed
trip to Iran in the spring because of a controversial trial in Iran against
pro-reform activists >>>
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Female newspaper chief given two-year work-ban
TEHRAN, Jan 13 (AFP) - Tehran's press court issued a two-year work ban
on Fatemeh Farahmandpour, director of the now-banned reformist Gounagoun
weekly, the official IRNA news agency reported Saturday. Farahmandpour,
who was informed of the court's verdict Thursday, said as her "biggest"
protest that she would refuse to file an appeal >>>
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Schroeder decides against Iran visit: magazine
BERLIN, Jan 13 (AFP) - German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder has decided
against a visit to Iran this spring because of the unfavourable political
climate, the weekly Der Spiegel reports in its latest edition, which goes
on sale Monday. Germany has recently made several protests to Tehran over
the prosecution of people who took part in a conference last April in Berlin,
which Tehran deemed "un-Islamic." >>>
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Trial ends for 1998 dissident murders, verdict due in two weeks
TEHRAN, Jan 13 (AFP) - A Tehran military court on Saturday wound up
the trial of 18 intelligence agents charged with the 1998 murders of several
dissidents, state radio reported. Defence lawyers now have until Thursday
to present a final defence of their clients, all but two of whom have admitted
some role in the murders. The court will then issue a verdict within a
week and inform the defendants by January 27, it said >>>
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January 12
Lawyer for murder victims' families reported out on bail
TEHRAN, Jan 12 (AFP) - The lawyer for the families of two murdered Iranian
dissidents, who was jailed for alleging that a series of killings at the
end of 1998 were part of a wider plot, has been freed on bail, a student
news agency said. Nasser Zarafshan, who represented the relatives of murdered
writers Mohammed Mokhtari and Mohammad Pouyandeh, was released Wednesday
on bail of 400 million rials (60,000 dollars), the ISNA agency reported
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January 11
Columnist sentenced to eight months in prison
TEHRAN, Jan 11 (AFP) - Satirical journalist Ebrahim Nabavi has been
sentenced to eight months in prison by Tehran's press court, the government
daily Iran reported Thursday. Nabavi was accused by the court of "publishing
lies, insults against officials of the regime and unfounded accusations"
against them >>>
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January 10
Court calls ex-intelligence chief over 1998 dissident murders
TEHRAN, Jan 10 (AFP) - Former intelligence minister has been summoned
to court as an "informed person" in the trial of 18 secret agents
for the 1998 murders of several dissidents, press reports said Wednesday.
Ali Fallahian, who headed the ministry from 1993 to 1997 under then-president
Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, has been asked to answer questions over the killings,
the pro-reform Hambastigi paper said >>>
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January 9
Murder defendants all secret agents: official
TEHRAN, Jan 9 (AFP) - All 18 defendants on trial for the 1998 murders
of several Iranian dissidents and intellectuals are intelligence agents,
Iranian TV on Tuesday quoted Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi as saying.
"All of them belong to the intelligence service and their faces will
not be made public," he said, the first time an Iranian official has
publicly confirmed all 18 are linked to the secret service.
January 8
Iran militants say secret agents tortured in jail
TEHRAN, Jan 8 (Reuters) - A group of Islamic militants have accused
senior clerics close to Iran's supreme leader of involvement in the cover-up
of alleged torture against secret agents involved in the serial murders
of dissidents >>>
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15 ex-agents plead guilty
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Fifteen former Iranian Intelligence Ministry agents
on trial for the murders of four government critics have pleaded guilty,
a newspaper reported Monday. The two other defendants denied direct involvement
in the killings after nine sessions of the closed-door trial, the reformist
daily Hambastegi said >>>
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No verdict yet in trial of reformists over "un-Islamic"
meeting
TEHRAN, Jan 8 (AFP) - Defence lawyers said Monday the verdict from a
Tehran revolutionary court on Iranian reformists who attended a controversial
"un-Islamic" conference in Germany has been postponed. The court
has said the meeting, attended by several allies of President Mohammad
Khatami, was aimed at overthrowing the clerical regime, meaning those convicted
could be facing long jail terms or worse >>>
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January 6
Amputations should halt until economy is fixed: Iran paper
TEHRAN, Jan 6 (AFP) - A conservative Iranian daily urged Saturday that
amputating the fingers of thieves, as called for under Iran's Islamic law,
be called off until the nation's struggling economy is repaired. "The
worsening economic situation is imposing a heavy burden on low-income families,"
the Tehran Times said in an editorial which comes after reports of three
such punishments in recent days >>>
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January 4
Suspect in Iran serial murder case says not guilty
TEHRAN, Jan 4 (Reuters) - A defendant in Iran's serial murder trial
has denied active participation in the murders of dissidents in 1998, newspapers
reported on Thursday. Iraj Amouzegar, the 11th of 18 defendants to stand
trial, is the only one so far to deny involvement in the string of murders
that shocked Iran, the newspaper Hayat-e No reported >>>
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January 3
Three more defendants confess in trial of 1998 murders
TEHRAN, Jan 3 (AFP) - Three more defendants confessed at a closed-door
trial Wednesday to involvement in the shock 1998 murders of dissidents
which were blamed on "rogue" intelligence agents, state radio
said. Four defendants were heard Wednesday by Tehran's military tribunal,
three of whom confessed to abetting the murders of Mohammad-Djafar Pouyandeh,
Mohammad-Ali Mokhtari, as well as those of Daryuah Foruhar and his wife
Parvaneh Eskandari, radio added >>>
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January 2
Four more defendants confess in murders trial
TEHRAN, Jan 2 (AFP) - Four more defendants confessed in court Tuesday
to involvement in the 1998 assassinations of several dissidents and intellectuals
blamed on "rogue" secret agents, state radio reported. Three
admitted to personally carrying out some of the murders and a fourth said
he had supervised the killing of nationalist opposition leader Dariush
Forouhar and his wife Parvaneh, it said >>>
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Ganji to be moved to another cell block after murder of cellmate
TEHRAN, Jan 2 (AFP) - A judge has agreed to transfer prominent journalist
Akbar Ganji from the cell block for common criminals to another block after
his cellmate was murdered last week, a press report said Tuesday. "With
the agreement of press court judge Said Mortazavi, Ganji will soon be transferred
to another cell block," the Aftabe-Yazd paper said >>>
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