Maryam Rajavi’s statement on Montazeri’s tape recording about Iran’s 1988 massacre

Maryam Rajavi; Mr. Montazeri’s Tape a Testament to Mojahedin’s steadfastness and to Regime Leaders’ Responsibility for Crimes Against Humanity

Maryam Rajavi : Tape recording of Mr. Montazeri’s Meeting with Those Responsible for Mass Executions of Political Prisoners is a Testament to Mojahedin’s Refusal to Surrender and to Regime Leaders’ Responsibility for Crimes Against Humanity
Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the Iranian Resistance, described the audio recording of a meeting between Mr. Montazeri, then successor to Khomeini, and those responsible for the mass executions of 30,000 political prisoners in 1988 as a historical document.
She said the recording attested in the strongest possible manner both to the Mojahedin (PMOI/MEK) political prisoners’ rejection of surrender and to their admirable allegiance to, and perseverance in, their commitment to the Iranian people. The recording is also irrefutable evidence that leaders of the mullahs’ regime are responsible for crimes against humanity and the unprecedented genocide, Mrs. Rajavi said.
Khamenei, whose name is mentioned in the remarks made by the members of the “death commission” in this very meeting, openly declared his support for the mass executions that same year, and in the 28 years since has maintained close ties with the murderous officials who carried them out. He is a mastermind of these atrocities, and must be made to answer to the Iranian people and put on trial, she said.
She said: Mr. Montazeri, himself a founder and ideologue of the principle of velayat-e-faqih (absolute rule of the clergy), emphasizes in the recording, “The Iranian people are repulsed by the velayat-e-faqih” and “later will say that Agha (referring to Khomeini) was bloodthirsty and brutal figure.” His statements attest to the illegitimacy of the ruling regime from the 1980s, to the people’s repugnance towards the velayat-e-faqih, and to the righteousness of the resistance to overthrow that regime.
Mrs. Rajavi said: Montazeri’s remarks addressed to the four members of the ‘death commission’ that this massacre was “the greatest crime committed during the Islamic Republic,” and the four officials’ acknowledgement that they were in the process of massacring the Mojahedin political prisoners and planning how to continue this atrocity, leave no room for doubt that the actions of these four men and many other leaders of the regime involved in these atrocities are, by any measure or definition, a crime against humanity.
She added: The international community, therefore, is obligated to bring them to justice. In particular because these four individuals and the others who carried out the massacre of political prisoners referred to in this meeting have, from the beginning of this regime to the present day, held posts at the highest levels of the judicial, political and intelligence apparatuses. At present, Mostafa Pourmohammadi is Hassan Rouhani ’s Minister of Justice. Hossein-Ali Nayyeri is the current head of the Supreme Disciplinary Court for Judges. And Ebrahim Raeesi is among the regime’s most senior clerics and the head of the Astan Qods-e Razavi foundation (a multi-billion dollar religious, political and economic conglomerate and one of the most important political and economic powerhouses in the clerical regime).
Mrs. Rajavi said: Montazeri’s affirmation that the Intelligence Ministry had for some time been investing in the mass executions and that Ahmad Khomeini (Khomeini’s son) had “been saying for three or four years, ‘The Mojahedin, even the ones who read their newspaper, to the ones who read their magazine, to the ones who read their statements – all of them must be executed’” are further evidence of the reality that the mass executions of 1988 were a premeditated crime against humanity. This rules out absurd assertions by the ruling regime and its toadies, who have tried to relate the executions to the Mojahedin’s Eternal Light military operation and thus blame the organization for this odious crime, she stressed.
The discussion with the members of the death commission took place on August 15, 1988, less than three weeks after the executions had begun. It reaffirms the horrifically high number of execution victims and refutes all of the regime’s deceptive ploys to downplay the extent of this crime. Montazeri in one instance says, “In the (cities’) prisons, they have done everything imaginable… and in Ahwaz it was really horrendous.”
Mrs. Rajavi emphasized: Montazeri’s statements, such as his description of the execution of a 15-year-old girl and of a pregnant woman in Isfahan, as well as the statements by the executioners in the meeting reveal the extent of the ruling regime’s ruthlessness and vengeance against the Mojahedin women and their glorious resistance. Addressing these murderers, Montazeri says, “I reminded Khomeini that according to the decrees of most religious scholars, a woman, even if she is a mohareb (enemy of God) must not be executed. But he did not agree, and said that women, too, must be executed.”
In the audio recording, one of the members of the death commission reveals: “As for the girls, God is my witness as far as we could, we tried to bargain with them. I have very strong nerves, but day before yesterday when I saw only one of them ……. I was really devastated. I started pleading with her to just write a couple of lines and we would send her back to the prison.”
Mrs. Rajavi saluted all the victims of the 1988 massacre, particularly the women and girls who frustrated the regime with their heroic resistance. She said: They paid the price of standing loyal to the cause of freedom and equality. And there is no doubt that tomorrow's free Iran will indeed blossom from their glorious sacrifice. This is a future which will be unquestionably realized.
She also hailed members and supporters of the Iranian Resistance and all freedom-loving Iranians who have participated for several weeks in worldwide campaigns to honor the 28th anniversary of the massacre of political prisoners in Iran and to spread the message of those gallant freedom fighters both in Iran and abroad.
Mrs. Rajavi called on all Iranians, especially Iranian youths, to demand justice for the victims of the 1988 massacre. This, she said, is a nationalist and patriotic duty and part of the Iranian people's struggle for regime change in Iran and to restore the Iranian people's right to political determination, a right that the clerical regime attempted to fiercely destroy with the 1988 massacre.
She added: Khamenei and his regime have concealed all the information and details of this crime. They must be compelled to publicly announce the complete list of names of those massacred and the locations of their graves and mass graves, one by one.
Mrs. Rajavi emphasized: As far as the Iranian people are concerned, they will never give up on their demand for the prosecution of each and every one of the regime's leaders involved in this massacre, no matter how many years it takes. The United Nations and the UN Security Council must make the necessary political and legal arrangements for the international prosecution of the regime's leaders for this crime against humanity.

AI: Iran regime's denial of medical care to political prisoners is cruel and utterly indefensible

Iran is putting political prisoners lives at risk by denying them medical care

Amnesty International: Iran’s authorities are callously toying with the lives of prisoners of conscience and other political prisoners by denying them adequate medical care, putting them at grave risk of death, permanent disability or other irreversible damage to their health, according to a new report by Amnesty International published today.
The report, Health taken hostage: Cruel denial of medical care in Iran’s prisons, provides a grim snapshot of health care in the country’s prisons. It presents strong evidence that the judiciary, in particular the Office of the Prosecutor, and prison administrations deliberately prevent access to adequate medical care, in many cases as an intentional act of cruelty intended to intimidate, punish or humiliate political prisoners, or to extract forced “confessions” or statements of “repentance” from them.
 “In Iran a prisoner’s health is routinely taken hostage by the authorities, who recklessly ignore the medical needs of those in custody. Denying medical care to political prisoners is cruel and utterly indefensible,” said Philip Luther, Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme.
“Prisoners’ access to health care is a right enshrined in both international and Iranian law. When depriving a prisoner of medical care causes severe pain or suffering and it is intentionally done for purposes such as punishment, intimidation or to extract a forced ‘confession’, it constitutes torture.”
The report details 18 appalling cases of prisoners who have been denied medical care in some form and are at risk of suffering permanent damage to their health.
 Prisoners subjected to a shocking range of abuses
The report provides a deeply disturbing image of the Office of the Prosecutor, which in Iran is responsible for decisions concerning medical leave and hospital transfers. The Office of the Prosecutor often refuses to authorize hospital transfers for sick prisoners even though the care they need is not available in prison, and denies requests for medical leave for critically ill prisoners against doctors’ advice.

Syrian opp.: Assad regime and Iran stoking sectarianism in the region

Hijab says Assad regime has evaded from discussing political transition during UN-mandated talks in Geneva

ANKARA- UN-brokered talks at resolving the six-year conflict in Syria have reached a dead end due to refusal of the Syrian regime to discuss political transition in the country, an opposition negotiator said.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency, Riad Hijab said that the Bashar al-Assad regime has evaded from discussing political transition during recent UN-mandated talks in Geneva.
“With every round of negotiations, the regime begins to escalate its bombardment and commit massacres against the [Syrian] people,” said Hijab, the coordinator of the High Committee of the Syrian opposition in negotiations.
Hijab said that the Syrian opposition has suspended its participation in the UN talks due to massacres committed by the regime against Syrian civilians.
“Any return to the negotiations would require creating a favorable climate, which currently does not exist,” he said.
“The Syrian people are still suffering,” he said, citing a recent escalation in attacks by the Assad regime.
“We have seen an unprecedented escalation by the regime and its allies Iran and Russia against the Syrian people, using banned weapons as phosphor and napalm bombs,” he said.
Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since 2011, when the Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.
Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.
UN-mandated talks between the Syrian regime and opposition to look into ways of resolving the six-year conflict collapsed in late April.
UN envoy Staffan de Mistura said on Thursday that the international body will not hold another round of Syrian talks until both sides agree the parameters for a political transition deal, which has an August 1 deadline.
'I have informed the Security Council just a few days ago ... The time is not yet mature for the official third round of the intra-Syrian talks,' de Mistura said.
Hijab further accused the Assad regime and allied Iran of stoking sectarianism in the region.
He also criticized attempts by Russia – which began airstrikes against Assad’s opponents in September -- to designate the opposition Jaish al-Islam and Ahrar al-Sham groups as “terrorist” organizations.
“The two groups are defending the rights of the Syrian people and are working to remove the regime,” he said, going on to call on the international community to “show a real resolve to guarantee political transition” in Syria.
Source: Anadolu Agency, 13 June 2016

Iran regime’s crackdown on teachers, activists major concern for British MPs MPs

 

British peers and MPs have expressed deep concern about the crackdown on teachers and union activists by the mullahs' regime in Iran.

The all- party British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom (BPCIF) in a May 26 statement said it is 'extremely concerned' over the recent arrest and detention, under fraudulent national security charges, of teacher activists in Iran for their peaceful political activism to fight for their improved livelihood.

The British lawmakers in particular condemned the harsh sentences against Jafar Azimzadeh, Mahmoud Beheshti Langaroudi, and Ismail Abdi who have been sentenced to long prison terms, merely for their peaceful activities to secure better wages and living-conditions for Iranian teachers and workers.

'We warn that these prisoners of conscience are in a serious health condition due to their hunger strike in protest to their unjust sentences along with the Iranian authorities' ill-treatment and harassment of their families, fellow teachers, workers, and union members,' the BPCIF said in its statement.

'The notion that advocacy and peaceful activities meant to improve the livelihood of Iranian teachers and workers constitute acts against national security is not only ridiculous but appalling. Such a claim by the Iranian authorities can only be interpreted as silencing legitimate demands and social dissents under the pretext of national security.'

These repressive measures coincide with a recent warning by a group of United Nations Human Rights experts “that over a dozen political prisoners in Iran, including some prominent human rights defenders are at risk of death in detention due to their worsening health conditions and the continued refusal by the Iranian authorities to provide them with medical treatment.” The Iranian authorities’ rationale for withholding treatment to these prisoners is unacceptable especially since these prisoners “allegedly have been arrested, detained and convicted purely for their peaceful exercise of their fundamental freedoms and rights.”

The UK Parliamentarians joined the UN experts in reiterating the situation of political prisoners and activists.

The British Parliamentary Committee for Iran Freedom BPCIF called for the immediate release of political prisoners in Iran.

It urged the UK government and the relevant UN bodies to condemn the Iranian regime's extensive use of national security charges to silence legitimate opposition and popular dissent. 'This in turn will pressure the Iranian authorities to release all political prisoners and respect the Iranian people's right to freedom of expression, assembly, and peaceful protests.'

Iran-Prominent political activist recounts the torment she had to go through during her hospitalization under torture

Mrs. Nargess Mohammadi, Vice-President of the Human Rights League, Tehran

Extracted from her letter to Tehran prosecutor:

On October 5, I reported for inspection before being sent to hospital. I told the female guard that I would probably have to undergo echography for my heart; so, please don’t come behind the partition when I take off my clothes. She said, “No. We must come.” I asked her to go with me to the colonel so that we could resolve the issue, but the colonel was not in. I explained the situation to his deputy and I said it was not morally and religiously proper to do so. The person in charge of sending me to hospital impudently and in an offending manner said, “You shouldn’t speak of religion. If you were Muslim, your place would have not been in Evin.” He went on with more abusive words and manners. I returned to the ward because I was not feeling well.
The next day, I suffered a sudden attack and a nervous seizure. My beloved cell-mates helped me walk from the second floor down to the ward’s entrance on the first floor because there was no [wheelchair or any] other equipment in the ward. Then they got me on the ambulance. The ambulance’s door could not be completely closed. My head was located near the half-open doors and while I was in a terrible condition, I had to also worry about the likelihood of falling out of the ambulance.
Evin’s dispensary had coordinated my transfer with Imam-Khomeini Hospital as an emergency case. I was lying on the stretcher in the ambulance, when suddenly a female soldier and two male soldiers came with handcuffs and shackles and stood over my head. I put my hands under my arms and said, 'I won’t allow you to handcuff me, because I’m really not feeling well and I won’t be able to escape. On the other hand, you are four people inside the ambulance. What do you need the handcuffs for? The female soldier said, “Even if you go into coma, we are supposed to handcuff you” and then she put the handcuffs on me.
I had become really nervous and my convulsions began. Then I had another nervous seizure so they had to stop the ambulance for a few minutes by the side of the road.
When I was placed from the ambulance on the hospital’s stretcher, they put back the handcuffs. In all the stages at the hospital, from the beginning to the end when I left the hospital, I had to wear the handcuffs and they were attached to the stretcher. The only time they removed the iron handcuffs was for the CT scan.
A neurologist came to me and explained that because I had that nervous convulsion I had to be monitored until the next morning and that I had to be hospitalized for three days. In light of the history of my disease since 2010 in the solitary cells of the 209th ward of Evin, and considering the difficult conditions including the handcuffs, I asked the doctor to release me at my own consent. So the honorable doctor wrote a letter indicating that the patient needs to be visited by her doctors but she can leave the hospital.
After five days, I was finally hospitalized. Since the moment I was sent to the hospital, my hands were in handcuffs, even when the doctor was examining me. My handcuffs were not removed, even when he was taking my blood pressure. When we entered my hospital room, the soldiers immediately handcuffed me and tied me to the bed such that I could not even sit or sleep comfortably.
Due to nervous pressure, my situation deteriorated further more. My requests and protests went unheeded. From October 11 to October 19 (nine days), I was held without permission to be visited even by my parents. I was not allowed to go out of the room. I was on the bed and I could only use the bathroom. It was forbidden for me to have money and they did not even bring me the fruits I had in the ward in prison, either. I had nothing to eat except for hospital food. The room’s door and curtains were also closed all the time.
Two days after I was hospitalized, I went unconscious in the examination room. So upon doctor’s instructions, two nurses came the next day to give me a bath and wash my hair and prepare me for brain scan. The female soldier immediately called the colonel and asked for instructions. The instruction was that she had to accompany me in the bathroom. In protest to such a decision and such an inhuman treatment I went under the shower with all my clothes on and the female soldier was also present.
On October 18, the colonel came to my room. I asked him to please allow me to be examined alone whenever I had to undress for certain checkups or examinations and the female soldier can make her inspections beforehand and leave, so that I would not have to be examined in front of the soldiers. The colonel accepted.
From October 20 to 12 noon on October 21, I was being prepared for endoscopy and colonoscopy. I should have refrained from eating and I had to use 4 liters of material that would wash away my digestive system. Finally at 1 p.m. I was taken to the operation room. The female soldier also came in with me. I asked her to please stay behind the door of the operation room. She talked to the colonel and said that she would stay in the operation room. So, exactly at the last moment that I was supposed to be anesthetized, I walked out of the operation room and waited until evening may be she would agree to stay out, but she did not.
I talked to the colonel on the phone, explained my situation and asked him to allow the female soldier to stay out of the operation room so that I could receive my treatment. Again, he promised that the female soldier would stay out and that I could repeat the stage.
Again, the preparation lasted from 9 a.m. on October 24 until 12 noon on October 25. As I was getting ready to go to the operation room, again the colonel ordered the female soldier to stand inside the operation room during the colonoscopy. So, I refused to go to the operation room.
My doctor talked to the colonel on the phone and said they had to take samples. He explained that this stage is necessary for treatment of the patient and that it must be done in the operation room which is a sterilized environment and only the doctor and the nurses are allowed to be present. He asked the colonel to allow the medical operation go on, but the colonel did not allow the operation even in the presence of military inspectors and for the second time, I was deprived of receiving my treatment.

Mr. Prosecutor,
I would like to hereby declare my strong protest to this illegal, irreligious, and inhumane behavior and I urge Your Excellency to immediately attend to this case.
1. Handcuffs and shackles for political prisoners who do not plan to escape but have reported in to Evin Prisonby telephone summoning, is unreasonable and distressful. This is particularly so for patients who are sent to see the doctor or are hospitalized and would aggravate their illness as well as physical and psychological tension.
Indeed, why and based on what kind of rationale, did they put handcuffs on me, tying me to the stretcher inside the ambulance and then to the bed in the emergency room at the hospital and for several hours on October 7, while I was being sent to hospital as an emergency case, such that it caused another nervous seizure for me inside the ambulance? Isn’t it an inhuman treatment and an outright torture to handcuff a patient who suffers from repeated nervous convulsions and is not even able to stand up? Why was I handcuffed during examination by doctor in the hospital’s emergency room on October 11 and the doctor’s requests went unheeded?
2. On October 5, I refused to do my heart echography in the presence of military soldiers and did not accept to go to hospital. As I explained before, my operation for endoscopy and colonoscopy and taking samples did not take place on October 21 and 25 because of the military soldiers’ persistence to stay in the operation room. Therefore a crucial part of my treatment was not done. On all three occasions, I declared that when I have to undress for any examination, treatment or operation, I would not accept the presence of any military personnel, except the doctor and you must have respected the patient-doctor privacy. This action on your part is religiously, morally and legally wrong.
Mr. Prosecutor, I do not understand the necessity of the presence of military-security agents in the shower, in the operation room (for colonoscopy) or for the different stages of treatment when the patient has to take off her clothes. Not only I do not understand this and I believe it is contrary to a humane behavior, but the military personnel’s insistence on doing so is nothing but psychological torture for a patient who is not willing to accept it in any way and even accepts to cancel her treatment.
We have heard time and again that in some countries, the military-security personnel undress the prisoners to humiliate them as a method of torture (particularly the prisoners who have certain beliefs or traditions in this regard). This has been discussed in the public opinion and human rights circles.
Now, my question from you as the honorable Prosecutor is how and with which warrant do the military-security forces enter private places like showers, operation rooms (where patients are completely undressed) and examination rooms where patients are ordered to undress? With which warrant do they insist on staying in places where the prisoner does not have any chance of escape and preventing the latter’s treatment? Are these behaviors legal, humane and religious in your opinion?
You are well aware that 6to7-year-old girls are obliged to wear the veil in elementary schools to learn to preserve their chastity. Now my question is, isn’t such a treatment of prisoners against public chastity? Or the function of veil and chastity is merely for subjugation of women in Iranian society?
3. On October 26, military-security forces suddenly entered my room in hospital and ordered me to pack up my stuff to go to Baghiyatollah Hospital. In a letter to the Warden of Evin Prison, I declared that I was not going to the Baghiyatollah Hospital and if it was not possible to stay in this hospital, I asked for a 24-hour opportunity to obtain my medical prescriptions. On October 28, I returned to Evin Prison, with parts of my treatment including the endoscopy, colonoscopy and sample-taking not done while they were indispensable to my treatment according to the written instructions of my doctor. Therefore, I urge you to order that this operation could be done without the presence of military personnel. The operation room has only one door while the doctor and the anesthetist are the only persons present in the room. The military-security soldiers can perform their mission behind the door of the operation room.
4. In light of experiences of the past few years, I can see that there are obvious discriminations and extreme restrictions against female political prisoners and prisoners of conscience (in their dispatch to hospital, conditions of hospitalization and method of care). I see this discrimination in continuation of the discriminations enforced in society against women and I hereby object them.
Nargess Mohammadi
November 2015

Political prisoner Nargess Mohammadi, Vice-President of the Human Rights League, wrote an open letter to Tehran’s Prosecutor, explaining conditions of her dispatch to hospital and protested the way she was treated 

Iran: Zanjani’s wives! visiting him in Evin prison prevented women political prisoners in to see their children

Iranian regime authorities in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran have prevented children from visiting their mothers who are held there as political prisoners. The reason given by the Khamenei point man in this nefarious prison is that Babak Zanjani, a corrupt middleman working with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards to circumvent sanctions, has visitors. And who might these visitors be? His 3 wives!

Human rights activists on Wednesday Nov. 25th reported that Zanjani was expecting to meet with his 3 wives in the visiting hall of the Evin Prison, asked not to be disturbed by other visitors coming to visit their loved ones. So the children, who already were granted visit with their political prisoner mothers, were told the visits were canceled. And the children were forced to leave the area while crying and asking for their mothers. Reports continue to say that mothers who were counting days and hours to see their children were told the visits were off and were hauled back to their cells.
After a short while these courageous and brave women protested and condemned the clerical regime for denying their basic and minimum rights of visiting their loved ones.
It should be noted that in the misogynist and perverted mullahs’ interpretation of Islam, bigamy is allowed and practiced routinely and a man can have up to 4 legal and official wives and dozens more still legally but unofficially. 

Iran: regime agents deny medical care for political prisoner Narges Mohammadi

Political prisoner Narges Mohammadi

Political prisoner Narges Mohammadi, already deprived of a phone call with her twin children for over two months now, is currently under extremely harsh physical conditions imposed by the Iranian regime agents, reports indicate.
The mullahs’ judiciary officials are preventing her transfer to a hospital despite the fact that medical specialists and even Evin Prison physicians have emphasized on her need to be hospitalized.
Mohammadi is facing charges such as collusion, assembly against national security and propaganda against the state. She is scheduled to be prosecuted on October 7th by Salavati, a so-called judge in branch 15 of the regime’s courts in Tehran
In addition to polititical repressions against Iranian women,more women in Iran become unemployed&live in poverty

Last year the International Monetary Fund said Iran has an unemployment rate of 11.2%, ranking 26th in the world in this regard.In recent years a significant increase in women’s unemployment has played a large role in the calculation of unemployment in Iran. Women who are both educated and yet unemployed. Last week the Iranian regime’s vice president in women and family affairs said more than 40% of college educated women in Iran are unemployed.
“Unemployment amongst women with higher education and single mothers not only plays against their interests, it also has a majorly negative impact as the country is not being able to take advantage of these human resources,” Molavardi said.
“Currently, not only are women who have been deprived of education and necessary skills more likely to fall into crimes, but also there is a high number of educated women that are engulfed in economic problems and have resorted to committing crimes,” said Hossein Raghfar, a university professor. (State-run Fararu.com website – September 12, 2015)
The state-run Mizan news agency wrote the following piece: “A report of the Census Center on unemployment rates in spring 2015 shows unemployment amongst the country’s above 10 population standing at 10.8%. This is 9% amongst men and 19.2% amongst women. Unemployment amongst men in various age groups is 21.8%, and 47.2% amongst women.”