Posts Tagged ‘ Mir Hossein Mousavi ’

Iran warns protesters it will show ‘no mercy’

Dec 8th, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

The government’s chief prosecutor warned that “from now on, we will show no mercy” to protesters or their families.

“I saw three middle-aged women being shocked by members of the Basij using stun guns,” a witness said. “I ran away, but when I turned around, I saw them lying on the street, their bodies shaking because of the shocks.” As he spoke, people could be heard screaming in the background.

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Reformists in Iran: Investigate if Khamenei qualified to rule

Aug 14th, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

Karroubi criticized Larijani’s speedy denial of the rape allegations, saying no probe could have been completed that fast. He also vowed he won’t remain silent over the “medieval torture and corruption” in Iran’s prisons.

“Insults and criticism won’t make me silent. I’ll defend the rights of the people as long as I’m alive and you can’t stop my tongue, hand and pen,” said Karroubi, leader of the reformist National Confidence Party.

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Iran protests renew despite threats

Jul 10th, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

Still, a group of around 300 young people gathered in front of Teheran University and began to chant, “Death to the dictator,” witnesses said. Many of them wore green surgical masks, the color of Mousavi’s movement.

Police charged at them, swinging batons, but the protesters fled, then regrouped at another corner and resumed chanting, the witnesses said. Police chased them repeatedly as the protesters continued to regroup, the witnesses said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they feared government retribution.

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Iran reports more protest arrests

Jul 3rd, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

Iran on Thursday announced more arrests in the post-election turmoil, detaining seven alleged provocateurs of violence it says were linked to Iranian exiles. The move underlines authorities’ drive to portray protests as the work of outsiders rather than a reflection of widespread popular dismay.

The arrests continue a heavy crackdown that has squashed the mass protests that erupted over the disputed June 12 presidential vote. Iran’s top police chief has said 20 people were killed in violence during the protests, and that 1,032 people were detained.

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Iran to Try U.K. Embassy Staff Accused of Incitement (Update1)

Jul 3rd, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

Iran insists the staff members were part of an embassy effort to foment demonstrations over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed June 12 re-election. As many as nine employees were detained, and several later released. Miliband said two staff members remain in detention. The U.K. Foreign Office said the arrests may have happened before June 27.

The Iranian intelligence minister said that the U.K. Embassy had sent its local staff to rallies and had encouraged protesters, state-run Press TV reported.

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Iran Unrest Shifts Power Dynamics

Jul 1st, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

“Elections were always marred in Iran . . . but they were never faked,” said Ahmad Sadri, a columnist for the reformist newspaper Etemad-e-Melli and chairman of Islamic world studies at Lake Forest College near Chicago. Elections have always helped give the regime its legitimacy, he said. Now, amid widespread allegations of vote fraud, that has been lost, he said. “By faking the elections, the right wing has sort of killed the goose that laid the golden egg.”

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Rafsanjani calls for fair probe of vote

Jun 30th, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

Mousavi’s challenge seemed largely aimed at maintaining some role as an opposition figure.

Meanwhile, the Al-Arabiya satellite television news channel quoted a “high-ranking” source in Qom claiming that Rafsanjani, a key supporter of Mousavi, has garnered enough support among leading Iranian clerics to remove Khamenei, but that an announcement is being delayed amid differences on who or what should replace the supreme leader. There was no independent confirmation of this report.

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Recount claims Ahmadinejad winner

Jun 29th, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

State television reported that Guardian Council Secretary Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati presented the conclusion in a letter to Interior Minister Sadegh Mahsouli, following a recount of a randomly selected 10 percent of the ballots cast June 12. Press TV said “few or no errors” were found.

The Iranian leadership took more measures to calm tensions, instructing a senior judge to investigate the death of protester Neda Agha Soltan and stating that the Islamic republic does not want to downgrade relations with Britain.

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Thousands of Iranians ignore leaders’ threats, march in unauthorized rally

Jun 28th, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

Supporters of Ahmadinejad’s opponent, Mir-Hossein Mousavi, gathered at a mosque in northeastern Tehran during an annual commemoration for 72 Iranian politicians killed in a bombing 28 years ago.

According to a witness, who has previously provided accurate information to The Times, numerous opposition figures attended the rally, including presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi; Mousavi’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard; and both the daughter and wife of Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a Mousavi supporter.

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Iran Cleric Calls for Protest Leaders to Be Punished ‘Harshly’

Jun 26th, 2009 | By | Category: Signs of the Times (click on article name)

“I ask the judiciary to behave harshly and cruelly with the leaders of the protests, as they are fed by the U.S. and Israel, so that it will teach a lesson to others,” Ahmad Khatami told worshippers yesterday in Tehran. Protesters who use weapons should face the death penalty, he said.

“None of Mousavi’s claims were right and we’ve had the healthiest election,” a council spokesman, Abbas Ali Kadkhodaei, was cited as saying “I can firmly say that no election fraud has been committed.”

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