PARIS 14TH May (IPS) As Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran continue his crackdown of the reformist press and personalities he describes as "infiltrators" while sparing the President, hoping to create a breach between him and his supporters, international condemnation of the parody of the trial of 13 Iranian Jews accused of spying for Israel and the arrest of several prominent reformist journalists and secularist activists continue to come by.
International and Iranian human rights organisations are calling on the Iranian clerical authorities for securing both a fair judgement for the accused Jews in the one hand and the release of the arrested personalities, including lawyer Mrs. Mehranguiz Kar, independent Publisher Mrs. Shahla Lahiji, student's leader Alireza Afshari and journalists Akbar Ganji, Masha'allah Shamsolva'ezin and Latif Safari.
Both Mr. Shamsolva'ezin and Safari were arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for articles deemed to be insulting to Islam and offending the leader.
Mrs. Kar and Lahiji as well as Mr. Afshari and Ganji have been arrested following their participation, alongside several other Iranian journalists, scholars, political analysts and one reformist cleric at a conference organised in Berlin early April by the Heinrich Boll Institute.
They are charged with "propaganda against the Islamic Republic, activities against the security of the State and presence in ceremonies insulting to Islam, the leader and the Islamic Republic of Iran".
Other participants like Mr. Hamid Reza Jala'ipour, Editor of Asre Azadegan, Alireza Alavi-Tabar, Editor of "Sobhe Emrouz", Ezzatollah Sahabi, Editor of "Iran Farda" bi-weekly, Mrs. Jamileh Kadivar, an elected MP from Tehran and a journalist have been interrogated by the Islamic Revolution Court but freed on bail.
At the same time, and on specific orders from Mr. Khameneh'i, 17 pro-reform dailies and publications have been shut at once by the Judiciary as the Revolutionary Guards have menaced liberals and reformists to "crush their heads with revolutionary sledgehammer".
In letters and faxes to Ayatollah Khameneh'i, President Mohammad Khatami and head of the Judiciari, organisations such as the New-York-based Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists the London's Amnesty International as well as hundreds of prominent Iranian and foreign scholars and dignitaries have all protested to the jailing of journalists and dissidents.
"These arrests are nothing more than an attempt to silence the reform movement" said Mr. Hanni Megally, HRW's director for the Middle East and Africa. "The activists who are the target of this witch-hunt are being held on trumped-up charges and their safety is at risk." Human Rights Watch noted that some of the activists arrested like Mrs. Kar have been targeted and harassed before by the authorities for her work on women's rights.
In a letter to Iran's Judicial authority, the organisation condemned the "escalating harassment, intimidation and punishment" of the country's independent journalists and publishers, observing that "Just in the last few days, the Iranian authorities have closed down another dozen reformist publications, and thrown more writers and publishers into prison for criticising the government".
"Human Rights Watch strongly protests the steps taken against these individuals whose sole offence has been to exercise their right to freedom of expression. We ask that you use your office as Head of the Judiciary to ensure that judicial bodies, such as the Press Court as well as other courts, are no longer complicit in this process, and that the judges and other officials working under your direction be instructed to exercise their responsibilities in a manner consistent with Iran's obligation as a state party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which guarantees the right to freedom of expression and to fair and impartial judicial proceedings".
In an "Urgent Action Appeal, Amnesty International described Mrs. Kar, Mrs. Lahiji and Mr. Ali Afshari as "prisoners of conscience" who may be at risk of ill-treatment in detention.
"They are apparently detained because they took part in an academic and cultural conference in Berlin in April, where political and social reform in Iran were publicly debated. Mehrangiz Kar and Shahla Lahiji were both detained by the Revolutionary Court on 29 April. Ali Afshari was detained the following day. Mehrangiz Kar and Shahla Lahiji both vocal supporters of women's and other human rights, Amnesty said in its' appeal.
Observing that an "overwhelming majority" of the Iranian people have demonstrated their support for democracy and reform through three national elections in Iran, hundreds of Iranian and Western scholars and human rights advocates expressed their concern about the recent crackdown on the reform movement in Iran.
"We appeal to the world community and call on all international human rights organisations, non-governmental as well as governmental bodies, including the United Nations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, as well as individuals who are supportive of democracy, human rights, and civil society to protest the most recent repression of reform and reformers in Iran.", the signatories said.
For it's part, the Iranian Human Rights Working Group (IHRWG) condemned the closing down of newspapers and the clampdown of freedom of speech in Iran, noting that the widespread attack on freedom of speech comes after recent statements by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, in which he took a "direct stand" against the independent press.
"Furthermore armed organisations under the control of the leader such as the Revolutionary Guards have, by issuing aggressive statements, threatened a violent clampdown on opponents of Mr. Khameneh'i".
Observing that the simultaneous shutdown of such a large number of publications, was "unprecedented in the history of the Iranian press", the IHRWG called upon the Iranian authorities to "immediately lift the ban on these publications and to order the release of the arrested journalists"
Dr Karim Lahiji, the president of the Paris-based Iranian League for Human Rights and Vice-President of the International Federation of Human Rights protested to the degrading conditions imposed on dissidents and political detainees, including those of Mrs. Kar and Lahiji as well as Mr. Ganji, Shamsolva'ezin, Safari and Afshari.
Families, lawyers and friends of the prisoners expressed "grave concern" about their situation, both on sanitary and food conditions, protesting that prison authorities refuses badly needed medicines to the detainees. ENDS WORLDWIDE CONDEMNATION 14500