MODERATE ISLAMISTS CHARGED FOR ARMED STRUGGLE, TABARZADI ARRESTED
TEHRAN 17 Apr. (IPS) Iranian reformists received Tuesday a new blow after the Head of the Leader-controlled Islamic revolution Tribunal revealed that the Islamist-nationalists and Iran Freedom Movement were engaged in overthrowing the Islamic Republic by the means of arms.
The announcement came as agents of the Tribunal were raiding the offices of the Democratic Front of the Iranian People (DFIP) and arrested the leader of the newly formed organisation Mr. Heshmatollah Tabarzadi and more than 50 people present for his weekly lecture.
On orders from Ayatollah Ali Khamenehe'i, the egocentric and fundamentalist leader if the present Iranian regime, the Judiciary arrested in the pas weeks more than sixty members of the IFM and activists affiliated to the Nationalist-religious groups, charged of activities against the security of the state and announced a total ban on all the activities if the two groups.
The arrests triggered widespread condemnation both in Iran and outside and in letters to the Head of the Judiciary, 150 reformist MMs (Members of the Majles) called on him for the release of the detainees and informing the people about the reason for the arrests.
Speaking to the leader-controlled Iranian Radio, Hojjatoleslam Ali Mobasheri, Head formally accused the detainees of conspiring to overthrow the Islamic establishment by using force, a charge that many observers immediately described as "very serious" for the fate and future of the detainees.
"We have irrefutable proof, ample documents and confessions to tell you that that the group was attempting to overthrow the regime by all means, including dividing the leaders and officials, pitting them against each other, to provoke crisies and even by taking arms", he told the state-run Radio.
In a letter to Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroodi, the Iraqi-bord Head of the leader-controlled Judiciary, 150 MM (Members of the Majles) called on him to release to detainees as soon as possible and also provide explanation for the arrests.
"The reformists were hoping that by putting pressure on the Judiciary, the only of the three powers not only under the full control of the conservatives, but that also serves as the political, police and intelligence service for Mr. Khamenehe'i, they could bring it to be more lenient and reserve a better treatment for the detainees, but the last declaration of Mr. Mobbasheri shows that they were utterly wrong", commented one Iranian columnist in Tehran.
However, He said that Mr. Mobbasheri’s declarations would not satisfy the public opinion as he failed to back his revelations by convincing documents.
"The MMs who so ardently defends the irrefutable detainees and qualify them as honest revolutionaries are not aware of the documents we have and they ignore of the confessions we have obtained. Once they would be informed, they would become ashamed of their behaviour", Mr. Mobbasheri told the Radio.
"I tell you honestly, these pro-American circles are being closely watched and we are being very vigilant", he warned, and lashed out at criticism of the arrests from Iranian reformist politicians.
In reaction to the international condemnation of the arrests, the last one oming Tuesday from the French ruling Socialist Party of Prine Minister Lionel Jospin, Mr. Mobbasheri "in defending our Islamic Republic, we do not get instructions from the White House not the European Community".
Acting Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (Revolutionary Guards) Brigadier-General Baqer Zolqadr welcomed the mass arrest of Islamic nationalists, saying, "the detainees were "in league with the enemy during the (1980-1988 Iraqi-imposed war)".
The Judiciary accused both the IFM and the Nationalist-religious of intelligence and co-operations with the outlawed Mujahedeen Khalq Organisation, the Baghdad-based, Iraqi supported, financed and trained group dedicated to topple the present Iranian regime by armed struggle.
"Religious-nationalist is a distorted and demagoguery title given to this group. They hold no commitment to Islam," told a group of volunteer Basijis in this central Iranian city of Esfahan.
In his view, the now-banned Freedom Movement of Iran is a brainchild of the terrorist Iraqi-based Mujahideen Khalq Organistion.
Meanwhile, special forces of the Islamic revolution tribunal carried a violent crackdown on the DFIP, arresting of several prominent students and intelectuals activists, among Mr. Heshmatollah Tabarzadi, Parviz Safari, Hassan Zare-Zadeh and Mohammad-Javad Salamati, the deputy secretary of the DFIP, after being beaten, showered with harsh words and being sprayed with Tear gas substance, eyewitnesses said.
According to the US-based Student’s Co-ordination Committee for the Defence of Democracy in Iran, some of the attacking militias took films and pictures from the local and the audience and warned them of future actions for having carried activities against the Islamic republic regime.
Mr. Tabarzadi has been imprisoned several times for his activities, particularly his calls for a referendum on the position, powers and mandate.
His wife told the Persian service of the BBC that agents who had their house under watch for several days did raided it when both she and her husband were absent.
"They searched everywhere and took everything they could", she confirmed. ENDS TABARZADI ARRESTED 17401