MAJLES ERUPTED IN ANGER OVER JAIL SENTENCE IMPOSED ON MRS. HAQIQATJOO
TEHRAN 22 Aug. (IPS) Mrs. Fatemeh Haqiqatjou, the reformist MM (Member of the
Majles) condemned two days ago to 22 months of suspended jail and payment of a
one million touman bail (one US Dollars gives 750 toumans in the black market) said Tuesday that she would sue Judge Sa’id Mortazavi once her case was
cleared.
Judge Mortazavi, better known as the "Butcher of the independent press" sentenced Sunday Mrs. Haqiqatjou on several charges including misinterpretation of the leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's words, insulting the oversight Guardians Council (GC), propagating against the Islamic establishment and insulting the head of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
Mrs. Haqiqatjoo, an outspoken representative from Tehran, was detained briefly last March because of her fiery attack on the brutal behaviour of the Islamic Judiciary agents sent to arrest a female journalist, Mrs. Fariba Davoodi-Mohajer in February.
However, she was freed hours later after a bold intervention from the Majles Speaker, Hojjatoleslam Mehdi Karroubi.
As for the journalist, she was released in March after posting a 300-million-rial bail.
But well-informed sources told Iran Press Service that the real motive behind the sentence was her veiled, but clear criticism of the egocentric leader’s meddling in the Majles affairs, including his orders to the MMs not to go ahead with a bill aimed at changing a highly unpopular press law passed hastily by the fifth Majles, muzzling to the maximum the already limited press freedoms.
Speaking during Tuesday’s open session of the House, a defiant Mrs. Haqiqatjoo said according to articles 84 and 86 of the Constitution, lawmakers had the right to investigate and opine on all the nation’s affairs and institutions and they enjoyed immunity from being arrested.
But in a statement faxed to the official news agency IRNA, the Tehran's Justice Administration on Tuesday brushed aside her remarks, noting, "according to the Article 3 of the Constitution, deputies lack any immunity and were equal before the law."
The statement blasted the deputies who early Tuesday reacted to the court verdict, saying, "They had raised insults against the judiciary, the Tehran's Justice Administration and the press court judge without having had any information on the case".
It also reiterated that Mrs. Haqiqatjou had "insulted and slandered against certain state officials in a speech she had delivered in (the Western city of) Qazvin", referring indirectly to her criticism of Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i.
"Any reaction and protest to the verdicts should be filed with the Appeals Court and personal comments cannot be a correct basis for judicial rulings," the statement added.
Mrs. Haqiqatjou said she would appeal against the court decision, and hoped the court would give her a fair trial at her appeal and "carry justice this time".
During the session, angry female legislators led by the leader of the eleven-members Women’s fraction Mrs. Fatemeh Rake’i and joined by some other reformist MMs decided to walk out of the Majles in protest of the sentenced imposed on Mrs. Haqiqatjoo.
"We (female MMs) will leave the chamber and will not return until the issue is resolved", Mrs. Rake’i had warned, but they were dissuaded by other colleagues, including Mr. Karroubi and Mrs. Haqiqatjoo herself, to renounce, allowing the parliament to finish the debate over the approval of President Mohammad Khatami’s proposed ministers is over.
Mrs. Rake’i squarely accused Mr. Mortazavi, whose notorious tribunal not only has imposed a massive crackdown on the reformist and independent press but also carry out conservative’s dirty job, of lacking "sufficient Islamic culture to judge."
On orders from the lamed leader carried out by Judge Mortazavi, over 50 pro-reform publications have been closed since the Islamic Judiciary's crackdown on the press which began in April last year.
"I attended the trial of Haqiqatjou. To me, Mr. Sa’id Mortazavi is not competent to hear the case", she observed, adding, "I am proud of Haqiqatjou for the courage that she has displayed".
"Unfortunately we are living in a society where one conservative allows himself to say that reformers are impure, and no-one is reacting", she said in an apparent allusion to recent remarks made by a top conservative cleric over the "impurity" of some reformists.
Denouncing the controversial sentence imposed on Mrs. Hajijatjoo, reformist MM from the central city of Esfahan Rajabali Mazrou’i said if lawmakers could not express their views openly and sincerely in the Majles, then it is better to recite a Requiem for such a House.
The Majles and the leader-controlled Judiciary are at loggerhead since quite a long time, with the Judiciary interfering more and more in the affairs of both the Executive and the Legislative, both dominated by the reformists supporting the embattled President Khatami who has taken a side seat in the defence of political, social, cultural and economic reforms he himself promised to introduce.
"Legislators are elected to defend the legal rights of citizens, Mr. Mazrou’i said, but Haqiqatjou's sentence revealed that they cannot even protect their own rights", he noted, adding: "What do they (Judiciary) mean by such sentences? If it is aimed at frightening us, then they should say that clearly", he said.
Mrs. Haqiqatjoo rejected the charge of having misconstrued Mr. Khomeini's words and reminding colleagues that she had merely recalled the words of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, she said not only Mortazavi's ruling aimed to weaken the Majles, but also there had been discrepancies in his ruling.
Haqiqatjou also described as "unfounded" charges of insulting the Judiciary and the Guardian Council saying she had only criticised the two bodies, according to IRNA.
In the past 12 months the Judiciary has already summoned at least 30 MMs with many others reprimanded for making official or personal denunciations in the halls of the Chamber, IRNA noted.
Mrs. Haqiqatjou is the third MM given ordered jailed by Tehran public courts. Two reformist MPs were earlier sentenced to jail terms.
Mr. Issa Mousavinejad was meted a one-year jail term for his role in the student unrest in Khorramabad and Mr. Hossein Loqmanian was sentenced to 13 months in jail for "insulting the judiciary."
Their colleagues in parliament have almost unanimously denounced the verdicts, saying in the Iranian constitution as well as those all over the world legislators enjoy immunity from speech. ENDS HAQIQATJOO ARREST SENTENCE 22801