CONSERVATIVES STEP UP CAMPAIGN AGAINST REFORMS
TEHRAN 3 Dec. (IPS) Ruling Iranian Conservatives, led by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i, the fundamentalist leader of the Islamic Republic stepped up their unabated campaign against the embattled president Mohammad Khatami, his government and supporters by summoning Monday a prominent cabinet minister and a member of the Majles to courts.
In the one hand, Oil Minister Bizhan Namdar-Zangeneh, has been summoned to one court on charges of misappropriation of funds and embezzlement and on the other, Mr. Mohsen Mirdamadi, Editor of the "No Rooz" who is also the chairman of the National Security and Foreign Affairs Committee of the reformists-dominated Majles, appeared at the infamous press court, presided over by Judge Sa’id Mortazavi, dubbed as the "Butcher of the press".
According to the pro-government "Iran News" newspaper, political circles "are buzzing" with rumours that two other important administration members, namely, the Governor of the Central Bank of Iran, Mr. Mohsen Nurbakhsh, and the Minister of Industries and Mines, Mr. Es-haq Jahangiri, would also "soon" be dragged to court.
Mr. Namdar-Zanganeh was singled out early this year by the powerful Secretary of Council of Guardians, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati for having mismanaged "billions" of public funds trough agreements favouring foreign companies, including Petropars, a subsidiary of the National Iranian Oil Company, registered in the UK and presided over by Mr. Behzad Nabavi, an influential member of the Majles siding with the reformists.
"However, it is still not clear what the charge against these two officials will be", the paper said, noting that since all three officials noted above are in one way or another affiliated with the Executives of the Construction Party (ECP), "political observers are of the view that this smells like a new scenario, a political crisis trumped up by the opposition conservatives".
"Apparently, the hard-liners are already preparing for the seventh Majles elections, due for 2004. The right wing's motives are manifold. One is to weaken the Khatami Administration and even further, the other is to eliminate the ECP from the political scene and block their entry to the seventh Majles", the paper commented.
Mr. Mirdamadi, 42, is charges of the usual "bundle accusations" that includes "propaganda against the Islamic regime, undermining the security of state by publishing untrue and libelous articles, supporting counter-revolutionaries and other opponents of the regime, offending religious beliefs, inciting political violence and spreading corrupted Western culture"etc..
Sources said considering the charges, the daily that is the semi-organ of Iran’s largest political formation, Islamic Iran Participation Party (IIPP) is likely to be banned while its Editor could face a heavy sentence.
The charges were laid after complaints from the judiciary, the Voice and Visage if the Islamic Republic, the Guardians Council which vets legislation and election candidates, and the Basiji Islamic militia et.., all directly controlled by Mr. Khameneh’i.
Several reformist deputies attended Monday's court hearing, chaired by "Butcher" Mortazavi, who, on order from his boss, has closed more than 50 publications since April 2000 and sentenced to jail a dozen of influential journalists and newsmen on the same "bundle charges".
Political and social pressures by the conservatives against the already very limited freedoms of the people increased after the 11 September terrorist operations against the United States, with the authorities banning satellite dishes, closing independent internet providers, imposing Taleban-type Islamic measures on coffee shops and restaurants, urging them not to accept mixed couples, shops selling women dress not to expose them on their windows and forbidding people walking their dogs and cats etc.
"After a hiatus of several months the onslaught resumed last week, when the courts ordered a leading reformist daily banned in order to avoid possible attempts by the paper to "create crises and insecurity", the pro-government IRNA news agency reported.
It said "Mellat" (Nation) paper, headed by Mr. Sa’id Haqi, was "provisionally banned" for committing "repeated offences" over the six months since it was founded and "failing to pay attention to previous warnings by the regime's officials."
The suspension of Mellat on Thursday came two days after a veteran journalist, Mr. Siamak Poorzand, had "vanished" last week after he accompanied a friend to the doors.
Asked by Iran Press Service, Ms. Mahin Poorzand, the journalist’s sister said she became aware of the disappearance of his brother "after some times, not seeing him coming back".
Though Ms. Mahin said she ignores why Mr. Poorzand, 70, the husband of Mrs. Mehranguiz Kaar, a leading lawyer and human rights dissident activist, was arrested and by whom and where he has been taken to, informed sources told IPS that his journalistic connections with the Iranian foreign-based media, mostly the radio and tv broadcasting live programs to Iran, might be the reason?
Mrs. Kaar, who s suffering from Cancer and is under treatment in the United States was arrested on May 2000 on her return from Berlin, where a conference on the situation in Iran that was attended by several Iranian intellectuals, journalists, scholars and religious reformers was used by the conservatives to shut down all pro-reform newspapers in Iran.
Out of the twenty people who attended that meeting, half of them are still in prison, including Mr. Akbar Ganji, Mr. Ezzatollah Sahhabi, Mr. Ali Afshari, to name some. ENDS ANTI-REFORM CAMPAIGN 31201