UNCERTAINTY SURROUNDS THE FATE OF Mr. SIAMAK POORZAND
By Safa Haeri
TEHRAN 9 Mar. (IPS) "Think that I’m dead. Don’t try anything to save me", veteran Iranian journalist Siamak Poorzand reportedly told his family during their last meeting, according to one of his daughters, Leyla, expressing deep concern for the fate of his father, Mr. Siamak Poorzand.
But if one is to believe the semi-official daily "Iran", which is edited by the official IRNA news agency, Mr. Poorzand had been tried two days ago in a court at the Tehran international airport Mehrabad and has "confessed" to "collaboration" with the SAVAK, the Shah’s intelligence service and "activities against the security of the State".
If the information is correct, then Mr. Poorzand, 71, must have been tried not in an ordinary court but at an Islamic revolution court, the only one competent to judge such charges.
Mr. Poorzand, 71, was abducted more than three months ago in front of her sister’s house in Tehran and taken prisoner to an undisclosed jail.
He is married to Mrs. Mehranguiz Kaar, a prominent lawyer and human rights activists who is undergoing medical treatment in New York.
The Judiciary, that is under the direct control of Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the egocentric leader of the Islamic republic, had spread that foreign intelligence services and radios had provided Mr. Poorzand four billion US Dollars to distribute among pro-western, pro-American Iranian intellectuals, artists, journalists and scholars.
But Mr. Poorzand’s sister, Mahin, said Siamak lived in an old, rented house and was "penniless".
According to "Iran", Mr. Poorzand had appeared at the Mehrabad Airport court in an open trial and was defended by a lawyer.
Actually, Mr. Poorzand, a free-lance and benevolent correspondent for some foreign-based media opposed to the Islamic Republic, was arrested at the height of the popularity of Iranian radio and television stations that would beam their programmes, including interviews with Prince Reza Pahlavi, the 40 years-old son of the late Mohammad Reza Shah, towards Iran.
Afraid that these media would encourage the Iranian youth to upraise against the regime, the authorities decided to ban all satellite dishes and antennas.
The news published in "Iran" about the trial of Mr. Poorzand and that a lawyer had defended him shocked the family. "We didn’t know anything about the trial or that he had a lawyer to defend him, for we had never heard of the lawyer, whom we don’t know who he might be. We even don’t know where he is held?" Ms. Leyla told the Persian service of the Prague-based Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
She said contrary to other political prisoners, her father is completely ignored by the press as well as by both the Majles (parliament) and the government. "I guess he is a scapegoat. They (the authorities) wanted to make him a showcase for other dissident intellectuals and journalists", Ms. Leyla added, speaking from Canada to the Radio.
With the new session of the United Nations Human Rights Commission due to enter work in Geneva in two weeks time, the ayatollahs are becoming more human rights conscious, allowing more political prisoners to go free and some of the 60 publications they had closed to re-appear.
The Judiciary ordered the release from prison of five members of the outlawed Iran Freedom Movement and allowed 15 newspapers and weeklies to start activities again.
In a moving open letter to President Mohammad Khatami, Ms. Azadeh, the 17 years-old daughter of the jailed journalist said plainclothes people running powerful motorcycles used to constantly harass her father.
International and Iranian press and human rights organisations, including the Rome-based Association of Iranian Journalists Abroad, the Paris-based- Reporters Sans Frontieres, the New York-based Human Rights Watch and the London-based Amnesty International have all denounced the Islamic Republic for the abduction of Mr. Poorzand and imprisonment of other political prisoners. ENDS POORZAND SITUATION 9302