Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

The fight goes on in Iran

Journalistic reports suggest that the struggle between the in-power and out-of-power factions in Iran continues. Since the election result is the only issue mentioned, we might assume that what's going on is not a debate over issues, but a struggle for power.

Iran Puts Senior Reformers on Trial Over Unrest
Iran put prominent reformers in the dock... official media reported, in its fourth mass trial of people accused of orchestrating unrest after June's disputed presidential election.

Several of the accused are members of Iran's leading reformist party, Mosharekat, whose website denounced the session in a Revolutionary Court as another show trial forming part of an "ugly scenario."...



Reformer in Iran Publishes Account of a Prison Rape
A young man arrested after the disputed presidential election in Iran says he was raped by his jailers, then questioned by officials who blamed him for the attack and embarrassed him, according to a statement on the party Web site of an Iranian reform leader, Mehdi Karroubi.

Mr. Karroubi, a former speaker of Parliament and presidential candidate, has defied the nation’s top leaders who have tried, with little success, to discredit and silence charges of rape and torture. But Mr. Karroubi warned that this was only a “fragment” of the evidence he had and that if the denials did not stop, he would release even more...

For the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mr. Karroubi’s provocative move threatens to add yet another complication as he battles with Parliament over his 21 nominees for his cabinet. It also comes at a difficult time for the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, who by law and faith is supposed to embody one of the central qualities cherished throughout the history of Shiite Islam: justice...


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3 Comments:

At 8:06 AM, Blogger Ken Wedding said...

Iran's Khatami Says Trial Confessions Invalid

"Former President Mohammad Khatami said on Wednesday trial confessions by moderates accused of fomenting post-election unrest were made under "extraordinary conditions" and were invalid, an Iranian news agency reported..."

Iranian Prosecutors Seek to Shut 2 Reform Parties

"Iran’s prosecutors moved Tuesday to shut down the nation’s two largest reform parties during a mass trial of former officials, journalists and academics all arrested and charged with conspiring to orchestrate a so-called velvet revolution in Iran..."

 
At 8:50 AM, Blogger Ken Wedding said...

Iran’s Factional Disputes Grow Increasingly Bitter

"On Wednesday, aides to Iran’s president lashed out publicly at two former presidents, the nation’s most influential dissident cleric said government officials had taken a “deviant path” and a government-aligned Web site reported that the Tehran prosecutor had been fired...

"“The game in Iran is no longer between the reformists and the conservatives,” said Mustafa El-Labbad, an expert in Iranian affairs and the director of the Middle East Center for Regional and Strategic Studies in Cairo. “It is now between the pragmatists and the radicals.”..."

 
At 7:58 AM, Blogger Ken Wedding said...

Who's in charge there?

Iranian commander: ex-president challenged state

"The top commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard is accusing a former president and other reformist leaders of challenging the role of the nation's supreme leader.

"The sharp attack by Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari effectively labels former President Mohammad Khatami and others as potential foes of the Islamic system..."

 

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