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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iran jails women activists, arrests top former MP

2010-05-17

TEHRAN - Iran has sentenced in absentia award-winning women's rights activist Shadi Sadr and another fellow activist to jail and lashes over a protest in 2007, their lawyer told ILNA news agency on Sunday. Former MP Mohsen Armin, who is a senior member of a reformist party which backs opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, was also arrested in Tehran on Sunday, his daughter told a reformist website. The revolutionary court “has sentenced Shadi Sadr, 35, to six years in jail and 74 lashes for acting against national security and harming public order,' lawyer Mohammad Mostafai said. The other activist, Mahbubeh Abbas-Gholizadeh, was also handed a term of two-and-a-half years in jail and 30 lashes for similar charges, he said, adding that he has 20 days to appeal the “heavy sentences.' The court had tried the pair, both currently abroad, on May 8 over a rally in March 2007 outside a revolutionary court where four fellow feminists were on trial. Iranian authorities arrested them along with 30 other protesters. Sadr, who is also a lawyer and journalist, was awarded the Polish Lech Walesa Prize in September 2009 along with two other Iranian women for promotion of “human rights, freedom of expression and democracy in Iran.' Both women, who also back the anti-government opposition, are well-known for their campaigning to abolish the stoning to death penalty for adulterers and for writings against Iran's Sharia-based law deemed as discriminatory to women. Iran's hardline authorities have grown increasingly suspicious of human rights activists and scores have been jailed, especially after the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last June. The authorities have also rounded up scores of reformist politicians, opposition campaign workers and journalists after the poll, accusing them of inciting mass anti-government protests which engulfed the capital last year. “This morning agents who appeared to have a judiciary warrant searched the house and took my father away,' Armin's daughter, who was not named, told Parlemannews.ir, website of the minority faction of reformist MPs. Armin is a senior member of the Organisation of Mujahedeen of the Islamic Revolution, which was banned by the hardline authorities. Several of its members were jailed after the June 2009 election which saw Ahmadinejad win a second term amid fraud allegations.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Iranian Parliament Members Being Prosecuted for Criticizing Recent Elections

2004-03-17

Nahavand representative Mohammad Reza Ali-Husseini was found guilty of insulting election-supervisory boards and the Guardians Council, ISNA reported on 16 March. The Public Prosecutor’s Office summoned Tehran parliamentarian Mohammad Reza Khatami on 16 March for making critical comments about the February parliamentary elections, ISNA reported. On the same day, the Public Prosecutor’s Office summoned Tehran’s Mohsen Armin, whose resignation was accepted just days earlier, ISNA reported. The complaint relates to his interviews about the elections. Mashhad’s Ali Tajernia said on 10 March that he has been summoned to appear before the special court for government employees, ISNA reported. Tehran’s Mohsen Mirdamadi and Isfahan’s Rajab-Ali Mazrui were summoned for unknown reasons, "Hambastegi" reported on 10 March. A parliamentary source told ISNA on 7 March about other cases: Kazerun’s Mohammad-Baqer Baqeri-Nejad-Fard is to appear in court following a complaint from the police; Sardasht and Piranshahr’s Hasel Daseh faces a complaint from the police; Pakdasht’s Mohammad Qomi was summoned for unknown reasons; Khavaf and Rashtkhar ’s Gholamheidar Ebrahimbay-Salami was summoned in relation to his work for "Hambastegi" daily; and Isfahan’s Ahmad Shirzad was summoned for a speech he made in December.

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Iran

MPs say they defend republican aspect of Islamic Republic

2004-01-25

Members of Parliament protesting the Guardian Council`s methodology in disqualifying the incumbent MPs said on Sunday that certain elements behind the scenario have attempted to strip the Islamic Republic of its republican aspect. No! Really? Who'da thunkit? Deputy head of the Majlis Commission on National Security and Foreign Affairs Mohsen Armin read out the twelfth statement of the sit-in MPs challenging the obstacle the Guardian Council created in determining the religious commitment of applicants. They reiterated their belief that constitutionally it is not up to the Guardian Council to gauge religious commitment of the applicants and maintained that the conservatives who suffered a humiliating defeat in the year 2000 election have launched a campaign against the reform camp to humiliate the incumbent MPs. Y'might say that. They're using whatever weapons are at hand... "It is a dictatorial mentality to humiliate the others by disqualifying people`s representatives to see whether they have religious commitment," the statement said broadcast on FM radio. "Don`t play with public conscience. Don`t pretend yourself as advocates of people. Disclose your despotic desire to manipulate people`s votes," part of the statement said. "Democracy cannot be harnessed by adding the adjective `religious` to it. It has only one meaning. When you respect democracy, you should take it for granted that it will comply with the religious values of the community. You cannot sacrifice democracy under pretext that we want religious democracy," the statement said. On the other hand, you can have theocracy and call it "democracy," and a certain number of the rubes will buy it. Won't they?

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Axis of Evil

Iran reformist MP slams crackdown

2002-07-31

A leading Iranian reformist MP slammed Wednesday the harsh sentences handed down to members of an opposition party last week by the conservative-dominated judiciary and the suspensions of newspapers. Mohsen Armin, one of the main leaders of the leftist Organization of Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution, told his fellow lawmakers that the dissolution of the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM) and the jailing of 33 of its members came "at a time when we are a constant target of American criticisms on human rights (practices) and the lack of political and social openness. Not only these decisions do not benefit us, they worsen the atmosphere." Ummm... Does that mean he's acknowledging that what we said is true?

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