The first death sentence has been passed against a defendant accused of involvement in the protests in Iran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election, prompting fears of a wave of executions against opposition activists.
A revolutionary court in Tehran handed the penalty to Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani, 37, after convicting him of muhabereh — taking up arms against Iran’s Islamic system.
The sentence was imposed after he confessed to working for a little-known exile group, the Iran Monarchy Committee (IMC), which Iranian officials describe as a terrorist organization. Prosecutors alleged that he plotted political assassinations with US military officials in Iraq before returning to Iran “aiming at causing disruption during and after the election.”
Ali-Zamani admitted guilt during a series of public mass trials that began in August in which scores of senior pro-reformist politicians confessed to fomenting the unrest that followed Ahmadinejad’s victory. Opposition leaders condemned the events as “show trials” and say defendants were tortured to force them to confess. Human rights campaigners on Thursday challenged Ali-Zamani’s conviction and warned that it paved the way for further politically driven executions.
“It’s not a good omen,” Hadi Ghaemi of the International Committee for Human Rights in Iran said. “If this is the trend of sentencing then it spells really bad news that we should expect more political executions along these lines. That’s why this verdict has to be protested right now both inside and outside Iran.”
More than 100 people arrested in the upheaval remain in custody, including prominent supporters of the defeated reformist candidates, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who insist the election was stolen.
Ali-Zamani was accused of meeting an American called Frank in the Iraqi city of Irbil and passing information about conditions inside Iran in exchange for money. He was also alleged to have received instructions on how to build a chemical weapon from a fellow member of the IMC. Another part of the indictment alleges that he met two US military officers named “Mike and Robert” and gave them information on Iranian officials who had allegedly been targeted for assassination.
Prosecutors said Ali-Zamani took part in an operation in which he gave the IMC information on members of the hardline Basij volunteer militia. They said he had conducted “vast communication activities” inside Iran before being arrested by intelligence officers.
The allegations were dismissed by the IMC, which is run by Iranians living in Europe and the US. A committee spokeswoman, Dordaneh Fouladvand, confirmed that Ali-Zamani had worked with the organization but insisted he had played no role in the post-election protests. His activities had been limited to working for its radio station, Radio Tondar, she said.
“We are surprised by the confession he has made in court. He has given it under pressure and we strongly deny all he has said,” Fouladvand said. “He had absolutely no links with the Americans.”
Ghaemi said Ali-Zamani’s arrest may have happened before the election, raising the possibility his execution verdict had been passed to deter further protests.
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un sent Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) greetings with what appeared to be restrained rhetoric that comes as Pyongyang moves closer to Russia and depends less on its long-time Asian ally. Kim wished “the Chinese people greater success in building a modern socialist country,” in a reply message to Xi for his congratulations on North Korea’s birthday, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported yesterday. The 190-word dispatch had little of the florid language that had been a staple of their correspondence, which has declined significantly this year, an analysis by Seoul-based specialist service NK Pro showed. It said
On an island of windswept tundra in the Bering Sea, hundreds of miles from mainland Alaska, a resident sitting outside their home saw — well, did they see it? They were pretty sure they saw it — a rat. The purported sighting would not have gotten attention in many places around the world, but it caused a stir on Saint Paul Island, which is part of the Pribilof Islands, a birding haven sometimes called the “Galapagos of the north” for its diversity of life. That is because rats that stow away on vessels can quickly populate and overrun remote islands, devastating bird
‘CLOSER TO THE END’: The Ukrainian leader said in an interview that only from a ‘strong position’ can Ukraine push Russian President Vladimir Putin ‘to stop the war’ Decisive actions by the US now could hasten the end of the Russian war against Ukraine next year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Monday after telling ABC News that his nation was “closer to the end of the war.” “Now, at the end of the year, we have a real opportunity to strengthen cooperation between Ukraine and the United States,” Zelenskiy said in a post on Telegram after meeting with a bipartisan delegation from the US Congress. “Decisive action now could hasten the just end of Russian aggression against Ukraine next year,” he wrote. Zelenskiy is in the US for the UN
CARTEL ARRESTS: The president said that a US government operation to arrest two cartel members made it jointly responsible for the unrest in the state’s capital Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday blamed the US in part for a surge in cartel violence in the northern state of Sinaloa that has left at least 30 people dead in the past week. Two warring factions of the Sinaloa cartel have clashed in the state capital of Culiacan in what appears to be a fight for power after two of its leaders were arrested in the US in late July. Teams of gunmen have shot at each other and the security forces. Meanwhile, dead bodies continued to be found across the city. On one busy street corner, cars drove