Purple People Vote

Large scale arrests of protesters, reporters, and even British emassaries has raised serious concerns about the treatment of those detained.  The lack of cause for detention is also troubling. From around the web the following sources relay some of the pressing issues/concerns in Iran. 

Radio Free Europe addresses what happens to people arrested in Iran. What Will Happen To Those Arrested In Iran? I Can Tell You

By official count, some 450 people have been arrested in opposition protests against Iran’s presidential election results. Many sources inside Iran put the count in the thousands. To those arrested 10 years ago, in Iran’s last great wave of student demonstrations, what the new detainees face next is already clear. Ali Fathi (a pseudonym) was one of those students arrested in 1999. This is his story.

What will happen to the people who have been arrested in the protest rallies in Iran? I can tell you.

I was arrested during the 1999 student demonstrations in Tehran, exactly 10 years ago.

What I did was as trivial in terms of real crime as what the protesters in Iran have done now by expressing rage over the presidential election results.

But the punishment I received was so out of proportion to my actions – and so truly criminal – that I had to flee my homeland and seek political asylum in Europe.

World News Argyf reports Battle for Iran shifts from the streets to the heart of power

The power struggle inside Iran appears to be moving from the streets into the heart of the regime itself this weekend amid reports that Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani is plotting to undermine the power of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Rafsanjani’s manoeuvres against Khamenei come as tensions between the speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also appeared to be coming to a head.

From the NYT

 The Guardian UK also deserves a hat tip for its coverage. The Guardian is asking for information about those “dead or detained” in Iran.  They report Iran has most journalists in jail.

The press freedom organisation said it feared for the safety of those imprisoned in Iran. “Several witness accounts make us fear that torture and ill-treatment are being systematically inflicted on prisoners who have demonstrated against the regime,” RSF added.

“Several journalists and bloggers were brutally treated by the guards and by men employed by the state prosecutor, Saaed Mortazavi.”

Amnesty International today called for the Iranian authorities to release the journalists arrested since the elections. Journalists are at risk of torture in detention, the human rights organisation said, adding that the location of most remained unknown.

“It is shocking that journalists whose job it is to provide information to others are being detained, on top of all the other draconian measures the authorities have taken to restrict the free flow of information about what is really happening in Iran,” said Hassiba Hadj Sahraoui, the deputy director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa programme.

“Rather than trying to investigate alleged abuses, the only message the authorities are sending is that they are seeking to hide the truth, both from their own citizens and the rest of the world.”

From the Sydnet Morning Herald – Iran police out in force as election result upheld.

The head of the Guardians Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, concluded that “the majority of the objections were not deemed infringements or fraud and were only minor irregularities that occur in each election,” the station reported on Monday.

Mousavi’s supporters had boycotted the partial recount of the vote carried out by the council following the complaints of the defeated candidates.

The opposition had demanded a complete rerun and has staged massive public demonstrations in a dispute that has shaken the foundations of the Islamic regime, with unprecedented criticism of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

According to the official results, Ahmadinejad won by a thumping majority of 63 per cent against just 34 per cent for Mousavi, a gap of 11 million votes.

Witnesses said hundreds of policemen and Basij militiamen carrying sticks were deployed in Tehran’s main public squares to prevent any recurrence of the opposition protests over the conduct of the election that have broken out since the June 12 poll.

They said security forces were also randomly checking the boots of cars and vehicles, and checking the identification cards of drivers.

Western governments meanwhile expressed outrage at the continued detention by the Iranian authorities of four locally hired staff of the British embassy in Tehran.

Earlier in the day, Iran freed five of the nine embassy staffers it had initially detained, but British prime minister Gordon Brown slammed the arrests as “unacceptable, unjustified and without foundation” and demanded the immediate release of the other four.

US secretary of state Hillary Clinton described Iran’s treatment of the British embassy staff as “deplorable” and said Washington was following the situation “with great concern”.

Speaking after talks with Brown in London, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso expressed his “full solidarity” with Britain over the arrests.

“Intimidation and harassment are unacceptable and they will be met with a strong collective European response,” he warned.

Similarly CNN reported that the official “recount” had no effect on the the results of the election.

Iran’s election authority: Partial recount shows election valid

Kadkhodaei acknowledged that some ballot boxes may have contained more ballots than the number of voters in a given area, but said that did not necessarily mean there were irregularities. Voters were not restricted to polling places in their home town, so the extra votes could have come from travelers, he said.

Charges of vote buying also were investigated, and “we didn’t find that to be true,” he said.

This absurdity of the government’s logic was noted this weekend on KPFK Digital Village Radio when stating that Ahmedinejad is claiming victory with 135% percent of the vote. 

From Ahmedinejad, major complaints about the West, in a feable attempt to place blame for the massive protests on outside sources… 

Yahoo AP – Iran pledges ‘crushing’ response to US critiques

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed Saturday to make the U.S. regret its criticism of Iran’s postelection crackdown and said the “mask has been removed” from the Obama administration’s efforts to improve relations.

Ahmadinejad — with his internal opponents virtually silenced — all but dared Obama to keep calling for an end to repression of demonstrators who claim the hardline leader stole re-election through massive fraud.

“You should know that if you continue the response of the Iranian nation will be strong,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech to members of Iran’s judiciary, which is directly controlled by the ruling clerics. “The response of the Iranian nation will be crushing. The response will cause remorse.”