Jahanbegloo’s ‘Confessions’ are Ready for TV

It is reported that Ramin Jahanbegloo’s ‘confessions about his so called role in the velvet revolution of Iran are going to be soon broadcast on national television in Iran. Earlier, the High Cultural Revolution Council had announced similar accusations about Jahanbegloo's connection with the velvet revolution. Keyhan and Resalat newspapers too had announced that a film on such confessions was forthcoming.

While international groups have expressed their serious concern about the health, physical and psychological conditions of this Iranian thinker, the publication of the news about his imminent TV confessions has raised that concern many-fold. Confessions usually take place after a prison remains is subjected to psychological pressure by being isolated from the outside world, followed by threats and intimidations so that the prisoner comes to believe that he has no other choice than to accept the wishes of his captors.

Most people who have made such confessions before the cameras have later said that what they said was under duress and that their confessions lacked any credibility, which indicates the pressures that they had been subjected to in the past.

The public of course is not new to this tactic and therefore does not believe what it hears, recognizing that prisoners are under pressure to perform as the officials desired.

Pressuring Jahanbegloo to make confessions about participating in a velvet revolution came after Iran announced that it would allocate funds to counter the $75 million that the US Department of State had provided for working with pro-democracy people in Iran.

Normally, these television confessions are designed in such a way that the prisoner lists a number of names so as to incriminate other political and social activists so that the intelligence agencies can then silence and exert pressure on other groups.

Previous mention of his taped confession...

Tehran (AsiaNews) – A tape of the confession of Ramin Jahanbegloo, the Iranian intellectual, dissident and Harvard and Sorbonne graduate arrested on May 3 on charges of “relations with foreigners, was shown in some Iranian cultural circles, this according to Iranian newspaper Resalat.

The conservative paper used this information in an article to counter the July 10 statement by the presidency of the Council of the European that called on Iran to respect the commitment it has undertaken to protect human rights, expressing its “continued concern” for the fate of the dissident. In its statement the EU also said that it remained “concerned about the apparent shortcomings in due process surrounding Dr. Jahanbegloo’s arrest and detention” and “underlines the inherent unreliability of confessions made in prison without adequate legal safeguards.

According to Resalat, in his taped confession Jahanbegloo explains how he was in touch with certain individuals in Canada and how he infiltrated anti-revolutionary groups through a European ambassador. The paper claims that the dissident also confessed that he was on a mission to participate in a ‘velvet revolution’ in Iran.

Resalat, which has often reported news from Iran’s security agencies, and which has in the past revealed details about ‘confessions’ by other detained journalists and intellectuals, did not explain this time why a detainee’s interrogations and remarks were shown to a group of individuals at a time when the case, according to official statements, is still in its investigative phase.

According to unofficial sources cited in Rooz online, Jahanbegloo’s video confession was shown to members of Iran’s Cultural Revolution Council (who are appointed directly by the leader of the regime), who formulate the country’s cultural policies at the highest levels.

The same sources suggest that the video apparently shows interrogators getting Jahanbegloo to confess that some 20 prominent figures in Iran’s cultural and intellectual milieus are cooperating with the West and the US.

Following Mr Jahanbegloo’s arrest, Iran’s Intelligence Minister, Mohseni Ejhei, said in a press conference that the dissident was connected to a ‘velvet’ revolution planned for Iran.

“The US has been organizing for a soft or velvet revolution for many countries around the world, including Iran, and Jahanbegloo was part of that preparation,” he said.

For the minister, the dissident had a ‘mission’ to this end, but was uncovered by the intelligence apparatus of the Islamic regime. Currently, the intelligence services are still investigating him and would decide how much to reveal after this phase was over.

Source: AsiaNews

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