Hung jury Iran style.
Posted on 08/01/2009 10:35:53 AM PDT by nuconvert
A top Iranian reformist who went on trial in a Tehran court with about 100 others on charges of rioting backed down on Saturday from claims of massive vote rigging in the June presidential vote.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, giving testimony in a revolutionary court, said there had been no fraud in the June 12 poll which returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to office for another four years, the Fars news agency reported.
The backdown by Abtahi, a close aide of reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami, deals a blow to the opposition movement which claims that Ahmadinejad's re-election was fraudulent.
"I say to all my friends and all friends who hear us, that the issue of fraud in Iran was a lie and was brought up to create riots so Iran becomes like Afghanistan and Iraq and suffers damage and hardship... and if this happened, there would be no name and trace of the revolution left," Abtahi told the court, according to Fars.
He said reformists and opposition leaders had betrayed Iran's all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
"The 10th (presidential) election was different and it took two or three years to work on it. I think reformists took action to sort of restrict the (supreme) leader," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Hung jury Iran style.
From another report....
“Among the defendants are several prominent reformist opposition activists including former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, former vice speaker of parliament Behzad Nabavi, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and leader of the biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Mohsen Mirdamadi.”
“To find the main instigators of the riots, one should search the government, semi-government and intelligence services of the United States,” he was quoted as saying by IRNA. “
(Tortured Confessions) look at the man! It is this or his life and he knows it.
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Total Lies, but that is what you would expect for Islamo Fascists.
Sounds like he got one of those offers you can’t refuse.
“Say this and you can keep your head attached to your neck.”
Under threat of death, what should a person do?
Fall into line and lkve, or die for the cause?
Religions, for instance, effectively teach that one goes to heaven when dying for their faith.
What should a person do?
Actually, that statement you quoted was made by Iranian/American Kian Tajbakhsh, who has a PhD from Columbia and was arrested about 2 yrs ago also. He should have left.
The man in the photo with the prepared statement in his hand is Mohammad Ali Abtahi, and he looks like he’s lost weight in prison.
“Under threat of death, what should a person do?
Fall into line and lkve, or die for the cause?
Religions, for instance, effectively teach that one goes to heaven when dying for their faith.
What should a person do?”
That depends on the person, their circumstances and the cause.
The man in the photo, Abtahi, is a cleric.
When you look at the history of successful liberation movements there is often a tipping point after which all of the oppressive efforts of the government actually fuel the revolt rather than limit it.
The brutality which once worked to intimidate and suppress the opposition, has the reverse effect and actually turns larger and larger percentages of the population against the government.
Bump!
Thanks for the clarification.
I do not know the players, but have sympathy.
And understand the plight they are facing.
This will not make the demonstrations go away. Ahmadinejed’s inaugural will be the next big test.
The death penalty is probably the least of it.
When the regime really wants to break you, I understand that it is routine for all the females of your family-including children and old women-to be gathered together under official ‘protection’. If you don’t do what the regime wants, they are all brutally gang-raped. I don’t know if anyone could live with that.
On the bright side, I expect this is old news to the populace at large, so these ‘confessions’ are mostly for foreign consumption. Inside Iran, these trials will only stoke the fire further.
"Iran reformer backs down as 100 face riot trial"
"China doctor reveals 100 rules for would-be spacemen" (another thread today)
Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed how many writers these days fail to use adjectives to modify their subjects? For example, writing "Iran" reformer instead of "Iranian" reformer, or "China" doctor instead of "Chinese" doctor. Using a noun to modify a noun would have made any 3d grade Language Arts teacher day groan in agony, back in my school days.
I write for a living, and have noticed this growing trend over the last few years. I can't decide why this is, whether it's political correctness (as if it's somehow racist to call someone from Mexico a Mexican, or someone from Pakistan a Pakistani), or just lazy, sloppy, uneducated writers.
I can forgive people who aren't professional writers for not using proper English, but for those who profess to be reporters and/or editors, letting such crap get through the proofreading process is unforgivable. They should be tarred and feathered, and never again allowed near a computer, typewriter, pencil, pen or even a crayon ever again!
Okay, sorry 'bout the rant. And now back to the thread...
Scouts Out! Cavalry Ho!
Yes, I’ve noticed, but I’ve thought that it had to do with the number of letters they were trying to fit in the space.
A political system headed our way!! Conform, confess, cower or ELSE!
Thank you for the heads up on Iranian “justice.”
I know it is bad, but your story raises the question as to why such uncivilized depravity is not reported elsewhere.
You’re welcome! We can always hope the media loses its blinkers, but until then I recommend reading either Michael Ledeen or Amir Taheri. I can especially recommend Taheri’s latest book, The Persian Night.
At the risk of giving ostammer any new ideas, my guess is that one of Ahmanutjob’s boys probably gave Abtahi a video ten minutes before the trial started showing his family trussed up with thugs holding guns to their temples.
From the Guardian ( http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/aug/02/mass-trial-iranian-opposition-politicians )
An opposition website denounced what it called a show trial and claimed defendants had no access to lawyers. Friends of defendants said they had been shocked by pictures from the packed courtroom showing a haggard-looking Abtahi in a prison uniform with more than a hundred handcuffed defendants. A reformist lawyer, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, quoted Abtahi’s wife as saying the former vice-president had lost 18kg (40lb) after 43 days in custody. Many said they suspected confessions were fabricated or had been obtained under duress.
“If you look at Abtahi’s physical condition ... it is clear he has been tortured and mistreated,” said one friend. “I have known Abtahi for a long time, I know how he uses words and puts them together in a sentence; these are not his words I’ve read today.”
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