Iran’s Opposition Calls Crackdown ‘Immoral’

Iran’s Opposition Calls Crackdown ‘Immoral’
By ROBERT F. WORTH and NAZILA FATHI
Copyright by The Associated Press
Published: July 25, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/26/world/middleeast/26iran.html?_r=1&ref=global-home


DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The leaders of Iran’s opposition movement sent an open letter of protest to the country’s highest religious authorities on Saturday, complaining that the state had used “illegal, immoral and irreligious methods” in the crackdown following last month’s disputed presidential election and calling for the release of hundreds of people arrested since.

The letter came a day after the funeral of a young protester with links to Iran’s political elite, whose father told a senior military commander that the youth had been beaten after his arrest, held incommunicado and allowed to die of an infection. The funeral drew senior figures, including conservative members of Parliament and a representative from the office of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The open letter was the latest sign of the opposition movement’s continuing defiance, despite stern warnings by leading clerics to drop the issue and an enormous police presence that has largely scuttled street protests for the past week. It followed a similar call eight days ago by former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani to release the detainees.

Separately, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took a step that seemed certain to anger his fellow conservatives by naming a controversial figure, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, as his chief of staff. The president provoked a storm of criticism from hard-liners last week after promoting Mr. Mashaei as his deputy, and he defied an order from Ayatollah Khamenei to remove him. Mr. Mashaei finally withdrew.

In cities around the world on Saturday, protests against the election and its aftermath were held in a campaign coordinated by human rights groups.

The reformers’ letter was signed by 69 leading figures, including Mir Hussein Moussavi, the main opposition candidate who many Iranians say they believe was the real winner of the June 12 election; Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist cleric and candidate; and Mohammad Khatami, the reformist former president.

The opposition leaders denounced the use of torture to obtain confessions and noted that “in recent days worrying news of the physical and psychological health of many of those in custody has intensified our concerns.”

Those words may have been prompted in part by the death of the young man buried Friday, Mohsen Ruholamini. His father is an adviser to the presidential candidate and former Revolutionary Guards leader Mohsen Rezai. His was the first major funeral of a casualty of the postelection violence, as families have been barred from holding large public services. At least one man has been arrested for publicizing his son’s death.

The influential head of Iranian state television, a friend of the Ruholamini family, offered a large mosque in northern Tehran for the mourning service on Sunday, but the father, Abdolhussein Ruholamini, said he canceled the event to avoid any possibility of violence or unrest, according to reports on Iranian Web sites. He also said that he would use all means to find out what happened to his son and why, the reports said.

Mr. Ruholamini said he had tried for days to find his son, who was arrested in Tehran on July 9. Finally he was directed to the morgue, where he found his son’s body, brutally beaten, his mouth “smashed,” according to an account by a retired senior Revolutionary Guards commander that was posted on various Iranian Web sites and blogs. The report said that Iranian newspapers refused to publish the account.

In another surprising turnabout on Saturday, the head of Parliament’s intelligence committee told the semiofficial Fars news agency that the intelligence minister had changed his mind about broadcasting videotapes of some detainees confessing to plotting a revolution. The opposition and human rights groups say such confessions were wrung from people under duress.

The opposition leaders’ open letter used language that was angry and blunt.

The letter called the government’s crackdown “reminiscent of the oppressive rule of the shah,” who was toppled in Iran’s 1979 revolution. It denied and deplored the accusations of a “velvet revolution,” and criticized the state media and the use of “show confessions.” It even accused the authorities of violating the precepts of the Islamic republic and its revered founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. “The organizations behind this plot have brought us to a point where being a member of an election campaign has become an unforgivable crime,” it said, “even though on repeated occasions the late founder of the Islamic republic and the most distinguished officials of this system have approved and encouraged it.”

The letter represents the latest in a series of stark challenges to Ayatollah Khamenei, who has dismissed claims of election fraud. But it seemed unlikely that the letter would win the support of many of Iran’s senior religious figures, analysts said. And it is not clear what they could do to influence Ayatollah Khamenei.

Some prominent clerics have already made clear that they support the opposition’s claims of fraud and injustice. Only one of the nine men who hold the rank of marja-e-taqlid, or source of emulation, has congratulated Mr. Ahmadinejad on his victory. Three others have condemned the violent crackdown that followed.

But few would dare to openly cross Ayatollah Khamenei. Iran’s clergy is less independent than it was before the revolution, and many analysts say it is growing less powerful.

Mr. Karroubi, the cleric and presidential candidate, also sent a separate letter to Iran’s intelligence chief saying the crackdown on protesters has been worse than Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians, The Associated Press reported.

Ayatollah Khamenei delivered his own speech Saturday, broadcast on state radio, in which he called for unity and seemed anxious to tamp down any further dissension among conservatives after a week of acrimony over Mr. Mashaei, the minister who drew criticism for making comments friendly to Israel.

There were scattered demonstrations in Tehran on Saturday, but they appeared to have been quickly beaten back by police, witnesses said. In Vanak Square in north Tehran, well over 100 security officers, many on motorcycles, beat and dispersed protesters, arresting several.

“The problem is, things are disorganized,” said a student, sitting in a cafe just off Vanak Square before the protests started. “If there was a leader with a party and they needed the support of the people, things would be different.”

“We don’t want a revolution,” the student added. “We already had one of those and it didn’t work.”

Robert F. Worth reported from Dubai, United Arab Emirates, and Nazila Fathi from Toronto.