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Iranian regime rounds up relatives of opposition leaders in bid to stop protests

Posted by Zand-Bon on Dec 30th, 2009 and filed under Feature Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.

A supporter of the Iranian opposition make his feelings heard outside the Iran's embassy in London

By Martin Fletcher

December 30, 2009

Source:

Iran arrested the sister of the Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi as the embattled regime stepped up efforts to suppress a resurgent opposition yesterday.

Two days after police used lethal force to contain massive nationwide demonstrations, Tehran also lashed out at foreign critics. The Foreign Ministry summoned Simon Gass, the British Ambassador, for a dressing-down. The move appeared to be part of attempts to portray the opposition as a puppet of the Islamic Republic’s Western enemies.

The regime protested at Britain’s “interference in our internal affairs” after David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, lauded the opposition’s “great courage” and lamented the security forces’ “lack of restraint” on Sunday. Manouchehr Mottaki, the Iranian Foreign Minister, declared that Britain would “receive a punch on the mouth” if it did not “stop its nonsense”.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said that Mr Gass had “responded robustly . . . and reiterated [Mr Miliband’s] comments that the Iranian Government must respect the human rights of its own citizens”.

More sinister were the regime’s attempts to silence the opposition by arresting Dr Ebadi’s sister, as well as the brother-in-law of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the leader of the so-called Green Movement, and numerous reformist academics, journalists and human rights activists.

Unable to arrest Dr Ebadi — who regularly denounces the regime from her de facto exile in Europe — the regime sent four intelligence agents to seize her sister, Nooshin, a doctor, from her home late on Monday night.

“I am not aware of the place of her detention, or the reason for her arrest,” said Dr Ebadi, who had already had her Nobel medal confiscated and bank account frozen by the regime. “She is not an activist, and her arrest is in fact new pressure to stop my human rights work.”

Bernard Kouchner, the French Foreign Minister, said Dr Ebadi’s sister was arrested to put “unacceptable pressure on this courageous activist” and demanded the release of all detainees.

The regime also seized Shahpour Kazemi, Mr Mousavi’s brother-in-law, though he was later released on bail, according to the opposition website Rahesabz.

Mr Mousavi’s nephew was one of at least eight protesters killed during Sunday’s demonstrations, and the regime — fearing his funeral could turn into another massive demonstration — has taken his body for “forensic investigation”. Police claimed yesterday that Seyed Ali Mousavi was killed by “terrorists”, not the security forces.

The regime has attempted to silence at least five other prominent opposition supporters since Sunday, by seizing their relatives, according to opposition websites. They include the sons of Ayatollah Seyyed Jalaleddin Taheri, a leading reformist cleric, and of Mostafa Moin, a former minister and presidential candidate.

Far from retreating after Sunday’s bloody scenes, the regime showed every sign yesterday of preparing for an even tougher crackdown.

Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, a cleric close to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, called the opposition leaders “enemies of God” who should be executed under Sharia. Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the conservative-controlled Parliament, demanded “maximum punishment” for protesters who “hijacked” the religious holiday of Ashura on Sunday.

The Revolutionary Guards warned that those responsible for the unrest “will soon pay the cost of their insolence”, while President Ahmadinejad called the protests a “nauseating masquerade” staged by the US and Israel.

The regime held rallies in various cities to show support for Ayatollah Khamenei, and to demand that opposition leaders be punished for fomenting unrest. State-controlled television said that the rallies were spontaneous.

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