Iran: The Green Brief #29 (July 15) Latest news from Iran

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http://iran.whyweprotest.net/green-brief/14394-green-brief-29-july-15-a.html

The Green Brief #29 (July 15)

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Protests / Unrest

1. The main lawyers’ association of Iran announced on Tuesday that a new rule for lawyers devised and about to be implemented by the Judiciary was infringing upon their freedoms and was against the constitution. Today, 52 prominent Iranian lawyers released a statement calling upon the government to respect people’s rights. They asked the government to charge people within 24 hours of their arrest or set them free.

2. Families of more than 30 political prisoners rallied in front of the Islamic Courts in Tehran, asking for the immediate release of their loved ones. The Mourning Mothers group has asked on the people of Iran to join them in their upcoming rally which is to be held next week. On Thursday, prayer sessions will be held across Iran for the safe return of detained protesters across Iran.

3. Isfahan’s governor announced today that anyone who supports Mousavi is an enemy of Islam. It has been reported that electricity and water supply have been cut off in many main bazaars in Iran’s Kurdish areas because they held wide-spread strikes. This can only be partially confirmed. There were also reports of a bomb explosion in Sanandaj in Kordestan province. Reportedly the bomb exploded inside a government building. This remains unconfirmed at this point.

4. There are rumors that protests are being planned for Friday – none could be confirmed. After reports surfaced that pro-Mousavi people should wear a green band or green clothes to signify their support for him during Friday prayers, twitter sources quickly claimed that it was a government ploy to identify protesters. Many bloggers have explicitly asked people to not wear any green for the Friday prayers in Tehran. A new form of protest by the people of Tehran is to write “Death to the Dictator” on banknotes. The practice is gaining ground and the plan is to have it written down on all banknotes circulating within the country.


Opposition

5. Mahdi Karoubi today visited Sohrab A’rabi’s family. He also announced today that he will continue to fight for the rights of detainees and people whose property has been damaged by the government. He stressed that the government needed to let people know about the whereabouts of their loved ones. The families of several political prisoners also met with A’rabi’s family.

6. Mir Hossein Mousavi announced today that he will be joining the Friday prayers in Tehran this week. There were rumors yesterday that he might not attend and that the statement was a ploy by the government to lure protesters in. His announcement entails that he is joining after repeated requests by his supporters.

7. A source close to Hashemi Rafsanjani claims that Rafsanjani will defend people rights in his Friday prayer sermon and show his discontent with the post-election violence. The source, Ghoratullah Alikhani, a member of the Imam’s Way faction of the parliament, claimed that it was a tipping point in the post-election unrests and Rafsanjani was going to make important pro-protester announcement. Rafsanjani announced yesterday that his relationship with Khamenei was that of two lovers and it would never be broken. It is worth mentioning, however, that Alikhani is a staunch pro-reform MP and videos of him defending Mousavi and lampooning the election in a speech inside the parliament emerged right after the election.


Government / International

8. Government-owned media and several prominent pro-Khamenei and pro-Ahmadinejad politicians are pushing the government to prosecute Mousavi, calling him the instigator for of the current unrest in Iran.

9. After the airline accident in Iran that killed 168 people – all aboard -, Iranian President-Select Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced today that Iran’s airlines were the safest and most secure airlines in the world. The Russian-made plane was traveling from Tehran to Yerevan, Armenia when it crashed near Ghazvin, northwest of Tehran.

10. Reports have confirmed that Ahmadinejad’s new cabinet to be introduced in August will be composed mostly of staunch conservatives. Reports of him forming a compromise government with reformists aboard have been vehemently denied. Today, Vietnamese President Nguyễn Minh Triết called Ahmadinejad and congratulated him on his historic selection as Iran’s president. Nguyễn joins a small number of heads of state that have called and congratulated Ahmadinejad.


Arrests / Releases / Deaths

11. The International Human Rights campaign in Iran announced today that the number of people killed in recent unrests in Iran were far higher than what the government was reported. According to a report published by the organization, last month more than 34 bodies were brought to a morgue in Tehran in a single day while the government claims that no more than 20 people have died in all. According to the report, the bodies were brought to three hospitals in Tehran on June 30. 19 were brought to Imam Khomeini Hospital, 8 to Rasoole Akram Hospital and 7 to Loqmane Hakeem Hospital.

12. It has now been confirmed that several students that have been missing from Birjand University in Southern Khorasan province are currently being held in detention. Among these students are Amin Ostadi and Milad Garajian. It has also been reported that the people in charge of interrogating prisoners at Evin Prison are Saeed Mortazavi, Hasan Zareh Denvai-Heydarifar and Hosseini Rasikh.

13. The Ministry of Information announced today that prisoners held at various prisons in Iran were being interrogated and the police were investigating their crimes. He also claimed that several detainees had confessed to their roles in the unrests in the country and that they also had other evidence to implicate them in violent acts.

Miscellaneous

14. Farhad Fakhreddini, the director of the national Orchestra of Iran quit today over what he called the government’s mistreatment of peaceful protesters.

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