The New Charge: Meeting With Mousavi and Karoubi

While Iranian political, civil and media activists who were arrested en masse after the announcement of last year’s presidential elections continue to be kept in security wards of Evin and other prisons of the Islamic republic on charges of instilling doubt into the results of the elections and making various anti-state accusations, the country’s security has recently discovered a new charge against them: Meeting reformist leaders Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karoubi and seyed Mohammad Khatami. Indictments that have been drawn up by the judiciary since March 21st contain this new charge against media and political activists.

Since June 13 of 2009 a number of individuals who had been arrested after visiting Mousavi had been arrested. But they were also released shortly after that. An example of this are the 70 university professors who were members of Islamic societies across the country who were arrested after meeting with Mousavi in July 2009.

But since March 21st (This is the beginning of the Persian new year) security officials have threatened most of those who visited Mousavi or Karoubi with arrest.

One political activist who received such a threat through a telephone call from a security agent told Rooz that he and he received a telephone call from a security official shortly after he and his political group met with Mehdi Karoubi who told them that that arrest warrants had been issued for all of them and warned that should they visit them again they would be detained.

Fatemeh Adinevand, the wife of Abdollah Momeni – a student activist and spokesman of the Danesh-Amookhtegan student group who was eventually tried and received an eight year prison sentence - also had revealed earlier that before Mousavi came to their house, she received a call from Tehran’s intelligence bureau threatening them that Mousavi’s visit to their house would be harmful to Momeni, who was behind bars. After refusing to heed to this warning, Momeni was returned to the notorious Ward 209 of Evin prison.

The Human Rights Reporters committee says that in recent days members of a number of religious-national and student groups who had visited Mehdi Karoubi have been contacted and threatened by officials and told in clear language that “the outcome of these visits would be bad and would eventually end up in Evin.”

Kalameh website close to Mousavi reports that by the middle of March 2010 security agents were busy trying to create obstacles for the public to meet Mousavi and Karoubi as such visitations and meetings increased because of the traditional visitations that are carried out as the Persian calendar turns its year. Agents called and threatened individuals they knew were planning such visits. “Since physical confrontation with these individuals and blatant threats would be costly for the administration and would fuel wide dissatisfaction, agents resorted to intimidation and arrest of social and political activists. They presented their justification to be: Meeting and holding talks with the leaders of the Green Movement.”

Defrocking, Imprisonment and Deprivation

Imprisonment, along with bans on political and social activist are the fruits of the electoral coup of last year’s contested June 12 presidential elections. Many media, political and media activist have been given extra-ordinarily heavy prison sentences since then. In the most recent case, the public relations office of the general and revolutionary court in Tehran announced court sentences for Mohsen Mirdamadi, Dawood Soleymani and Mostafa Tajzadeh.

According to the office, branch 15 of the revolutionary court charged the three political activists with acting against state security and engaging in anti state propaganda and sentenced them to 6 years of prison and banning them from engaging in party or media activities for 10 years.

Soheil Mahmudi is one such activist who was arrested after the presidential elections and sentenced to three years by a court in the province of Tehran. Prior to this he had received a four-year probation prison sentence.

Seyed Ahmad-Reza Ahmadpour, a cleric researcher and blogger who had received a court sentence in 2009 and had been defrocked presented himself to judiciary officials. The charges against this cleric were acting against state security by giving interviews to foreign media, propaganda against the state damaging the respect of the clergy. Ahmadpour rejected the charges against him, yet he did not officially challenge the court sentence. Ahmadpour is a member of the Jebhe Mosharekat (Participation Front) and also a teacher a clerical teacher.

Two Prisoners in Limbo

Ehsan Mehrabi, a reporter for Farhikhtegan newspaper who has been in detention since June 8th, met his wife last Thursday and told her that he was still in solitary confinement and his status was in limbo. According to his wife, his spirits were good and he repeatedly said that he had not committed any crime but was concerned about his wife and mother. According to reports, Mehrabi’s interrogator and specialist had told him during his last interrogation session that Mehrabi had still not been convinced. The journalists in turn had told the interrogator how he expected him to accept responsibility for something that he had not done.

Another prisoner, Yaser Maasoomi, who was in charge of Shargh newspaper, had also been in detention for over 45 days while his status too was in limbo. According to the websites dedicated to Green Movement prisoners, Maasoomi who was arrested the cyber division of the Passdaran Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) when he responded to a summons by officials from the ministry of intelligence, continued to be in a solitary confinement cell of ward 209 of Evin prison while no charges had been brought against him. His father is a prominent member of the religious-national movement in Arak but has not been politically active. Family members who visited the prisoner say that he had lost a lot of weight and they expressed concern over his physical and emotional condition.

Mousavi’s Telephone Conversations With Zeidabadi

Mir-Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard managed to have a telephone conversation with prisoner Ahmad Zeidabadi when they visited the journalist’s family in their house. According to Advar student news agency his wife said, “Despite all the problems, Ahmad has is in very good spirits and is resisting, and he has said that his family members should not be stressing the fact he is being held with non-political convicts because they too are the victims of the unfair conditions in society.”

In addition to having meetings in person, Zeidabadi has managed to call his home and briefly speak with Mousavi and Rahnavard from Rajai Shahr prison.