People Worried About Another Kahrizak

The newspaper Bahar has reported that Nahid Khodakarami, a member of Tehran City Council, during her pre-scheduled speech at the thirty-sixth session of the fifth term of the Tehran City Council, emphasized that "people are worried about another Kahrizak." She stated: "As a representative of the honorable people of Tehran, I request the relevant authorities to clarify this matter and report how many Tehran citizens have been arrested in recent events? How many of them were students? How many have been released? If more than 24 hours have passed since their arrest, have charges been brought against them?" Nahid Khodakarami mentioned that in the past week or two, we witnessed protests during which bitter incidents occurred, and many Tehran citizens, including students, were arrested and imprisoned. It is evident that with the bitter memory that people, parents, and relatives of these individuals have from Kahrizak and the fate of the Rouhollah Aminis, they are very concerned. They worry that another judge, another rogue force, or a cellmate of thugs might make a mistake and, God forbid, an irreversible incident might occur." This member of the Tehran City Council stated that "we all know that the suppressed anger of a generation born and raised after the revolution is seeking its rights, is questioning, and not only does it not receive answers to its questions and demands, but it also witnesses that organizations and institutions, mainly cultural, which have no impact on their daily lives and even the prosperity of the country, are sitting at their table and the table of the future generation of the country, promoting flattery and continuing the trial-and-error management style, devouring the country's resources and fueling despair and hopelessness." According to the Bahar newspaper, Nahid Khodakarami in her speech said: "I request the council presidency to seriously pursue the fate of those arrested in recent events and to provide the best conditions for the presence of the families of the detainees in the Tehran Islamic City Council, and that released students can also pursue their demands through the Tehran Islamic City Council." The newspaper Shargh, with the headline "Non-public Public Sessions," wrote: "The Islamic Consultative Assembly held a 'non-public session' on Sunday. The topics were clear; analysis of current issues, filtering Telegram, detainees, and summarizing the protests in cities, with the presence of the ministers of intelligence and interior, Hossein Salami, deputy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Hossein Ashtari, commander of the police force, and Ali Asgari, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting. However, the information about this 'important and non-public session in the parliament was expressed in sign language and is not clear.'" Shargh quoted Jalal Mirzaei, a representative from Ilam, regarding the discussion of student arrests in the non-public parliamentary session, stating: "According to the Minister of Interior, students constitute only six percent of the total number of detainees, and most of the students who have been arrested were not due to political affiliation but due to their presence in the unrest." He added that "in this matter, all security agencies acted according to their responsibilities and positions to deal with individuals and arrest some." This representative of the tenth parliament also referred to the statements of Mahmoud Alavi, the Minister of Intelligence, in the non-public parliamentary session, saying: "Mahmoud Alavi believed that several causes and reasons simultaneously and in parallel contributed to the formation of these unrests, and it cannot be said that the whole matter was created by foreign guidance," while explaining that "based on the investigations of the Ministry of Intelligence, it has been determined that the unrest began in Mashhad due to the actions of an internal political current, but these protests quickly and within a few hours went beyond the control and management of this current." According to Shargh, it was also mentioned in the non-public parliamentary session that "Friday prayer leaders, with years of emphasis on the dissatisfaction and shortages in the country, have not been ineffective in the formation of these events, and their words, along with the propaganda of some other platforms, have intensified the feeling of deprivation among the people." Heydatollah Khademi, a representative from the city of Izeh, however, provided a different account of the session, stating: "The representatives were not satisfied with the superficial report that friends provided. The issues raised were the same ones we knew, and no new subject was observed in these reports," while "many young people in Izeh suffer from unemployment," and "those who were arrested in the gatherings in Izeh are mostly teenagers and young people aged 16 to 24." The Izeh representative emphasized that in the non-public parliamentary session, "I told the attendees from other institutions that most detainees are young people and teenagers, and they should pay special attention to them and release those who did not play a significant role in these gatherings sooner." The newspaper reported that Behrouz Namati, a representative close to Ali Larijani and spokesperson for the parliamentary board, was tasked after this session to "present some points about this session; points that were ambiguous, unclear, and incomplete," and his remarks "interchanged the term unrest" while "many of the people who came to the streets were not intending to cause unrest but were indeed intending to protest." According to this newspaper, Behrouz Namati stated in part of his remarks that Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Parliament, "thanked the effective actions of the police and the IRGC and emphasized that if someone has been wrongfully arrested, their issues should be thoroughly reviewed and resolved." The newspaper Etemad, in its front page on Tuesday, reported with the headline "Place for Protest" that "with the approval of the plan 'obligating the municipality to provide a suitable place for holding citizens' protest gatherings' in the Tehran City Council, for the first time, a significant step has been taken towards the implementation of Article 27 of the Constitution, which emphasizes the freedom of holding unarmed protest gatherings." This newspaper emphasized that Article 27 of the Constitution, which "was drafted in the context of establishing a democratic governance in the country, has remained for 40 years at the level of slogans and colorful promises, but the recent protests in various cities of the country finally led Ahmad Masjed-Jamei to break this 40-year taboo and courageously propose a plan that obligates the municipality to allocate a place for citizens' protest gatherings." Ahmad Masjed-Jamei also told Etemad: "Our proposal does not necessarily mean that people cannot protest in other places or locations; rather, if it is according to the law, they can hold protest gatherings anywhere, but we, as urban management, want to create a place for them to use for their gatherings if they wish. Therefore, these two do not contradict each other." The newspaper Javan, close to the IRGC, described the Tehran City Council's resolution regarding designating a place for protests as a "security-political resolution" and "illegal," stating: "According to the duties of the City Council and even the municipality, such decision-making has nothing to do with them, but rather institutions such as the Supreme National Security Council, the Ministry of Interior, and the Parliament should make decisions in this regard." This newspaper emphasized that "the City Council does not have the authority to enter into security and political matters" and "the reference to Article 27 of the Constitution for the approved plan is also one of the other wonders," as "the mentioned article specifies two conditions for demonstrations and gatherings: 'without carrying weapons' and 'not contrary to the principles of Islam,' which in the approved plan of the City Council, how to observe these conditions and many other issues is not specified." Abdolsamad Khorramshahi, a lawyer and legal expert, in a note titled "Pasteurized Gatherings" in the Arman newspaper wrote: "The recent resolution of the Tehran Islamic City Council, which obliges the municipality to designate a location in the capital for citizens' protest gatherings within a month, is in fact somewhat inspired by Hyde Park in London, which has historically always been a center for holding demonstrations by various groups. However, in this matter, it is clear that this plan, both in form and content, is contrary to the spirit of Article 27 of the Constitution and will not be executable in practice." The columnist of the Arman newspaper, referring to the fact that "in the recent protests in various parts of the country, most of the protesters were those who were fed up with their economic and livelihood conditions and their patience had run out," asked, "How can such protests and gatherings be regulated and limited to a specific framework and location?" This legal expert emphasized that the current Constitution also "allows the formation of gatherings and marches on the condition that they do not contradict the principles of Islam and that the marchers do not carry weapons," stating: "One of the fundamental rights of citizens is that people should be able to convey their problems and issues to the authorities in any way possible," and "it is the government's duty to manage such gatherings without resorting to any violence. Experience has shown that violent or security responses to those whose concerns are housing, work, food, and security have not been effective and have not yielded positive results." Officials and those in charge know exactly what the legitimate concerns of people who are economically distressed are, and there is no ambiguity or question in this regard. Therefore, it is their responsibility to make every effort to meet the basic demands of the people on a daily basis. The approval of such plans is precisely a way of avoiding the real issue." Javid Ghorban-Oghli, a senior diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, in a note in the Shargh newspaper titled "This is the Beginning of the Story," wrote: "Two days after the first meeting of the United Nations Security Council in the new year (2018) at the request of Ms. Nikki Haley, the US representative at the UN, which was dedicated to the topic of recent protests and unrest in Iran, what has been said so far about this meeting focuses on raising an issue unrelated to the objectives of the Security Council, criticizing the US for its instrumental use of the UN, and highlighting this country's failure in this meeting." However, "if within the framework of this approach, the goal of the US is to escalate political conflict with Iran by internationalizing internal issues in Iran, the recent Security Council meeting was a small success in this direction." The columnist of this newspaper, referring to the fact that "holding such a meeting according to the internal regulations of the Security Council requires obtaining the positive opinion of at least 9 out of 15 members," wrote: "Given the awareness of the countries of the world regarding the US's hardline approach towards the developments of the past week in Iran, the rhetoric that Donald Trump and other officials of this country used regarding the internal developments in Iran, especially in employing some of the slogans of the protesters by Ms. Haley and announcing the bringing of internal developments in Iran to the Security Council, the agreement of these countries with the proposal to raise the issue in that council is noteworthy," especially since "besides China and Russia, representatives of other countries also accompanied the US's rhetoric regarding Iran with specific rhetoric." This Iranian Foreign Ministry diplomat emphasized that "the next step is likely to raise the issue of internal protests in the UN Human Rights Council," stating: "There should be no doubt that, contrary to the JCPOA and the opposition of European allies with the US regarding this agreement, in the matter of human rights and internal developments in Iran, these countries will support the US's position," and a look at the speeches of representatives of these countries in the recent Security Council meeting and the postponement of the visit of the French Foreign Minister and President to Iran also "confirms this claim." The columnist of the Shargh newspaper pointed to the serious determination of the US regarding pursuing the suppression of protests in cities at the UN, emphasizing that "we have the experience of the nuclear case in the issues of resolutions and the cooperation of China and Russia with the US and the West ahead of us. The protests of more countries (except Russia) were mostly procedural with different diplomatic rhetoric," stating that the US is seeking to create "a coalition among opponents and prepare the region and the world" for action against the Islamic Republic, and in Iran, "the people, as in the past, are ready to endure economic pressures, provided that poverty is also distributed fairly and the country's resources are transparently spent for the development of Iran and a bright future for the youth." At the same time, the newspaper Javan reported in its Tuesday issue about the possibility of "sanctions on the IRGC and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting," stating that following the protests in cities, "the US and the UK" are planning to impose new sanctions against "the IRGC and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting." This newspaper close to the IRGC also labeled some forces in Iran as "Western-oriented currents" and accused them of "collaborating with the twelfth government in recent days to challenge the performance and function of these two revolutionary institutions and, as in the past, incite public opinion against them." The newspaper Jahane San'at reported on its front page about the "green light from the parliament for the sale of illegal imported goods," stating: "The government becomes complicit with smugglers." According to this newspaper, "Based on the new resolution of the Joint Commission of Parliament, which has its specific supporters, the sale of smuggled goods has been permitted in 2018, and 10 trillion tomans of the proceeds will be allocated to job creation in the country. However, this is while, according to the latest resolution of the Joint Commission, Clause 18 of the bill, which was related to the income of 17 trillion and 400 billion tomans from the increase in energy prices for job creation and production, has been removed." Jahane San'at reminded that "according to this resolution, which was approved after numerous objections, the goods in the possession of the Organization of State Property, consisting of smuggled goods, must be sold, and the proceeds of up to 10 trillion tomans will be allocated to employment," stating that "regarding this resolution, although experts and economic commentators have differing opinions and are not entirely opposed to it, they believe that what can significantly impact production and employment in the country is a serious fight against the entry of these goods into the country."