Unspoken Details of the Mysterious Death of a Street Vendor in Qom

The newspaper Shahrvand reported on the "Unspoken Details of the Mysterious Death of a Street Vendor in Qom," emphasizing that "the family of the fruit seller blames the municipal agents for the death of Mozafar Abbasi." The newspaper noted that "the confrontation between municipal agents and Mozafar moments before his death led acquaintances and local merchants to hold the sidewalk agents responsible for this incident." It stated: "However, Qom municipal officials deny the involvement of the sidewalk agents in the death of this fruit seller, claiming that this vendor became ill two hours after the presence of the sidewalk agents and their confrontation with him, and died as a result of hitting his head on the curb. Yet, the citizens of Qom accept their own narrative of the incident and continue to protest against the actions of the sidewalk agents towards street vendors in the city." Mohammad Abbasi, Mozafar Abbasi's brother-in-law and cousin, told Shahrvand: "The municipality wants to evade responsibility for Mozafar's death. While all the merchants and locals were present there, everyone says the agents initially went after Mozafar's vehicle. They confronted him several times. One of the agents grabbed his throat and squeezed hard while hitting him on the head. Then the people intervened, and the physical confrontation temporarily ended. One of them sat inside his pickup truck, waiting for a tow truck to take his vehicle to the parking lot. Mozafar pleaded with them, but the agents insisted that the vehicle be taken to the parking lot. Even his mother and father intervened, and the people gathered and asked the agents to back off. When Mozafar saw the agents' insistence, he asked them to let him take his goods out of the back of the truck. Apparently, they allowed him to do so. He began to take grapes out of the truck when he confronted the agents again and hit his head against the curb, dying right there. When the ambulance arrived, they took his body away." Mozafar's brother-in-law rejected the statements of municipal officials, saying: "Many incorrect statements have been made during this time. All of this is a lie. The mayor stated in an interview that they are waiting for the funeral of this vendor to attend and express their condolences. We buried Mozafar, but not a single municipal employee attended the ceremony. During this time, not one person from the municipality checked on this family. We are dissatisfied with the Qom municipality. Qom's state television prepared a 40-minute program from my cousin's house, but they didn't air a single second of it. The only statements regarding this incident from state television were those of the municipality. But the reality is that Mozafar was killed due to a confrontation with the municipality's sidewalk agents." The newspaper Hamdeli reported with the headline "The Footprints of Mortezaei in the Court of Zanjani's Accomplices," stating: "In the session on Tuesday addressing the accusations against Babak Zanjani's partners, the third accused spoke of meetings between Babak Zanjani and Saeed Mortezaei. These meetings were related to transactions concerning 138 companies under the Social Security Organization." According to this newspaper, Hamid Fallah Heravi, the third accused in this case, stated in court: "One of Saeed Mortezaei's friends, named 'M', introduced Babak Zanjani to Mortezaei, and I did not know Mr. Mortezaei. Mortezaei asked me to write a handwritten letter stating that this amount should be converted into 5 checks so that the financial department could act on it; this operation had nothing to do with me; they wrote the checks themselves, and why they wrote 3 billion more is not my concern." Hamdeli reported that Hamid Fallah Heravi, defending himself, said: "At the end of 2009, Zanjani was very active in banking matters, and he asked me for help, but I told him I did not understand these matters, so I introduced him to the economic officials of the Ministry of Intelligence at the time. They said they did not care about Zanjani's past imprisonment because he had served his sentence and asked me to not involve myself in subsequent matters." Additionally, "Babak Zanjani himself said that he has transferred 17 billion euros so far and had worked for the Khatam headquarters for 400-500 million euros before meeting me." Newspapers close to reformists or the government of Hassan Rouhani welcomed the appointment of Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi as the "head of the Expediency Discernment Council" in their Tuesday editions. The newspaper Arman with the headline "Revival of Hashemi in the Council," the newspaper Hamdeli with the headline "Maintaining Moderation on the Seat of Expediency," the newspaper Aftab Yazd with the headline "Hashemi instead of Hashemi," and the newspaper Bahar with the headline "Convergence of Expediency and Prudence" published reports about Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi's background and political views and his closeness to Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani. The newspaper Etemad, in a note titled "Choosing Interaction and Tolerance," wrote: "The selection of Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi as the head of the Expediency Discernment Council, given his background in the Iranian judiciary and efforts to implement reforms in it—despite criticisms regarding the employment of some inexperienced, problematic, and controversial judges that are the dark spots of that era—is a blessed choice." Fayyaz Zahed, a political activist, noted in a column for Etemad that Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi's appointment as the head of the Expediency Discernment Council is "in line with the Islamic Republic's strategy to maintain balance and avoid the Expediency Discernment Council from entering the realm of extremism and radicalism. This is a step forward and should be taken positively." The Etemad columnist wrote: "Imagine if, instead of Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, other figures had reached the presidency of the Expediency Discernment Council; in that case, it would seem that this selection sent a not-so-positive message to public opinion and would imply that what has occurred contradicts the approach and method pursued by Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani during the years he presided over the Expediency Discernment Council." The newspaper Bahar also quoted Dariush Qanbari, a former member of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, emphasizing that "Shahroudi is a suitable replacement for Rafsanjani" and wrote that "Mr. Shahroudi's character is generally a moderate and centrist one and can, in a way, bring together various factions and currents, and in this respect, Hashemi Shahroudi is a very good option for the presidency of the Expediency Discernment Council." The newspaper Shargh also focused on the appointment of the president and members of the sixth term of the Expediency Discernment Council, writing with the headline "Hashemi Shahroudi Replaces Hashemi Rafsanjani": "Seven months after the death of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second president of this institution, he was appointed by the Supreme Leader as the new president of the Expediency Discernment Council." This newspaper noted that "in these past months, there were many speculations regarding the presidency of this position, and Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi was one of the mentioned candidates." Two months after the death of Hashemi Rafsanjani, the fifth term of the Council also came to an end; however, the appointment of the new president and members was delayed for seven months. In the new appointment, seven real members have been added to the Council, and Ali Larijani and Hassan Rouhani, who were previously real members of the Council, are no longer present in this term and only have a presence due to their legal membership, while some, like Hassan Habibi, Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Habibollah Asgaroladi, are no longer alive and thus absent. The Shargh newspaper pointed out that Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi was "born on September 1, 1948, in Najaf" and was "one of the prominent students of Ayatollah Sadr" and after the revolution and his return to Iran, he was a liaison between Mohammad Baqir Sadr and some of the scholars of Najaf with Ayatollah Khomeini." It noted: "Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi has been a member of the Guardian Council since 1994 until he was appointed by the Supreme Leader on August 4, 1999, as the head of the Iranian judiciary, a position he held until 2009, and after leaving the judiciary, he returned to the ranks of the jurists of the Guardian Council." This newspaper reminded that "Ayatollah Shahroudi is the second deputy of the Assembly of Experts and a member of the Society of Teachers of Qom Seminary" and also, by the order of the Supreme Leader, he is the head of the "High Council for Resolving Disputes and Regulating Relations between the Three Branches" and the "Encyclopedia of Islamic Jurisprudence According to the Ahl al-Bayt School." According to the Shargh newspaper, "Various reports have been published about Ayatollah Shahroudi's health status in the past year or two; in May of this year, he was hospitalized, and at the same time, his office announced in a statement that 'the surgery was fully successful, and by God's grace, the short recovery period will pass quickly, and he will be present in the field of science and politics in full health.'" The newspaper Qanoon also welcomed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi's appointment as the head of the Expediency Discernment Council with the headline "In Continuation of Hashemi" and wrote: "Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi is considered one of the moderate forces, and it is hoped that he can continue the path of moderation taken by Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani." Regarding the members of the Expediency Discernment Council, however, the Shargh newspaper noted that "the only new member added in the legal section is Major General Mohammad Baqeri, the Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces," stating that the new real members include "Ibrahim Raisi, the custodian of the Astan Quds Razavi, the son-in-law of Alam al-Huda and an electoral rival of Hassan Rouhani," "Mohsen Mojtahed Shabestari, a member of the Assembly of Experts and former Friday Imam of Tabriz," "Ahmad Tavakoli, an economist and former member of parliament who did not make it to the tenth parliament due to the failure of the principlists in the parliamentary elections in Tehran and currently runs a civil society organization called 'Watchdog of Transparency and Justice' in the field of fighting corruption," "Mohammad Sadr, a diplomat and currently a senior researcher at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," and of course "Mohammad Baqeri Qalibaf, the former mayor of Tehran for 12 years and an electoral rival of Hassan Rouhani who has previously tested his luck in presidential elections twice, and Mohammad Mir Mohammad, the special office chief of the president during Ayatollah Khamenei's presidency." The newspaper Qanoon also emphasized that "another noteworthy point in the issuance of these decrees is the retention of Ahmadinejad and the entry of Qalibaf and Raisi into the Expediency Discernment Council, and on the other hand, the employment of Mohammad Sadr as one of the reformist forces who also has a good relationship with the reformist base and its leaders." Some newspapers close to the principlist faction did not highlight Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi's appointment as the head of the Expediency Discernment Council in their main headlines and instead focused on the part of the Supreme Leader's decree emphasizing the need for structural changes in the Expediency Discernment Council. The newspaper Javan, close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, is among these newspapers that, in its front page, quoted from Ali Khamenei's decree for the president and members of the sixth term of the Expediency Discernment Council, stating: "Change the structure and content of the Expediency Discernment Council." Kayhan highlighted the appointment of the president and new members of the Expediency Discernment Council in its front page, stating that the Supreme Leader "appointed the president, secretary, and members of the Expediency Discernment Council for a five-year term." The newspaper Resalat also wrote in a similar front page: "The members of the new term of the Expediency Discernment Council have been appointed." Some newspapers close to the principlist faction, including the newspapers Vatan-e-Emruz, described the appointment of the members of the sixth term of the Expediency Discernment Council as a "new council" and the newspaper Siasat-e-Rooz as a "new era of expediency." Vatan-e-Emruz emphasized in its report that "Hashemi Shahroudi is a thoughtful and revolutionary cleric" and wrote that "after the death of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, many considered Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi the most likely candidate for the presidency of the Expediency Discernment Council due to his background." This newspaper also wrote: "There are changes compared to the previous term, and that is the nature of the membership of Hassan Rouhani, Ali Larijani, and Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati in the Expediency Discernment Council. Hassan Rouhani and Ali Larijani, who were real members of the Council in the previous term, have become legal members in this term, while Ayatollah Jannati, the secretary of the Guardian Council, is a real member of the new term of the Expediency Discernment Council in addition to his legal membership." The newspaper Iran, close to the government, reported on "increased hopes for the vote of confidence for the twelfth cabinet" and wrote: "The news for the proposed cabinet has taken on a better color and flavor. Although the parliamentary factions have not yet announced their conclusions regarding the proposed ministers, members of the two factions of Independents and Hope emphasized in statements that the entire proposed cabinet may receive a vote of confidence from the parliament." The newspaper Arman, however, speculated that some proposed ministers may face difficulties in obtaining a vote of confidence, noting: "On Tuesday, some ministers came to the parliament and answered questions from the parliamentary factions. Ali Rabiei was one of these ministers, and some believe he is among those who will need to work hard to gain the parliament's vote of confidence." Kayhan, regarding the reason for not introducing a proposed minister for science, wrote: "Ali Khaki Sediq was mentioned as the main candidate for the Ministry of Science, but due to not accepting some imposed conditions, he was removed from the list of ministers at the last hour."