Issue Date: November 05, 2009
Iran:
Opposition Protests Disrupt Anti-U.S. Rally; Other Development
Tens of thousands of Iranians November 4 marched in anti-government protests in Tehran, the Iranian capital, that coincided with an official rally marking the thirtieth anniversary of the 1979 seizure of the U.S. embassy by Iranian revolutionaries. It was one of the largest opposition protests since the government had brutally cracked down on mass demonstrations that followed a disputed June presidential election. The opposition in September had also staged large protests to counter a government-sponsored Quds Day (also known as Jerusalem Day) rally. [See 2009 Iran: Students Protest Against Government; 2009 Iran: Opposition Protests at Government Rally]
Other antigovernment protests November 4 were also reported throughout Iran, including in large cities like Tabriz, Isfahan, Rasht and Shiraz. The protests were seen as a sign that the opposition movement was still strong, despite government repression that included the arrests of many of its senior members. The government had warned opposition activists against holding protests to coincide with the pro-government rally, and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, October 28 said questioning the election results was "the greatest crime."
As they did every year, participants in the government-sanctioned rally demonstrated in front of the former U.S. embassy in Tehran, shouting anti-U.S. slogans and burning the U.S. flag. Meanwhile, opposition supporters marched through the streets, wearing green--the color signifying the opposition movement--and chanting, "Death to the dictator," a slogan used in the post-election protests against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They were separated from the pro-government demonstrators by lines of police and members of the Basij militia, who repeatedly charged them with batons and fired tear gas into the crowds. There were reports of several dozen arrests and numerous injuries.
Protesters also marched in front of the Russian embassy in Tehran, saying, "The real den of spies is the Russian embassy." (Iranians for years had referred to the U.S. embassy as a "den of spies.") Opposition activists had criticized the Russian government's early acceptance of Ahmadinejad's disputed victory in the June election.
Security forces reportedly fired a tear gas canister at Mehdi Karroubi, a former parliament speaker and opposition leader who was marching with the protesters. Karroubi reportedly sustained minor injuries, but at least one bodyguard who shielded him was more seriously hurt. Opposition Web sites also reported that another opposition leader, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Moussavi, had been prevented from attending the protests by Iranian security forces, who surrounded his office.
Some opposition protesters reportedly chanted, "Obama, Obama, you are either with us or with them," seemingly in frustration with U.S. President Barack Obama's efforts to diplomatically engage with the Iranian government. Obama before the protests began had issued a statement praising the opposition's "courageous pursuit of human rights," and calling on "the Iranian government to decide whether it wants to focus on the past, or whether it will make the choices that will open the door to greater opportunity, prosperity, and justice for its people."
An Iranian judge October 18 sentenced U.S.-Iranian scholar Tian Tajbakhsh to 12-15 years in prison, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported October 20. Tajbakhsh, who had been arrested in July, was convicted of working for the U.S.-based Open Society Institute, a democracy-building organization founded by billionaire philanthropist George Soros. The Iranian government accused the institute of operating in conjunction with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to foment revolution in Iran. [See 2007 Iran: U.S.-Iranian Detainees Released; Other Developments]
The semiofficial Mehr News Agency October 31 reported that a top Karroubi aide, former Vice President Morteza Alviri, had been released from prison. He had been arrested in early September. [See 2009 Iran: Parliament Approves Ahmadinejad Cabinet; Other Developments]
Britain's Foreign Office October 29 said an Iranian employee of its embassy in Tehran who had been arrested in the June protests had been sentenced to four years in prison, and called for his release. Hossein Rassam was a political analyst at the embassy, and had been charged with espionage and inciting violence. [See 2009 Iran: Opposition Alleges Rape of Jailed Dissidents; Other Developments]
Reformist Web sites October 23 reported that Iranian authorities had raided a prayer ceremony in Tehran and arrested many wives and family members of arrested opposition activists. The ceremony was being held after one detainee, Shahab Tabatabee, had been sentenced to five years in prison that week.
Government supporters October 23 reportedly attacked Karroubi at a press exhibition in Tehran, and Ali Reza Beheshti, a Moussavi aide, October 25 also was attacked at the exposition.
The government October 17 released on bail Maziar Bahari, a Canadian-Iranian journalist for the U.S. magazine Newsweek, the publication reported on its Web site. In a mass trial beginning in August, Bahari had confessed that Western media had orchestrated the postelection protests; activists said his and other confessions had been coerced. [See 2009 Iran's Ahmadinejad Inaugurated After Disputed Election; 100 Dissidents Placed on Trial; Other Developments]
The semiofficial Iran Student News Agency (ISNA) October 10 reported that three people who had been arrested in the protests and tried in the mass trial that began in August had been sentenced to death. The announcement was the first public notice of death sentences related to the postelection unrest. ISNA said two of the defendants, who were identified by initials, were members of the royalist Kingdom Assembly of God, which sought to reinstate the Shah of Iran, while the other was linked to the Mujaheddin-e Khalq (MEK), an exile group that Iran considered to be a terrorist organization. ISNA also said 18 other protesters had received sentences, but did not give further information. A reformist Web site October 8 had identified one of the members of the Kingdom Assembly of God as Muhammad-Reza Ali-Zamani.
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