Iran police still holding 300 over Sunday protests

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

TEHRAN — Iranian police said on Wednesday that they are still holding 300 of the 500 "rioters" they arrested at the weekend when opposition supporters staged protests during a Shiite religious commemoration.

But police chief Esmaeel Ahmadi Moghaddam stressed that the 500 figure did not represent the total number of people arrested during Sunday's Ashura rituals as other security agencies had also detained protesters.

"On that day, 500 of the rioters were arrested and after investigating their cases, 300 are still held by the police," the official IRNA news agency quoted Ahmadi Moghaddam as saying.

"Not all the arrests were carried out by the police, and other entities like the ministry of intelligence and Basij (Iran's volunteer militia) have also arrested rioters, so the final count will be announced later."



Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jbxVJCauSf5lXQ7xaqqXadQBkfpA

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1. Obama slams Iran, calls for release of protesters (Business Ghana)

News Date: 30th December 2009


President Barack Obama on Monday condemned Iran's crackdown on protesters, saying "history is on the side of protesters".

Obama, who is taking a traditional vacation in his native Hawaii, said the United States "strongly condemns" the oppression of Iranian citizens.

He urged Iranian authorities to immediately free those "unjustly detained" ...

http://www.businessghana.com/portal/news/index.php?op=getNews&news_cat_id=&id=119468

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2. Norway concerned about situation in Iran (Norway Post)

Over the last few days, a number of opposition figures and demonstrators have been arrested in Iran in connection with the Ashura commemorations. “Norway is concerned about the situation in Iran,” comments Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre. According to reports, the brutal treatment of the demonstrators has led to several deaths.

“Norway condemns the use of violence against the demonstrators, and is concerned about the reported arrests of members of the opposition, human rights activists and journalists,” Foreign Minister Støre says ...

“We urge the Iranian authorities to halt the use of violence and political arrests immediately. All those who are being unlawfully detained must be released,” the Norwegian Foreign Minister says.

http://www.norwaypost.no/content/view/22981/26/

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3. Iran summons British ambassador over "interfering" comments by Miliband (CCTV)

2009-12-30 08:12 BJT

TEHRAN, Dec. 29 (Xinhua) -- Iran's Foreign Ministry on Tuesday summoned British ambassador to Iran over the "interfering" comments by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband concerning recent anti-government protests in Tehran, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

On Tuesday afternoon, Simon Gass, the British ambassador, was summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry and was handed over with the Islamic Republic's protests over the UK interference in Iran's internal affairs, the report said.

On Monday, Miliband praised Iran's Ashura Day anti-government protestors for "their great courage" and called on Iran "to observe human rights of its own citizens" ...

http://english.cctv.com/20091230/100936.shtml

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4. MP: West steers riots in Iran

Wed, 30 Dec 2009 10:37:17 GMT

The anti-government protests on Tehran streets on Ashura day were pre-planned and aimed at dealing a blow to the Islamic system, said an Iranian lawmaker pointing the finger of accusation at the West.

In an interview with Al-Alam on Tuesday, Nasser Sudani said: "Reactions by some Western officials are proof enough that they had a role in the unrest and cooperated with the rioters" ...

http://www.alalam.ir/english/detail.aspx?id=92333

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5. Ahmadinejad blames US, Israel (AFP via Himalayan)

TEHRAN: Hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the United States and Israel on Tuesday of staging an anti-government protest in which at least eight people died, saying it was a "nauseating play" ...

http://www.thehimalayantimes.com/fullNews.php?headline=Ahmadinejad+blames+US%2C+Israel&NewsID=217647

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6. Arrest of protesters intensifies in Iran (AP via Detroit Free Press)

Posted: Dec. 30, 2009

Ahmadinejad blasts U.S. and Britain

BY NASSER KARIMI
ASSOCIATED PRESS

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranian security forces intensified their crackdown on anti-government supporters Tuesday, arresting relatives of the country's Nobel laureate and the main opposition leader, and limiting the movement of another top opposition leader ...

http://www.freep.com/article/20091230/NEWS07/912300330/1001/NEWS/Arrest-of-protesters-intensifies-in-Iran

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19. Report: Iranian opposition leaders arrested (Israel News)

Published: 12.30.09, 21:08 / Israel News
A website associated with the Iranian opposition reported that two opposition leaders, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karubi, have been placed under house arrest in the north of the country by Iranian intelligence services. This follows an earlier report from the official Iranian news agency IRNA that the two had fled Tehran to the north after increasing calls to put them on trial following the riots that took place in Iran at the beginning of the week. (Dudi Cohen) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3827647,00.html

Report: Iranian opposition leaders flee to north
Published: 12.30.09, 20:48 / Israel News
Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karubi left Tehran for the north of the country, according to official Iranian news agency IRNA. The report mentioned no names, but noted that "two figures central to the post-election riots escaped from Tehran to the north due to increasing public demands to put them on trial." Recently, several members of parliament have demanded that Mousavi and Karubi be tried following the riots. (Dudi Cohen) http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3827641,00.html

[Wizard777]

7. The Farohar shall be with them. Asha shall surround them.

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8. Iran confirms arrest of Dubai reporter (AMEinfo)

* Iran: 3 hours, 49 minutes ago
The Tehran prosecutor has confirmed the arrest of an Iran-based reporter working for Dubai TV, two days after he went missing, local media reported. 'No one is missing ... a person has been arrested and if the ministry of culture confirms that he had permission to work then he will be freed,' the Mehr news agency quoted Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi as saying. Reza al-Basha, a 27-year-old Syrian, was arrested in Tehran during opposition protests, a colleague told AFP on Sunday ... http://www.ameinfo.com/219979.html

Media body in appeal over missing UAE reporter
MENAFN - Khaleej Times - 30/12/2009
The UAE Journalists Association on Tuesday made a plea for the International Federation of Journalists (IJF) to intervene with the Iranian authorities to know the whereabouts of Dubai TV's Iran-based reporter Rezha Basha, reported missing since Sunday. A Tehran prosecutor on Tuesday said the 27-year-old Syrian reporter had been arrested."No one is missing ... a person has been arrested and if the Ministry of Culture confirms that he had permission to work then he will be freed," the Mehr news agency quoted Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi as saying ... http://www.menafn.com/qn_news_story_s.asp?StoryId=1093292599

Dubai TV reporter held in Iran 'to be freed tomorrow'
Redha Al Basha is expected to be released from Tehran's Evin prison by midday on Thursday
* By Abbas Al Lawati, Staff Reporter
* Published: 13:51 December 30, 2009
Dubai: The Dubai TV correspondent detained in Tehran on Sunday is expected to be freed by Thursday, Gulf News has learned. A colleague of Dubai TV’s Tehran correspondent, Redha Al Basha, has said that the television station’s office has been notified by the Foreign Press Bureau at the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance that the journalist was authorised to work in Iran and was not found to be in violation of any rules ... http://gulfnews.com/news/region/iran/dubai-tv-reporter-held-in-iran-to-be-freed-tomorrow-1.559753

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9. Iran Detains 1,000 in Crackdown on Unrest, Rights Group Says (Bloomberg via Business Week)

December 30, 2009, 02:11 AM EST


By Henry Meyer

Dec. 30 (Bloomberg) -- Iran has detained about 1,000 people in a continuing crackdown on the opposition after the biggest anti-government demonstrations in six months, a human rights group said.

The New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said it feared that the detainees, who include prominent opposition activists and journalists, would be tortured to produce false confessions that the protests were instigated by foreign governments. Police have said more than 300 were arrested ...

http://www.businessweek.com/news/2009-12-30/iran-detains-1-000-in-crackdown-on-unrest-rights-group-says.html

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10. Sister Of Iran's Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi Arrested (RFERL)

Last updated (GMT/UTC): 30.12.2009 07:17

The sister of 2003 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi has been arrested by Iranian authorities, among 10 new arrests reported by the opposition on December 29.

Nushin Ebadi was detained at her home on December 28.

Shirin Ebadi told RFE/RL's Radio Farda that authorities from the Ministry of Information had threatened her sister and told her that she herself must give up her human rights work.

"When my sister was summoned by the Ministry of Information, she was told that she has to move out of her house,” Shirin Ebadi told Radio Farda by phone. “She has a separate house, but it is in the same complex where I am living. And they told her if she doesn’t move, and if I continue working at my job, she will be arrested” ...

http://www.rferl.org/content/Shirin_Ebadi_Says_Sisters_Arrest_Tied_To_Ebadis_Work/1917114.html

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11. Iran limits movements of an opposition leader (AP via Rochester Post Bulletin)

12/29/2009 11:10:01 AM
By Nasser Karimi
Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran -- ... The son of leading opposition figure Mahdi Karroubi told the Associated Press by telephone that guards assigned to his father by Iranian police stopped on Monday providing security for him when he goes out, apparently under police orders. Police have for years provided leading opposition figures with security.

Taghi Karroubi said the measure means his father cannot go outside safely, calling it a "quasi-house arrest." If Karroubi does go out unprotected he risks attack by hardline government supporters. His car was attacked on Saturday when he went out, and the assailants shattered his front windshield.

Karroubi and opposition leader Mousavi were the two defeated reformist candidates in the disputed June 12 presidential election, which set off the worst unrest in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution ...

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=50&a=431400

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12. Ayatollah urges death for opposition leaders (The Toronto Star)

Iran clamping down on reform movement as huge rallies staged to support government

TEHRAN–A representative of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says opposition leaders are "enemies of God" who should be executed under the country's sharia law.

Tuesday's statement by cleric Abbas Vaez-Tabasi coincided with rallies by tens of thousands of government supporters calling for opposition leaders to be punished for fomenting unrest after June's disputed presidential election, state media said ...

http://www.thestar.com/news/world/iran/article/744057--ayatollah-urges-death-for-opposition-leaders

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20. Government allies take to streets in Iran, call for death of opposition leaders (WaPo)

By Thomas Erdbrink
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, December 31, 2009

TEHRAN -- Hundreds of thousands of government supporters rallied in several Iranian cities against the country's political opposition Wednesday, calling for the execution of the movement's two key leaders.

In Tehran, the main targets of the crowd's wrath were Mir Hossein Mousavi, 67, a former prime minister, and Mehdi Karroubi, 72, a Shiite cleric and former parliamentary speaker. The two men challenged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran's June 12 presidential election and emerged as figureheads for a series of opposition street protests after they alleged that the voting was tainted by fraud.

The demonstrators -- who took to the streets in Shiraz, Arak and Qom, as well as in the capital -- also denounced the United States and Britain, which the Ahmadinejad government has accused of fomenting the protests.

More than 190 Mousavi supporters have been arrested in a new government crackdown that has been gathering steam since protests on Sunday led to street battles with security forces, a Mousavi aide said. On Tuesday, Karroubi's team of government-provided bodyguards did not show up to protect the former presidential candidate, according to one of Karroubi's sons ...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/30/AR2009123000185.html?hpid=moreheadlines

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21. Iranian protester prepares for death before every rally (Financial Times)

By Najmeh Bozorgmehr in Tehran

Published: December 31 2009 02:00 | Last updated: December 31 2009 02:00

Whenever Mina, a 36-year-old Iranian, joins a protest against the regime, she carries a piece of paper bearing her name and phone number so that her body can be identified if she is killed.

Thousands have been arrested and many tortured since Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad was re-elected president in June in a vote the opposition says was flawed. But Mina says proudly that she has missed hardly any demonstrations. At least eight people were killed during protests on Sunday.

"My motivation is further strengthened every time I go to a rally, and each time I feel more amazed at how brave others are," says Mina, a researcher with a masters degree. "We have to achieve our goals. There is no way backwards" ...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d3209f4-f5ac-11de-90ab-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

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23. Iran police vow to crush protesters with no mercy (AP)

12/30/2009 10:20:01 AM
By Ali Akbar Dareini
Associated Press

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran's police chief threatened Wednesday to show "no mercy" in crushing any new opposition protests and said more than 500 demonstrators have been arrested in the wake of this week's deadly clashes.

At least eight people were killed in street violence Sunday, the country's worst unrest since the aftermath of the disputed presidential election on June 12. One of those killed was the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was buried Wednesday in a hastily organized ceremony.

Authorities had taken his body from the hospital earlier in the week in what was seen as an attempt to prevent the funeral from turning into another pro-opposition protest. Mousavi and other family members attended the funeral for Ali Mousavi, the official IRNA news agency reported ...

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=50&a=431583

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22. Iranian Mullah: Kill the Protesters

by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Follow Israel news on Twitter and Facebook.

(IsraelNN.com) In a television appearance shocking in its candidness, a leading Iranian ayatollah says that it would be far better for the Islamic Republic to simply murder those protesting against the regime, rather than arrest and beat them. Meanwhile, an unknown group claiming to represent Iranian soldiers threatens to take up arms against the regime.
Killing the opposition protesters, the ayatollah insists, 'is sanctioned by obedience to Allah.'

In a live interview broadcast on the Islamic Republic's national television station sometime within the last two weeks, Ayatollah Mehyaddin Haeri Shirazi described a Communist protest movement from the early years of the Islamic Republic, noting how it was effectively crushed by the authorities. The government targeted opposition activists, he said, "arrested them in the afternoon and the same night announced the names of 30 people killed or executed by the government forces."

In reaction to the arrests and killings, Shirazi continued, "nothing happened. Why? Because they killed them" ...

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135292

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13. Iran: 61-year-old man sentenced to death for speaking at memorial for massacred political prisoners

Wednesday, 30 December 2009

May, 2009 - Families of victims gather at Khavaran Cemetary on the 17th anniversary of 1988 massacre of political prisoners by the Iranian regime.NCRI - On Tuesday, December 29, 2009, the clerical regime sentenced a 61-year-old political prisoner to be hanged for speaking at a memorial ceremony held for members and sympathizers of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) who were massacred by the regime in 1988. The clerical regime’s measure aims to cause fear and intimidation.

Ali Saremi was arrested in September 2007 after speaking at a service honoring massacred political prisoners ...

http://ncr-iran.org/content/view/7631/1/

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14. Iranian police deliberately run over protester

... The amateur video shows one supposedly typical protest in Iran, where green and white police trucks drive into a crowd of demonstrators on Sunday, according to the video’s posters on YouTube. As the demonstrators scatter, you’ll see that one of the trucks had run over one of them, and the truck reverses and speeds away.

It is unclear whether the said demonstrator had been killed, although the video posters claim that that is so ...

http://thenewschronicle.com/iranian-police-deliberately-run-protester-video/123002213/

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18. Iranian police car runs over protester

Thursday, December 31, 2009 » 05:36am

Police in Iran have dismissed reports that one of their vehicles ran over protesters during a pro-reform demonstration in Tehran.

Amateur video reportedly from Sunday's rally shows two police trucks ploughing into a group of protesters.

A truck is then seen reversing from where a body is lying on the ground.

The authenticity of the video hasn't been verified.

http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2009/12/31/Iranian_police_car_runs_over_protester_412307.html

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15. Nephew of Iran's opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi buried (Trend News - Azerbaijan)

The nephew of Iran's opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi Ali Habibi was buried today.

This morning relatives buried Ali Habibi under state supervision, the Green Movement's Web site reported.

Ali Habibi was not killed during the riots, the Iranian police reported.

A man in a passing vehicle shot him on the road ...

http://en.trend.az/regions/iran/1610729.html

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16. Iran treads harder on protests; many die (NYT via Worchester Telegram & Gazette)

By Nazila Fathi THE NEW YORK TIMES

... Sunday’s protests were the bloodiest since the summer, and on Tuesday an opposition Web site, Jaras, said the death toll was likely to be significantly higher than previously thought. The site quoted what it said was a leaked confidential report by the official news agency IRNA, saying that 37 people had been killed.

The security forces had earlier said eight people had been killed in Tehran, and Jaras itself had earlier reported that 13 people were killed in Tehran and elsewhere ...

http://www.telegram.com/article/20091230/NEWS/912300373/1052

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17. UN rights chief: Shocked by excessive violence in Iran (AP via Israel News)

12.30.09, 12:52 / Israel News

The UN's human rights chief says she is shocked by the recent violence in Iran and has urged the government to keep security forces from using excessive force.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says the information available indicates that security forces and pro-government Basij militiamen have used excessive violence against anti-government protesters. Pillay said Wednesday she is "shocked by the upsurge in deaths, injuries and arrests."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3827366,00.html