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| Iran Torture Video Tapes Released: Cover
Up Killings of Journalist
The National Union of Journalists has released video tapes that throw light on a conspiracy to conceal the truth about the serial killings of journalists and writers in Iran. Five were killed between November 1998 and February 1999. The Iranian authorities announced that "rogue elements" in the security services had carried out the killings, and some Ministry of Information employees were tried in secret for the murders. The trial was condemned as a sham by the victims' families, their lawyer (who was arrested on the eve of the trial) and human rights and journalists' organisations internationally. It appears that there were a few individuals tried secretely in order to present scapegoats instead of admitting that the killings were approved at the highest level.
The videos show the "rogue elements" being beaten and mistreated when interrogated, and then confessing to fantastic "crimes" including working for foreign intelligence agencies, blasphemy, adultery etc. The videos appear to have been made in the detention centre of Iran's military security agency. |
- audio (37 MB
mpa)
- NUJ site
- Press Release |
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| In the event that the sites do not archive
these items, we have copied them here. |
Who killed five journalists in Iran?
Five journalists were killed in Iran
between November 1998 and February 1999.
The Iranian authorities announced that "rogue
elements" in the security services had carried out
the killings, and some Ministry of Information employees
were tried in secret for the murders. The trial was
condemned as a sham by the victims' families, their lawyer
(who was arrested on the eve of the trial) and human
rights and journalists' organisations internationally.
Now copies of videotapes have come into the NUJ's
possession that appear to show these "rogue
elements" being beaten and mistreated, and then
confessing to fantastic "crimes" including
working for foreign intelligence agencies, blasphemy,
adultery etc.
On 21 January 2002 the National Union of Journalists
released those videos at a press conference and, in
co-operation with Indymedia, on the world-wide web. The
videos came to the NUJ from the International Tribunal on
Crimes against Humanity in Iran, a human rights
campaigning group based in Germany.
So, if the trials were, as the videos
appear to show, based on ridiculous and coerced
confessions - who was responsible for the murders?
Below is the background to the killings and subsequent
"confessions".
Serial murders of writers and journalists in Iran
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| 1 |
The drama began in November
1998, when secular opposition leader Dariush Foruhar and
his wife, Parvaneh, were stabbed to death in their Tehran
apartment. Within weeks, three leading journalists-writers
outspoken in their demands for greater freedom of
expression in Iran - Majid Sharif, Mohammad Mokhtari and
Mohammad Pouyandeh - were also found murdered. |
| 2 |
Early in 1999, authorities
announced that a circle of "rogue" intelligence
agents had carried out the killings, but without the
knowledge of top intelligence ministry officials. Then, in
June 1999, the agent named as the mastermind behind the
assassinations, Saeed Emami, was reported to have killed
himself in prison by drinking a bottle of hair remover.
Defendant Ali Rowshani admitted murdering Mokhtari and
Pouyandeh. But he said he had done so under orders from
Mostafa Kazemi, a former head of internal security at the
intelligence ministry and another man, Merhdad Alikhani.
Another pair of defendants admitted killing the Forouhars,
a husband and wife found dead at home from multiple stab
wounds. They too said they had received orders from Kazemi
and Alikhani. Another man said he had assisted in the
murder. Kazemi was reported telling the court on Saturday
he had been the mastermind behind the killings, while
Alikhani said the decision was taken
"collectively." |
| 3 |
Amid the firestorm of
controversy and public outrage, journalist Akbar Ganji
published a book and a series of articles alleging former
president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani was linked to the
murders. Two pro-reform journalists and a former interior
minister said the real number of those killed was as high
as 80, with murders and mysterious disappearances
stretching over a decade. They say that senior clerics
conspired with high-ranking intelligence officials to
carry out the murders. The two journalists and former
minister are now in jail. |
| 4 |
In early December 2000 a lawyer
for the families of Mokhtari and Pouyandeh, Nasser
Zarafshan, was jailed after claiming other people had also
been killed and that the assassinations had been ordered
by religious decree. |
| 5 |
No photos of the agents of the
Ministry of Intelligence tried in Dec 2000-Jan 2001 were
published, their identity remained a "state
secret". Most Iranians are convinced their
"confessions" are part of a deal to allow them
freedom after the trials, irrespective of the verdict. |
| 6 |
The trial was held in secret
and the security forces' official report is the only
reporting of the proceedings. |
| 7 |
One of the accused, Kazemi, who
claimed last week to have ordered the killings, has
previously maintained that the orders came from Dorri
Najaf Abadi, Iran's minister of intelligence at the time
of the murders. |
| 8 |
Iran's supreme leader had
claimed on a number of occasions that these murders were
acts of sabotage by foreign powers and that the
"rogue agents" were working for US and Israeli
Intelligence, yet the court never took up this claim. |
| 9 |
On the 5th of January 2002, the
chair of the "Parliamentary Commission" on
National Security hinted that the special squad
responsible for serial political murders in Iran has been
reorganised and is starting its activity again. Mohsen
Mirdadmadi, a leading member of the coalition supporting
Khatami referred to the disappearance of journalist Siamak
Pourzand and a young cleric kidnapped in Ghom. |
| 10 |
On Sunday the 13th Jan 2002 the
MP for Tabriz, Akbar Aalami, informed fellow MPs that a
young cleric Nazem Zadeh ( son of a well known cleric) was
kidnapped in Ghom, he was tortured for 6 days and told to
confess receiving money from Foreign Radio stations
(including the BBC) to act as a contact with Ayatollah
Montazeri. Nazem Zadeh was then left semi conscious in
Tehran. Mr Aalami implied involvement of sections of the
security forces in this kidnapping. |
What's on the tapes? |
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Release of tape of Iran prison beatings
by Tim Gopsill 1:29pm Fri Jan 18 '02 (Modified on 1:28am Thu Jan 31 '02)
phone: 020 7843 3701 timg@nuj.org.uk
The truth must be told about killings of journalists
Invitation to press conference, Monday 21 January 2002, 12 noon
The National Union of Journalists will on Monday 21 January release details of videotapes that throw light on a desperate conspiracy to conceal the truth about the serial killings of journalists and writers in Iran. Five were killed between November 1998 and February 1999.
The Iranian authorities announced that "rogue elements" in the security services had carried out the killings, and some Ministry of Information employees were tried in secret for the murders. The trial was condemned as a sham by the victims' families, their lawyer (who was arrested on the eve of the trial) and human rights and journalists' organisations internationally.
Now copies of videotapes have come into the NUJ's possession that appear to show these "rogue elements" being beaten and mistreated, and then confessing to fantastic "crimes" including working for foreign intelligence agencies, blasphemy, adultery etc.
Parts of the tape will be shown, and transcripts of the most important sections made available, at Monday's press conference. It will be on Monday 21 January at 12 midday, at the
NUJ, 308 Grays Inn Road, London WC1 - near Kings Cross station - and will be addressed by John Foster (General Secretary,
NUJ) and Omid Behrouzi (executive member, campaign group The International Tribunal on Crimes against Humanity in Iran).
John Foster said: "The tapes constitute evidence of a conspiracy to concentrate attention away from senior figures in the Islamic regime.
"We are asking the UK government, which is in closer diplomatic contact with Iran than it has been for many years, to demand assurances on the issue of press freedom. There must be an independent international inquiry into these killings. The farcical trial that followed - and on top of that, newspaper closures, evidence of death squads being sanctioned at the highest level, and public statements by senior clerics justifying political murders - do not bode well for democracy or a free press in Iran."
Contact: Tim Gopsill 020 7843 3701 (direct) 020 7278 7916 timg@nuj.org.uk
Notes to editors:
The National Union of Journalists is the one of the world's largest trade unions for journalists, with 28,000 members in the UK, Ireland and western Europe. The campaign group The International Tribunal on Crimes against Humanity in Iran was set up in 1995 following the conviction of Iranian state officials of murdering opposition activists in Berlin. It is preparing documentation on the regime's human rights abuses in the hope of presenting them to an international tribunal. The victims of the serial killings in November and December 1998 included Mohammad Mokhtari (journalist and writer), Majid Sharif (translator and journalist), Mohammad Pouyandeh (journalist and writer), Dariush Foruhar and his wife Parvaneh Eskandari (political activists and journalists).
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