Iran - Blast from the Past: Ibrahim Yazdi, in US, Accused 

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit

[Iranian Islamic ironies....

Long, long ago (like 20 years), during the early days of the
revolutionary Islamic Republic of Iran, there were two leading radical
princes of the revolution vying for the favor of the Imam, whom they
had served in exile since his days in Paris. Both were part of the
group of "neckties," not the "turbans" -- the westernized Islamic
elite who the US press were able to relate to, at least minimally, and
they both got lots of exposure on US broadcast TV during the 444-day
"hostage crisis" of 1979-80.

One was the sinister US-educated Ibrahim Yazdi (who wore a beard) and
his rival, the clean-shaven Sadegh Ghoptzadeh. Ghoptzadeh was
dispatched when he was accused of drug-dealing and other prohibited
behavior, and was hanged, while Yazdi was proclaimed a true and loyal
son of the Islamic Revolution. Except that he joined up with Mehdi
Bazargan's counter-revolutionary movement, and now he's been formally
charged with trying to overthrow the revolution. However, following
in the footsteps of the late, unlamented last Shah of Iran, Yazdi
stayed one step ahead of the mullahs -- he's in the US for "medical
treatment." Like his predecessor in the care of the US medical
establishment, he probably has a lot of visitors these days from the
general area of Virginia... maybe even Son of Shah, who has his own
ambitions. Ruhollah Khomeini is probably whirling, quite undervishly,
in his tomb.-- NY Transfer]


140 academics condemn political repression in Iran

TEHRAN, Dec 24 (AFP)--Some 140 Iranian university teachers have
condemned the unjustified detention of liberal opposition members by
the country's revolutionary courts, the reformist Noruz paper
reported Monday.

In an open letter to pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami, the
signatories, among them figures close to the reformist movement,
asked the head of state "to put an end to the arrests" and "intervene
to restore citizens' rights."

The petition said defence lawyers had not been able to study the
cases against their clients, while the revolutionary court has been
unable to supply proof of the accusations, according to Noruz.

In a similar move earlier this month, parliament's reformist majority
condemned the conditions of detention of the political prisoners,
their trials behind closed doors and "the unjust and unconventional
circumstances of the hearings."

More than 60 dissidents have been tried since November 11 by the
conservative-dominated revolutionary court, an institution set up in
the wake of the 1979 Islamic revolution to try officials from the
ousted imperial regime and "counter-revolutionaries."

Their leader, Ibrahim Yazdi, a former foreign minister and head of
the opposition nationalist Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), was formally
accused on November 13 of trying to overthrow the regime.

Yazdi is in the United States, where he went for medical treatment.

The courts have issued an arrest warrant for him, accusing him and
his political allies "of actions against the internal security of the
state."

Among the accused are numerous members of the IFM, founded by the
late Mehdi Bazargan, who was a leading architect of the revolution
and the Islamic republic's first prime minister, though he fell from
grace within months.

Although officially outlawed, the IFM had been tolerated until
recently.  It was completely banned in March, when those currently on
trial were arrested.
 
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nytmid-12.25.01-09:34:09-29803