Dissidents seek to apply more pressure on Khamenei
Tuesday, July 15, 2003 - ©2003 IranMania.com
TEHRAN, July 15 (AFP) - A group of 350 Iranian dissidents has written an open letter to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanding a major reform of the clerical regime and the freeing of all political prisoners.
"The judiciary needs to undergo fundamental changes. One of the main reasons of general discontent is the unjust manner of the judiciary in the arrests, prosecutions and trials," said the strongly-worded declaration, the latest in a series signed by reformists, liberals, journalists, intellectuals and several clerics.
"Political prisoners, journalists and students must be immediately freed and the newspapers which were banned without due process must be allowed to start their activities again," it said.
The signatories also targetted the Guardians and Expediency Councils, two unelected legislative oversight bodies that have frequently blocked reforms passed by the reformist-held parliament.
They said the bodies "lack a public base and do not have an appropriate view of peoples' problems".
Among the signatories to the letter was Zohreh Aghajari, whose brother, pro-reform dissident Hashem Aghajari, was sentenced to death last year on charges of blasphemy after he questioned the right to rule of clerics.
He is currently awaiting a revision of his sentence.
Other signatories were close allies of embattled pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami, members of the banned-but-tolerated Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), journalists, and prominent academics.
Also on the list of names that followed the five-page letter were relatives and supporters of top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who was initially tapped to replace revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as supreme leader but fell out of favour and then spent five years under house arrest.
The letter said the nearly 25-year-old Islamic republic was facing three major crisis, concerning its legality, public participation in elections and efficiency.
"Resorting to violence, suppression and authoritative methods will only intensify these crises," the letter read.
"You have always related the general discontent to economic corruption, poverty, discrimination and high prices, whereas the roots of the problem lies in the growing gap between government and nation," the letter said.
It nevertheless attributed Iran's economic crisis to "the existing political deadlock and presence of an economic Mafia".
Also Tuesday, Grand Ayatollah Montazeri issued his own statement, calling on officials to turn to their own people instead of allegedly seeking covert negotiations with the United States.
"Unfortunately we are witnessing that the officials are covertly sending people outside Iran to negotiate with the United States, at a time when they are not ready to come to terms with their own people and listen to them," Montazeri said in a statement released by his office.
"If they are afraid of the US, then they should comply with people's demands to win their support, it is only then that the US cannot topple the regime that has its own people's support," he said.
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=17005&NewsKind=Current%20AffairsWell you've been busy today! Lots of reading to catch up on. The journalist may just be the thing that turns the trick, especially if Canada remains strong about demanding the body back.