iranfocus.com-The international human rights group Amnesty International expressed concern over the possible arrest of two young Arab boys and three Arab women one of whom is pregnant in the south-western volatile city of Ahwaz, fearing that they may face “torture and ill-treatment”.

Ma’soumeh Ka’bi, aged 28, the wife of prominent political activist Habib Nabgan, was arrested along with the couple’s four-year-old son Imad at their home in the early hours of February 27, Amnesty said in a statement issued on Thursday.

Their four other children, aged between six and 13, and Habib Nabgan’s mother, were also arrested but were released the following day. Ma’soumeh Ka’bi and Imad have reportedly been held at the Sepidar detention centre in Ahwaz since March 8. Habib Nabgan, who has fled the country, has received threats that his family will be tortured or killed if he does not return to Iran, the group said.

Soghra Khudayrawi and her four-year-old son Zeidan were reportedly arrested in Ahwaz on March 7. Her husband, Khalaf Derhab Khudayrawi, is said to be wanted by the authorities in connection with his political activities, Amnesty said.

Sakina Naisi, a mother of five, was reportedly arrested in Ahwaz on February 27 along with her 19-year-old son Nahez and taken to the Sepidar detention centre. Nahez was reportedly released after about 10 days in detention. Sakina Naisi is three months’ pregnant and reportedly suffers from asthma, the statement added. Her husband, Ahmad Naisi, a prominent political activist, is said to be wanted by the authorities. Following Sakina Naisi’s arrest, the Iranian authorities reportedly destroyed her husband’s family home in the Sho’aybiyeh district of Ahwaz with bulldozers.

“Amnesty International believes all five are very likely to be prisoners of conscience held solely in order to force their husbands and fathers to give themselves up to the Iranian authorities. As such they should be released immediately and unconditionally”, the statement said.

Ahwaz, the capital of the Arab-dominated province of Khuzestan, has been the scene of unremitting anti-government protests since the start of 2005. Iran has pointed the finger at Britain as the primary instigator of anti-government violence in Khuzestan.

NCRI – A comprehensive report on the state of human rights in Iran from April 2005 to March 2006 was released today in 35 pages by the Human Rights Working Group of the NCRI.
Read on
www.ncr-iran.org/images/stories/IL/annual-human-rights-dossier-mar2006.pdf

Alison Langley

Inter Press Service, FRANKFURT - A United Nations Security Council (UNSC)vote imposing sanctions on the Teheran government for its nuclear programme could result in retaliatory executions of some seven condemned prisoners, the rights watchdog Amnesty International (AI) believes.

Iranian prison officials reportedly have told the men -- all of whom claim to be political prisoners -- they soon will die in retaliation for possible UNSC sanctions, said Kate Willingham, a staff member for AI with the Iranian portfolio.

The seven are members of the armed Peoples Mojahedin of Iran (PMOI), which, in turn, is the largest constituent of the National Council of Resistance Iran (NCRI), an umbrella organisation of dissident groups.

NCRI, in August, 2002, handed the Vienna-based, International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) secret papers documenting Iran's secret nuclear programmes in Natanz and Arak.

The documents were the first indication the world had that Iran was working on a secret nuclear programme. The Iranian government claims its work is to produce nuclear energy but IAEA officials worry that there is a secret plan to develop nuclear weapons.

NCRI later revealed that the Iranian government also was working on a nuclear programme in Abe-Ali and that it had spent at least 10 billion US dollars on nuclear projects over the last 18 years.

In 2003, the IAEA confirmed the existence of an uranium enrichment programme in Iran.

As signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), Iran is allowed to develop a fuel cycle for nuclear power, but only under IAEA supervision.

Because it hid its enrichment programme for nearly two decades, IAEA member states say they no longer trust the Iranian government and reported the matter to the UNSC.

"The Iranian government links the PMOI to the nuclear controversy," said Willingham, a London-based campaigner on Iran for AI in an e-mail."In this context, certain PMOI prisoners have claimed that they have been told that if Iran is referred to the UNSC over its nuclear programme, they will be executed."

None of the men is believed to have been involved in the leaking of the secret documents, Willingham said. Still, she added, because of their membership in PMOI, she believed their lives are at risk.

In February, Hojjat Zamani, a PMOI member accused of planting a bomb outside a revolutionary court in Tehran in 1998, was hanged in Ghor Dasht prison, located just outside of Tehran.

Zamani was charged with 'corruption on earth'(mafsad fil arz) and 'enmity against God' (moharebeh), under Articles 183, 186 and 187 of Iran's penal code. AI said it believed both charges to be "vaguely worded".

According to a PMOI statement, Zamani was severely tortured in detention. After Zamani's hanging, other prisoners have reportedly been told that they were next, Willingham said.

Among prisoners AI believes to be at risk are: Sa'id Masouri, a PMOI member who has been held in solitary confinement in Evin Prison since late 2004; Khaled Hardani, Farhang Pour Mansouri and Shahram Pour Mansouri-- all of whom were involved in a 2001 plane hijacking.

In addition, Gholamhossein Kalbi and Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi, both PMOI members, and Alireza Karami Khairabadi also are believed, by AI, to be at risk of imminent execution.

Of particular concern is the fate of Shahram Pour Mansouri because he was a minor, aged 17, when he allegedly committed a crime. Under international law, to which Teheran is a signatory, minors may not be executed.

Western diplomats in Teheran said they had not heard of any direct threats to PMOI prisoners. One European diplomat added, that if Iran did retaliate by executing prisoners, "we will react very strongly''.

AI claims that state executions continue "at an alarming rate" in Iran. The human rights group recorded 94 executions in 2005, although the organisation added that the true figure could be higher. So far, in 2006, the rights lobby has recorded some 28 executions in Iran.

This week, the UNSC failed to reach an agreement on the wording of any statement. Western members, led by Britain and France, want the council to list Tehran's failures to comply with IAEA demands and urge Iran to suspend any activity that could lead to nuclear weapons production.

Russia and China, both permanent members of the UNSC, prefer a shorter document that would simply underline UN support for the IAEA.

A senior Iranian official said Wednesday, that U.S. pressure on the UNSC to penalize his country for its nuclear policy would not succeed. News agencies quoted Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying that the "the irrational American view" would not prevail in the council.

Iran has repeatedly denied it is trying to build nuclear weapons. "Iran will not agree with any UNSC resolution on our nuclear programme," Iran's powerful religious leader Ali Khamenei stated on an Iranian website.

BBC News, Tehran
By Roxana Saberi

As the international debate over Iran's nuclear programme has intensified, some Iranian journalists say they have come under increasing pressure not to criticise their government on the issue.

While not all journalists share this feeling, the government has warned the nation's press to avoid harsh criticism of its nuclear policies.

At a recent press conference, Iran's minister of culture and Islamic guidance, Mohammad Saffar-Harandi, made the government's feelings explicit when he called on journalists not to jeopardise the country's national interests and security.

"In the past few months, especially in regards to Iran's nuclear file, some people in the press have written the same things our enemies would say if they wanted to," he said.

Mr Saffar-Harandi was cagey when asked if this was not an abuse of press freedom.

"This is very difficult for me, so I ask journalists to be careful. I don't want any of the press we now see on the newspaper stands to be shut down."

Disagreement

At the same time, some journalists say Iran's Supreme National Security Council has pressed the media not to depict Iran's diplomatic efforts over its nuclear programme as unsuccessful or having reached a dead-end.

They also say the council has instructed the media not to create fear and uncertainty among Iranians.

The disagreement between journalists and the government has been more over style than substance.

Iran's newspapers generally support the aim of developing a peaceful nuclear programme, but some have objected to the leadership's policies, calling them confrontational.

Hardline dailies generally agree Tehran should never back down from pursuing its right to nuclear energy, while moderate papers often stress the importance of continuing diplomacy.

Etemade Melli, a newspaper founded by Iran's former parliamentary speaker Mehdi Karrubi, has called on the country's nuclear negotiators to avoid what it calls "sensational, populist and irrational slogans".

One journalist at the paper, who asked to remain anonymous, said the newspaper disapproves of some of the statements made by the new government of hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"We are not opposed to the principle of having peaceful nuclear energy or knowledge," the journalist said.

"But I think the change of language that came with our new government has increased the tensions between Iran and the world."

'No obligation'

In general, the extent to which journalists feel pressured by the government to support its nuclear policies depends on their ideological views.

At a news conference in February, the editor of the conservative Hamshahri newspaper, which belongs to Tehran City Council, said his newspaper does not feel controlled by the state.

"If I sense something is not the truth, I won't write a single word about it," Mohammed Reza Zaeri said.

"It isn't that I promote the position of the regime. If I don't believe that nuclear energy is the wish of the nation, I am sure I would not write something about that in Hamshahri newspaper," he added.

"I would not be obligated to do so, either, and if one day I am forced to do this, I would leave the newspaper."

Boundaries

Some other journalists, however, feel uncertain about how far they can push.

They say they feel limited by certain boundaries, even though they do not always know where those boundaries are.

"This is one of the problems for Iranian journalists: that we don't know what the red lines are," Arash, a reporter at a Reformist newspaper, who preferred not to give his last name, said.

"You don't know how far you can go forward or criticize," he explained.

"I think it's the right of every political group, newspaper or professional to present the views that he or she has, and society can hear those views and support the ones they prefer."

National pride

In addition to turning to Iran's newspapers, many Iranians also watch state television and radio, which usually report the authorities' views on the nuclear issue.

But some Iranians say they do not believe state broadcasting gives them the whole story - they prefer satellite television news and the internet.

Still, the government has been largely successful at getting its message across through the national media.

Some Iranian analysts say local coverage has helped many Iranians see the nuclear programme as a matter of national pride - something on which many are willing to support the Islamic regime despite growing international pressure.

"There are no public opinion polls by independent institutions or independent radio or TV. It is also hard to find an independent newspaper that can echo the views of Iranians. That area of government policy seems to have worked," said an Iranian analyst who wanted to remain anonymous.

"The Iranian regime has even been able to convince the international community that... all Iranians think the nuclear issue is a national one and an inalienable right and that if the US tries to deprive Iranians of this right, all the people will stand behind the regime, and it will become more popular."