Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09RPODUBAI375
2009-09-09 13:41:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Iran RPO Dubai
Cable title:  

IRAN TURNS THE SCREW TIGHTER

Tags:  PGOV PHUM PREL IR 
pdf how-to read a cable
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ZNY CCCCC ZZH
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FM RPO DUBAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 0522
INFO RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC
RUEIDN/DNI WASHINGTON DC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHINGTON DC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RUMICEA/USCENTCOM INTEL CEN MACDILL AFB FL
RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE
RUEHAD/AMEMBASSY ABU DHABI PRIORITY 0413
RUEHDIR/RPO DUBAI 0523
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RPO DUBAI 000375 

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/9/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL IR
SUBJECT: IRAN TURNS THE SCREW TIGHTER

DUBAI 00000375 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Alan Eyre, Director, Iran Regional Presence
Office, DOS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 RPO DUBAI 000375

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/9/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL IR
SUBJECT: IRAN TURNS THE SCREW TIGHTER

DUBAI 00000375 001.2 OF 002


CLASSIFIED BY: Alan Eyre, Director, Iran Regional Presence
Office, DOS.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)

1. (C) SUMMARY: With a series of raids and arrests on September
7 and 8, the government moved aggressively to stop efforts by
the Iran 'Green Path' opposition and human rights advocates to
document and publicize allegations of detainee abuse and
extrajudicial killings by the security forces in the wake of the
June 12 election. This move follows the Iranian opposition's
dissemination of the identities of 72 people purportedly killed
by the authorities in the post-election crackdown, far higher
than the number officially acknowledged, as well as detailed
allegations of detainee sexual abuse submitted to the Majlis and
the Judiciary by Mehdi Karrubi. By order of the newly-appointed
Tehran Public and Revolutionary Prosecutor, authorities closed
the "Committee for Following the Situation of Detainees, " the
organization set up by presidential candidates Mir Hossein
Mousavi and Mehdi Karrubi to advocate on behalf of victims of
the government's post-election crackdown. A second
organization, the "Association to Defend Prisoners Rights," is a
prominent human rights organization whose members have been
targeted by the authorities since its 2004 founding. Security
officials also arrested senior aides affiliated with both
Mousavi and Karrubi, as well as the editor of Karrubi's main
website. These incidents confirm the government's preference
for coercion over compromise, and its continuing if not
increased pressure on the leadership of the "Green Path"
opposition to stand down and fall in line. Iran press recently
announced that Supreme Leader Khamenei will be giving this
Friday's Tehran Prayer sermon, and all players will be keenly
awaiting his public comments to detect any change in regime
attitudes or tactics. END SUMMARY.




2. (U) According to Iranian press and oppositionist accounts,
over the course of September 7-8, the government took the
following steps to stop oppositionist activities:



- On Monday, September 7, security officials went to the office
of the "Committee for Following the Situation of Detainees,"
(CFSD) an organization set up by Karrubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi

after the post-June 12 crackdown, took away documents, records
and a computer, then closed and sealed the office;





- On Monday, September 7, security officials raided the office
of "Association to Defend Prisoners Rights," an NGO founded in
2004 by prominent human rights dissident Emaddedin Baghi, took
away records, documents, and computers, then closed and sealed
the office;



- On Tuesday, September 8 at approximately 1530 hours, officials
from Tehran Prosecutor's Office appeared at defeated
Presidential candidate Mehdi Karrubi's Tehran office,
interrogated employees, confiscated documents, records, CDs,
films, papers and office supplies, escorted all personnel out
(to include Karrubi himself),then locked and sealed the office;



- At approximately the same time, another group of Tehran
Prosecutor's Office officials entered Karrubi's "National Trust"
(Etemad-e Melli) political party office in another part of
Tehran, interrogated employees and party members present,
confiscated documents, records, CDs, films, papers and office
supplies, escorted all personnel out, then locked and sealed the
office;



- Shortly after the two simultaneous September 8 incidents cited
directly above, security officials armed with an order from
Tehran's new Prosecutor General arrested prominent reformer and
close Mousavi aide Dr. Ali Reza Beheshti, the CFSD spokesman and
son of the late Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, Iran's first
Judiciary head and one of the seminal figures in the 1979
Islamic Revolution;



- On September 8 officials arrested Mohamad Davari, the editor
of "Saham News," Etemad-e Melli's website;

DUBAI 00000375 002.2 OF 002





- On September 8 officials searched the house of and then
arrested former Tehran Mayor and prominent reformist politician
Morteza Alviri, who was serving both as advisor to Karrubi and
as his representative on the "Committee for Following the
Situation of Detainees."




3. (U) The September 7 raid on the Committee for Following the
Situation of Detainees followed the group's publication of the
identities (and circumstances surrounding the deaths) of 72
persons it says were killed by security forces for protesting
the election results - a number far higher than officially
acknowledged. The September 8 raid on Karrubi's office and that
of his political party follows his compiling information about
detainee abuse and trying to assist victims and their families.
Based on this work, Karrubi made a series of highly-publicized
allegations against the security forces that roiled the
establishment, including accusations of sexual abuse, severe
beatings, and killings.



Why Now and What Next?




4. (C) COMMENT: Many analysts and "Green Path" oppositionists
have stated that the government's primary motive in these
actions was to stop the ongoing incendiary revelations about
prisoner abuse. Beyond this goal, one IRPO contact, a prominent
Western-based oppositionist with extensive ties among the "Green
Path" opposition, despaired that this latest series of office
closings and arrests, along with recent statements by the IRGC
Commander Jaafari, is laying the stage for the arrest of Mousavi
and Karrubi themselves. Another IRPO contact, a Dubai-based
political analyst, said that this move by the regime is in a
sense the "least that it could do," as it could not countenance
a continuation of the opposition's (and especially Karrubi's)
incendiary activities but did not want (yet) to arrest the
principals themselves. Regardless, this incident confirms
Iran's preference for coercion over compromise, and its
continuing if not increased pressure on the leadership of the
"Green Path" opposition to stand down and fall in line. Iranian
press recently announced that Supreme Leader Khamenei will be
giving this Friday's Tehran Prayer sermon, and all players will
be keenly awaiting his public comments to detect any change in
regime attitudes or tactics. On a lesser note, the latest wave
of crackdowns gives lie to the hope that the new Judiciary Chief
Sadeq Larijani and the new Tehran Prosecutor General Abbas
Jaafari Dolatabadi would adhere to "kinder, gentler" polices
than their predecessors. END COMMENT.
EYRE