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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kumar who wrote (60920)	12/10/2002 2:41:06 PM
From: BigBull	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Ya scooped me. :o} Here's another version that I think is more informative. Judiciary spokesman quits in shot at hardliners iranmania.com TEHRAN, Dec 10 (AFP) - The spokesman for hardline judiciary announced Tuesday he was quitting his post in protest at what he decried as a failure of the courts to keep out of politics. "The judiciary should avoid entering endless quarrels. It should peacefully implement its duty with dignity," Hossein Mirmohammad Sadeghi told IRNA. "The general attitude of the judiciary in recent months, especially in giving information, is not in conformity with my character, therefore the judiciary needs a spokesman with different characteristics." Iran's judiciary, a bastion of the Islamic republic's far-right, has come under fire for leaking provocative case details in the hardline press and allegedly targetting supporters of embattled President Mohammad Khatami. "The judiciary should not... disclose charges before a trial or publish verdicts before the verdict becomes definitive," Sadeghi said. The spokesman said the judiciary's conduct had "created an atmosphere of tension", leaving it open to scorn from critics. "The judiciary must be vigilant not to be involved in these political games and trapped by opponents," he asserted. Sadeghi was particularly critical of the sentencing to death for blasphemy of prominent pro-reform academic Hashem Aghajari, a ruling that has sparked widespread student protests. "I don't like this verdict. I am aware of the bad consequences that such a verdict has had on the country and the system, and therefore I am sorry," he was quoted as saying, even though he also said he felt Aghajari's offending remarks were "very bad". Sadeghi told IRNA he had handed in his resignation over a week ago, but that the judiciary's head Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi had yet to accept it.

To: kumar who wrote (60920)	12/10/2002 2:55:11 PM
From: BigBull	Respond to of 281500

Another extraordinary article on an interview with Khatami's brother that made it into IRNA, of all places. For the record, I understand that the students driving these latest protests have three main demands: 1. Freedom for political prisoners 2. The resignation of the Judiciary of the Islamic Republic. 3. A referendum on the political future of the country. Listen to student protests, Iran's hardliners told iranmania.com TEHRAN, Dec 10 (AFP) - A top Iranian reformists and brother of President Mohammad Khatami warned religious hardliners Tuesday to respond to the demands of student protests, or else the Islamic regime risked the same fate as the country's monarchy In an interview published by IRNA, Mohammad Reza Khatami also told authorities that a crackdown on ongoing demonstrations would be futile. "If we cannot respond to the expectations of students, they could lose faith in the current regime and we do not know what political model they would opt for," said the deputy parliament speaker and head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF). "The main reason for the disappearence of the (Shah's) regime was the resistance and the expectations of the generation of students and graduates who wanted more freedom, justice and truth," the president's brother said. He also called for a "complete revision" of governance that he said "no longer responds to the aspirations of the people and the youth." "The most simple solution is to repress the students by linking their movement and slogans to domestic and foreign groups who want to overthrow the regime," he added in a bitter reponse to allegations against students from prominent hardliners. The leader of Iran's main reformist party said that after massive student demonstrations in July 1999, certain conservatives believed the activist movement had been crushed. "They devised three phases: ban independent newspapers, repress the student movement and finally act against critical political parties," he claimed. But he said a recent wave of protests had shown that the "students cannot be put down" with demonstrations, "enduring and showing more energy than before." He also acknowledged that both reformers and conservatives should listen to the protests, given that slogans have also been directed against President Khatami -- often accused by his own supporters of being too weak. The country's leaders "should try to understand why the students have reached the conclusion that the government does not listen to them and why they have less faith in the reformists," Mohammad Reza Khatami said.