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Iran Tapes

Left Unity - Iran | 05.02.2002 16:39

From a statement by Left Unity - Iran

The bizarre case of serial political murders in Iran and release of new evidence on the interrogation of 'rogue agents' of Iran's ministry of Intelligence.

On Monday the 21st Jan 2002, at a press conference hosted by the National Union of Journalists and the International Tribunal on crimes against humanity in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a number of DVDs ( transcripts available from  http://www.gn.apc.org/media/iran/index.html ) showing forced confessions from some of these agents were made public. The DVDs show these 'agents' of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence, including the wife of the prime suspect Saiid Emami, are beaten, flogged and humiliated until they confess that they worked for foreign powers, including the US and Israel.

The plan was to show extracts of this confession as part of a scenario approved by Iran's supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Khamneii that serial murder of the regimes'political opponents was done by agents of foreign powers. Following the release of some of these tapes by the International Tribunal, Karroubi the speaker of the Iranian Parliament used the parliamentary session of Wed 30th Jan 2002 to question the 'judiciary' about the veracity of the 'interrogation'tapes.

Karroubi, referring to a business man currently in prison (who has alleged giving bribes to many officials of both factions of the Islamic regime in Iran) warned about the safety of the accused. Addressing the judiciary Karroubi said: the accuser should be kept safe and that they should forget about making him drink 'hair removing cream'( the security forces claimed in 1999 that Saiid Emami the first suspect of the case of serial political murders had committed suicide, in a top security prison drinking , cleaning liquid or hair removing cream. )

Karroubi then referred to the tapes shown at this press conference and said, why isn't the judiciary saying anything about these tapes. "If they are false we should say so, if they are true I am asking you, how come people who admitted to being agents of Israel walked free from these interrogations, and if they made these confessions under torture, how come their torturers are free."

On Sunday the 3rd of Feb 2002, in a surprising statement, Niazi, the head of the military security, not only admitted that the tapes were genuine but blamed the Khatami faction for the release of the first group of prisoners accused of 'serial political murders'. He denounced the parliamentary speaker for endangering'national security', announced that a number of people have been arrested regarding these tapes and announced that distribution of these tapes , sending them abroad is a capital offence, equal to 'treason'.

Workers Let Unity Iran has always maintained that the case of serial political murders, including the show trials of last year, left many questions unanswered. The horrific tape showing the brutal, inhumane attitude of the interrogators of the Islamic regime's Intelligence officers, including Ameli, deputy minister of Intelligence and a man with a surname, Azadeh, another senior ministry official, pose serious doubts on the 'investigations' carried by the Iranian regime regarding serial political murders. The collusion of the reformist faction, led by president Khatami, in the cover up of this case incriminates them as much as the more conservative faction that probably ordered these murders. We are determined to help the Tribunal to translate and publicise the entire 3 hours film and to pursue our efforts for setting up an international commission of inquiry into serial political murders in Iran.

Co-ordinating Committee Workers Left Unity - Iran 5th Feb 2002

Left Unity - Iran