Iranian Reformists

Montazeri Openly Backs Yusefi-Eshkevari, Baqi, Ganji, and Nuri

YUSEFI-ESHKVERAI FACES DEATH: "YUSEFI-ESHKVERAI FACES DEATH

TEHRAN 16TH OCT. (IPS) The Clergymen’s Special Tribunal CST) has found dissident cleric Hojjatoleslam Hasan Yousefi-Eshkevari guilty of allegations on five specific charges and a verdict will be issued against him after certain pending investigations are concluded, the official news agency IRNA reported Monday.

Quoting the unidentified source that, according to IRNA, had asked not to be named, the "specific charges" brought against Mr. Eshkevari are "apostasy, moharebeh, or waging war against God, questioning basic fundaments of Islamic laws, statements and acts constituting threats to national security made while attending the "anti-Islamic Berlin conference," propaganda against the Islamic system, confusing public opinion, insulting the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini and defamation against the clergy".

Asked by Iran Press Service, family and friends sources said they ignored what the sentence might be, but expressed the fear that he could face death is the charges are confirmed, as some of the charges like apostasy or moharebeh bears death penalty, in accordance with the Islam based rules in the Islamic Republic.

A prominent religious reformist cleric identified withy the Nationalist-religious current, Mr. Yusefi-Eshkevari was arrested on 5th August upon his return to Tehran from Paris, where he was treated by specialists for acute diabetes and taken to the notorious Evin prison.

The controversial CST tried Mr. Eshkevari behind closed doors suddenly, without the accused prior knowledge, refusing him his defence, providing him an appointed lawyer of its own.

Mr. Eshkevari’s elder son, Ruhollah, told the press outside Iran that his father was both "shocked and surprised" when he heard about his trial, particularly when he learned that above earlier charges, he was also accused of apostasy, war against God and corruption on earth.

Iranian jurists and experts pronounced his imprisonment and charges brought against him as "totally illegal and baseless", noting that the very tribunal that is judging him is both "illegal and unconstitutional".

Iranian and international human rights organisations, including the New York-based Human Rights Watch, the London-based Amnesty International and the Paris-based Federation of Human Rights Leagues that includes the Iranian League of Human Rights have all condemned the trial and urged the Iranian clerical-led authorities to free.

Dissident Grand Ayatollah Hoseinali Montazeri ruled Monday that nothing Hojjatoleslam Eshkevari has said or written could be considered as un-Islamic nor endangering the security of the nation.

In a statement from his residence, the Grand Ayatollah, himself under house arrest condition despite the fact that he is considered as the highest religious authority for the 200 millions Muslim Shi’a world-wide, expressed "astonishment and surprise" at the CST’s sentence.

"Religious-based accusations brought against (people) like (Hasan) Yusefi-Eshkevari, (Emameddin) Baqi, (Akbar) Ganji, and (Abdollah) Nuri by the authorities have nothing to do with Islam, but are political pretext to silence dissidents", Mr. Montazeri observed in a statement released from his residence in the city of Qom, 150 kilometres south of the Capital Tehran.

Mr. Baqi and Mr. Ganji are both famous investigative journalists and researchers noted for their articles denouncing the role high officials in the Iranian intelligence services played in the assassination of Iranian dissidents, going as far as accusing former president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his Intelligence Minister Hojjatoleslam Ali Fallahian.

For his part, Hojjatoleslam Abdollah Nuri, a former Interior Minister and close friend of President Mohammad Khatami was impeached by the last conservative-dominated Majles before being tried and sentenced to five years imprisonment by the same CST he would denounced as "illegal".

One of the 17 Iranian reformists and dissidents who took part in a conference organised last April in Berlin by a cultural institute close to the Germany’s Green Party, Mr. Eshkevari had, in his address to the meeting, repeated that hejab, or the ugly dress the Iranian clerics are imposing on women is not mandatory by Islamic canons simply because it concerns individuals way of behaving ha ving nothing with religion.

However, looking for pretext to unleash a merciless war against reformists, particularly the independent press, the conservatives, led by Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, ordered the arrest of all the participants at the Berlin meeting and shut down 25 reformist publications.

"Not only nothing Hojjatoleslam Eshkevari has stated or written are illegal, let alone against Islam, conductive of his being put in prison, but even expressing one’s view against Islam is not sufficient for imprisonment", Mr. Montazeri pointed out in his statement.

Noting that there are more and more voices among young clerics urging reforms in Islam, observers said the Iranian orthodox clergy is bound the reserve the harshest possible of treatments to Mr. Eshkevari in order to "call to order" other religious reformers. ENDS ESHKEVARI SENTENCE 171000"

posted by JBOC @ 7:44 AM