Back to Brief on Iran
A UN report on Iran issued Wednesday denounced the death sentence against British author Salman Rushdie, as well as numerous executions and stonings.
"Human rights do continue to be violated in Iran," said the report written by Canadian Maurice Copithorne for the Human Rights Commission, which is sitting in Geneva until April 24.
"The use of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment continues unabated," it said.
The report highlighted the growing number of executions in Iran. According to the Iranian press, some 199 executions took place last year, 95 of which were carried out in public.
The report also condemns the widespread practice of stoning in Iran, saying it was a premeditated punishment that had to be approved by the country's supreme court.
Contrary to media reports, the government has no intention of producing a written guarantee stating that the fatwa will not be carried out, Copithorne said.
Copithorne, citing Iranian sources, said that the atmosphere had not been so repressive since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Iran's opposition-in-exile, the National Council of Resistance, issued a statement in Geneva Wednesday saying that since Khatami took office, even clerics and theological students had been arrested, harassed and put under house arrest.
The NCR said the UN report was silent about the torture of political prisoners, assassination of dissidents abroad and brutal crackdown on popular uprisings.
Sources: U.S. To Accuse Iran of Sponsoring Terrorism,
CNN, April 7
Despite a modest thaw in relations between the United States and Iran, CNN has learned that the U.S. government is preparing to level new accusations against Iran for its support of international terrorism.
Sources say the Clinton administration will soon accuse the Iranian government of being the world's "most active state sponsor of terrorism."
A U.S. government expert says Iran "continues to be involved in the planning and execution of terrorist acts," and the United States accuses Iran of carrying out "at least 13" political assassination attempts last year.
Despite the election of…Khatami as president last year, the expert also says the Iranian government continues:
Mayor's Arrest Seen as Political Move by Hard-Liners,
The New York Times, April 8
A growing outcry in Iran over the detention of Tehran's powerful mayor in an investigation into corruption has exposed deep schisms between the moderates who triumphed in presidential elections a year ago and the conservatives who have dominated the country since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.
The mayor, Gholamhossein Karbaschi, 44, is a close ally of President Mohammed Khatami…. Khatami's government and its supporters have condemned the mayor's detention as groundless and politically motivated.
But they have proven powerless to reverse the action, ordered by leaders of the judiciary, Tehran-based diplomats and political analysts say….
The arrest has brought to the surface the kinds of tensions that have simmered beneath Iranian politics since Khatami's stunning election victory over a conservative supported by the country's ruling elite….
Already, more than four dozen deputy mayors and other high-ranking municipal officials have been charged with corruption in the case, including the mayor's brother, Hossein Karbaschi…. Many of those taken into custody have complained after being released that they were tortured in prison….
Iran Missile Said Near Completion, The
Jerusalem Post, April 8
US envoy Robert Gallucci held meetings yesterday with Israeli leaders to coordinate efforts to halt Russia's massive aid to Iran's medium-range ballistic missile program.
The visit comes as US and Israeli experts agree that Iran, with massive aid from Russian advisers and companies, is approaching completion of the development of the engine for the Shihab 3 missile, Israeli sources said.
They said Israeli and US representatives agreed at the semiannual strategic talks outside Washington on March 18 that Teheran's program is reaching a critical stage and that Iran and Russia could complete the missile's engine in the near future and develop a prototype missile by the end of 1999….