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UNITED NATIONS - Four protesters, two men and two women, were arrested on Tuesday and charged with pelting Iran's foreign minister with eggs near his hotel, police said.
The protesters who pelted Kamal Kharrazi shouted slogans against Iran's leaders, saying there was no moderate alternative to the clerics who run the country, despite the election of a new, more open government, witnesses said. Police said they were also protesting the alleged use of death squads.
Foreign Minister Blasts US Drug Policy, Agence France Presse, June 9
UNITED NATIONS - Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi Tuesday blasted US policy that puts Iran on a list of countries considered lax in efforts to halt drug trafficking.
Outside, Kharrazi was on the other end of criticism, being splattered with eggs by four protestors across the street from the United Nations.
Two men and two women, who said they were protesting the use of "death squads" in Iran, would be charged with assault, a police spokesman said.
Resistance Calls on UN to Condemn Mullahs For Drug Trafficking, Iran Zamin News Agency, June 8
In a Statement today the NCR drew the attention of the UN General Assembly's special session on narcotics to the criminal role being played by leading figures of the clerical regime in the distribution of narcotics inside Iran and drug smuggling abroad.
The clerical regime's agents intentionally propagate the use of drugs among the youth and teenagers, particularly high school and university students. The regime's leaders control the drug distribution networks through certain gangs within the Revolutionary Guards and State Security Forces.
The regime has often claimed falsely that it destroys the narcotics it discovers, whereas the bulk of the narcotics discovered by the regime is sent abroad through international organized crime rings in contact with the mullahs' regime through go-betweens.
The individuals sentenced to death as "drug dealers" are in fact those who have no ties with the criminal gangs inside the regime and are regarded as "rivals."
International human rights organizations have documented many cases in Iran where those executed as "drug dealers" were in fact opponents of the regime.
Tehran Mayor's Conviction Likely, Reuter, June 8
TEHRAN - The mayor of Tehran is likely to be convicted of corruption, an Iranian vice-president said in remarks published on Monday.
Gholamhossein Karbaschi, a close ally of Iran's President Mohammad Khatami, is accused of embezzlement totalling more than 14.5 billion rials ($4.83 million) plus $90,000 and 140 gold coins, receiving bribes, mishandling public property, illegal possession of public property, and illegal conduct in government transactions.
"Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari, vice president for legal and parliamentary affairs, told Iran News that he believed Karbaschi would be convicted by the court," the English-language daily said.
The conservative daily Al-Qods said the verdict of the court, whether to convict or acquit Karbaschi, would be accepted by the public, and questioning it would be detrimental to people's trust in the judiciary.
"We should not regard this court as a symptom of the contagion of corruption and bribery in the system; and the idea that managers committing offences are immune to legal prosecution is rejected," it added.
Court Warns Director Over "Defamatory" Articles, Agence France Presse, June 9
TEHRAN - The director of the Iranian newspaper Jameeh received a warning over publication of "defamatory and untruthful articles" aimed at several regime leaders, newspapers said Tuesday.
Hamid-Reza Jalai-Pur was found guilty Monday by a court responsible for trying press violations, they said.
The newspaper director was accused of allowing publication of articles judged "defamatory" and "contrary to public moral order" following complaints from the chief of the Revolutionary Guards, Rahim Safavi, the judiciary and the prisons administration.
Jalai-Pur was particularly charged with attributing quotes hostile to the regime to Safavi, who said his statements were altered.
Jameeh begun to publish in February and supports President Mohammad Khatami.
It has been targeted for weeks by conservatives who accuse it of publishing tendentious and sometimes anti-Islamic articles.
The head of the judiciary, Mohammad Yazdi, issued a stern warning on Friday to rival papers in which he accused them of seeking to sow divisions within society.