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In a press conference in Brussels on Friday it was announced that a majority in the Parliament of Belgium has condemned the human rights violations in Iran and expressed support for the Iranian Resistance.
Mr. Lode Vanoost, Member of Parliament from the Greens Party (AGALEV), attended the press conference in which a statement signed by 76 MPs and 36 senators was made public.
While calling on the Belgian government to adopt a resolute policy vis-à-vis the Tehran regime, the statement supported the Mojahedin organization as a resistance movement against the suppressive regime in Iran.
The elected representatives of the people of Belgium denounced appeasement of the Tehran regime, adding: "We are deeply concerned about what is happening under Khatami's government and the silence maintained over the atrocities of this regime against the Iranian people and Resistance."
"Western countries must not repeat
the same political mistake they committed under the shah's monarchy. The
only means with which one can promote democracy in Iran and peace and tranquility
in the region is to adopt a firm policy towards this dictatorship and recognize
the Iranian people's right to resist against that regime."
Judiciary Chief Warns New Councilors: "Don't Think… [You] Can Say and Do Anything", Reuter, March 5
TEHRAN - A senior conservative cleric on Friday warned the winners of Iran's first local council elections to stay out of factional politics.
Judiciary head Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi told future local councilors, not to use their positions to further factional goals.
"Think of your town's or village's interests," Yazdi said in a sermon at the mass Friday prayers in Tehran, carried on state radio.
"I'm speaking to you gentlemen and
ladies who think you are so successful and important...don't think you're
the president now and can say and do anything you like," he said.
70,000 Arrested on Pretext of Drug Smuggling, Iran Zamin News Agency, March 6
In comments published on Wednesday in the state-run media, including the daily Hamshahri, Guards Corps Brig. Gen. Ali Shafi’i, Director General of the Anti-Drug Campaign in the State Security Force, acknowledged that the clerical regime had arrested 70,000 people in the past 11 months on "drug trafficking" charges.
In this way, 212 people have been arrested on narcotics charges everyday across the country.
The clerical regime has arrested or executed thousands of its political opponents on drug smuggling charges in the past two decades.
These widespread arrests are aimed
at countering the increasing trend of anti-government protests. In the
past year, there have been at least 505 protest actions, strikes and demonstrations
by different sectors of society in more than 100 Iranian cities.
Head of Security Affairs Accused of Torture, Again!, Agence France Presse, March 7
TEHRAN - The head of security affairs for the Iranian police is to be tried for torture in a case that has further heightened simmering political tensions between reformers and hardliners in the Islamic republic.
General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi and 10 other officers will be tried in a military court on May 3 on charges of beating and torturing top officials in the Tehran municipal government, it was announced last week.
The scandal is the latest blow to the battered image of Iran's security forces following the announcement that intelligence agents were involved in the murder of several prominent dissidents and intellectuals late last year.
The torture accusations are not the
first time General Naghdi has found himself under intense public scrutiny.
Hundreds of Iranian Students Rally in Tehran, Agence France Presse, March 7
TEHRAN - Several hundred Iranian students demonstrated at Tehran university Sunday over the arrest of the cleric Mohsen Kadivar, defying calls to postpone the rally over fears of violence.
The students chanted "Kadivar must be released" and "Death to the monopoly."
The streets of Tehran were plastered with thousands of pro-Kadivar posters on Saturday amid a widespread campaign expressing unhappiness with the Special Court for Clergy (SCC) that ordered his arrest.