In response to a question about formation of "political courts" and the Judiciary's 20-year delay in this regard, Prosecutor General Morteza Moqtadai said: "At the time, we were preoccupied with the problem of opposition groups. The prisons were overcrowded and all of them said they were political prisoners. It was, therefore, decided at the time to shelve this issue. It was announced that there were no political prisoners and that they were all criminals."

Moqtadai's remarks represent a brazen confession to the presence of a large number of political prisoners in Iran.

Mr. Massoud Rajavi, President of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said: At least 120,000 persons have been executed for their political views and beliefs under the mullahs' rule. Many more have been incarcerated and tortured for the same reasons. In addition to official prisons, agents of the Intelligence Ministry torture, interrogate and obtain forced confessions from political opponents in hundreds of safe houses in cities across the country.

Mr. Rajavi once again emphasized the need for the UN to dispatch an international delegation to investigate the fate of political prisoners in Iran. He urged the United Nations to adopt practical measures and international sanctions against the mullahs' inhuman regime.
 
 

Blaming The Other Faction For Political Murders, Hamshahri, quoted by BBC, June 30

Parliament deputy Zabihollah Safaei accused former Intelligence Minister Ali Fallahiyan of being the "main culprit" in the killings of dissidents and intellectuals last year.

He said Fallahiyan should be held responsible for having appointed an official to his ministry who was later charged with being the main person behind the political murders.
 
 

Bloody Confrontation Between Revolutionary Guards And Residents of Two Villages in Northern Iran, Iran Zamin News Agency, June 30

In an extensive and bloody confrontation between the residents of two villages in the northern province of Gilan and the clerical regime's suppressive forces, several villagers were murdered and dozens wounded by Revolutionary Guards.

The confrontation took place last week when the residents of Lapoot and Mashak villages, in Astaneh Ashrafieh, staged a protest against the government's lack of attention to the serious water shortage crisis which has brought tremendous hardship to villagers.

Over 1,000 families residing in the district participated in the protest, chanting slogans against regime officials. The Guards and State Security Forces intervened with a ruthless attack on protesters, beat up the villagers who included a large number of women, and fired their weapons to disperse the crowd.

Intense clashes ensued. Several farmers were killed, among them Seyyed Isma'il Mir Hosseini, 55. Some 300 farmers were arrested while a large number of Guards were also injured.
 
 

Mullahs Let Banks Use Rial's Black Market Rate, Reuter, June 29

Iran has authorized state banks to exchange hard currency gained from exports at an official floating rate close to the currency's black market value, newspapers reported on Tuesday.

The move appeared to signal wider acceptance by the government of the near black market rate, which is also used in calculating foreign airline ticket prices and applied to hard currency the government sells to Iranians travelling abroad.
 
 

WASHINGTON, DC--On Thursday, July 1, 1999, at 2:30 p.m., on behalf of a large number of their colleagues, Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Gary Ackerman, Eni Faleomavaega and James Traficant will express their views on America's policy on Iran. In light of the worsening suppression of the Iranian people, in particular women, intellectuals and religious minorities, and the export of terrorism openly directed by Khatami, the members of Congress are calling for a firm policy on Iran.

Subsequent to the ruling by the Federal Court of Appeals describing the evidence presented by the State Department in its administrative record as "certainly not evidence of the sort that would normally be received in court," the members of Congress called for an expression of support for a strong policy on Iran which encourages the democratic opposition.

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