TEHRAN - Iran's judiciary has proposed a restrictive law on "political crimes" and defending its tough new line against journalists.

A draft bill presented to the cabinet late on Monday by the judiciary defines a political crime as any action "against the sovereignty of the Islamic republic, the political system or the political and social rights of the people."

On Monday, the head of the Press Court -- appointed by the chief of the judiciary -- served notice that he was prepared to prosecute any journalist charged with insulting Islamic or Revolutionary values.

Pro-Khatami forces, caught off guard by the virulence of the week-long unrest, have watched helplessly as their newspapers have been closed or their senior editors prosecuted by the conservative-dominated courts.
 
 

Mullahs' "Political Crimes" Bill Intended To Institutionalize Inquisition, Repression, Iran Zamin News Agency, August 3

Iran's state television reported last night that the judiciary had ratified the "Political Crimes and Their Prosecution" bill and sent it to the cabinet.

Commenting on the bill, Dr. Sanabargh Zahedi, Chairman of the NCR Committee on Judiciary, said: "With such legislation, the mullahs intend to step up repression to an unprecedented level and institutionalize as laws the medieval inquisition that they have imposed on Iran."

"In the aftermath of the tumultuous uprising of the people of Tehran and other major Iranian cities that shook the clerical regime to its foundations, the ruling mullahs now intend to terrorize the public through not only mass arrests and increased presence of security forces, but also through new repressive legislation such as this one. The aim is to stem the rise of antigovernment uprising and public protests," the NCR judiciary chairman said.
 
 

Khatami And Gorbachev?, Voice Of America, August 3

The closing days of… Khatami's second year in office saw the worst social unrest in Iran since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Last month's week-long demonstrations by… students and the brutal suppression of those demonstrations by the police and… vigilantes capped a long-standing struggle between opposing factions….

According to the critics, while the Khatami government says it wants change, it is really working to reinforce the clerical system and not to dismantle it… Patrick Clawson of Washington Institute for Near East Policy says the comparison between the two leaders [Mikhail Gorbachev and Khatami] makes a lot of sense.

CLAWSON: I certainly think that… Khatami like President Gorbachev is completely committed to the system, to the Islamic republic, and his goal is very much to strengthen the Islamic Republic. And the big question is whether or not in the end the opening that Khatami is engaged in will result in the collapse of the system or will instead strengthen the system.…
 
 

Impossible to Survive without "Unity", IRNA, August 1

TEHRAN - The English daily Kayhan International Sunday said that the July incidents in the metropolis conveyed the explicit message to one and all that disunity can cost dearly and said that it is only through unity that ''we can survive and make sure hat the revolution survives'' as well.

As for the lessons conveyed by the July incidents, it is clear in the adage that ''united we stand, divided we fall.''

"We must not forget that the more we get into the nonsensical squabbling, the more we show acts of hostility instead of acts of compassion toward each other, the more we get into ridiculous childish wars, the more our nation becomes susceptible to foreign and domestic threats,'' advised the paper hoping that politicians… must have imbibed a lot from the July experiences.
 
 

Students Tell of Shootings, Savage Beatings, Agence France Presse, August 3

TEHRAN - Iranian students were shot and savagely beaten in Tabriz during last month's unrest, a student group said in Tuesday's press.

Tabriz University's Islamic students council told the Khordad paper that at least 15 people were shot, including three women, as demonstrations in Tehran in mid-July that sparked days of deadly riots spread to the provinces.

The council said other vigilantes went to a local hospital and abducted those who had been wounded by gunfire.
 

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