Mullah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi, who was appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei as the Chief of the Judiciary, is one of the most active figures involved in the clerical regime's machinery for export of terrorism and fundamentalism.

Mahmoud Hashemi is an Iraqi mullah who came to Iran only after the mullahs seized power in 1979. He was among the founders of the "Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq" - a subsidiary of the Guards Corps used as a vehicle for exporting mullahs' terrorism and fundamentalism to Iraq. Hashemi was the Council's spokesman for several years.

Hashemi, a Khamenei confidant, has until now been a member of the watchdog Guardians Council, the Assembly for Discernment of State Exigencies, and the Assembly of Experts. He is among the key directors of the Islamic Culture and Communications Organization (ICCO), the "World Congress of Ahl al-Beit" and the Islamic Propaganda Organization. These agencies are among the most active in the export of terrorism and fundamentalism and in bankrolling these activities beyond Iran's borders.
 
 

Resistance Calls For International Probe Into Massacre Of Tabriz, Iran Zamin News Agency, August 15

The head of the Islamic Revolutionary Courts in East Azerbaijan Province said yesterday: "A number of those arrested in the University of Tabriz debacle are members of the [Mojahedin]." Mullah Aqazadeh added: "The main elements behind the recent riots in the University of Tabriz wanted to disturb Iran's calm and security by destroying public places, pillaging the people's belongings and attacking them." Aqazadeh promised to deal harshly with those arrested.

By bringing up bogus allegations such as "destroying public places and pillaging people's belonging," the clerical regime is trying to prepare the grounds for the execution of those arrested. It is also trying to overshadow the horrifying dimensions of the crimes committed by the regime's suppressive forces in the course of the demonstrations by the students and people of Tabriz on Saturday, July 11.
 
 

Report: Protesters Sentenced To Die, Associated Press, August 14

DUBAI - Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Court reportedly has condemned to death instigators of last month's mass protests, Iran's worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

The Islamic Revolutionary Court also gave long jail terms to several other defendants, the evening Kayhan daily reported Saturday.

The paper, which is believed to have close ties to Iran's hard-line judiciary, quoted "informed sources.'' It did not say when the sentences were passed or how many people were condemned.

Senior hard-line officials, including Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have blamed the protests on "a group of vicious people'' supported by exiled Iranian groups and unnamed foreign countries.

A senior Iranian cleric warned during the riots that protesters who damaged public property would be tried as enemies of the state, a charge punishable by death.
 
 

Iranian Jews: Graves Were Bulldozed, Associated Press, August 16

JERUSALEM Iranian authorities have bulldozed headstones at a Jewish cemetery in northeastern Iran, an Iranian living in Israel said Monday.

The cemetery is in the city of Mashad, 450 miles east of Tehran, said Moshe Zvuluni, previously a member of Mashad's Iranian Jewish community.

Speaking on Israel radio, Zvuluni said an Iranian Jew who went to visit his grandfather's grave at the cemetery told him that all headstones had been bulldozed in the middle of the night, but the bones were not removed.

"They didn't leave a single grave," Zvuluni said.

An Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the information had been corroborated.

Thirteen Iranian Jews have been detained in Iran since April on charges of spying for Israel and the United States. Under Iranian law, espionage is punishable by death.
 
 

Iran Drought Damages Rice Fields In North, Reuters, Aug 16

TEHRAN - Iran's worst drought in 30 years has damaged more than 50 percent of the rice fields in Iran's northern Gilan province, experts were on Monday quoted as saying.

"Agriculture experts of Gilan province in northern Iran announced that due to drought more than 50 percent of the total 215,000 hectares of paddy fields in the province have been partially damaged," the official IRNA news agency reported.

Agriculture Minister Issa Kalantari told Reuters that rice production had been forecast at 1.7 million tones but production could fall below 1.4 million.
 

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