The government-run daily Aftabe Emrouz reported yesterday that 22 prisoners have been hanged on "drug-related charges" in Rajaishahr Prison in the West Tehran suburb of Karaj over the past two months. The report added that 20 other prisoners in the same prison were hanged in September on the same charges.

This brings to 42 the total number of prisoners hanged in the past five months in just one suburban prison.

In its January 5 issue, Aftabe Emrouz daily quoted Ali Mir-Khalili, a deputy in the clerical regime's Majlis, as telling the forum: "The State Security Forces are putting pressure on the people on various pretexts. Some SSF agents beat up people severely on the pretext that they are drug addicts or are smugglers. They murder people and then justify the killings by just saying that the victim was a drug trafficker."

Intelligence officials of the mullahs' regime had previously admitted that the "narcotics traffic" through Iran is in the hands of the Intelligence Ministry. Akbar Ganji, a former Revolutionary Guards commander and intelligence official of the regime, said in an interview with Arya newspaper on December 4, 1999: " One of the projects undertaken by the Ministry of Intelligence was drug trafficking, which generates huge revenues."
 

Young, Disenchanted People Punish Mullahs' Agents of Suppression, Iran Zamin News Agency, January 28

The state-run newspaper Abrar reported yesterday that two Revolutionary Guards in the State Security Forces in the southern city of Yazd were killed "and the assailants fled the scene after opening fire on the officers."

In another incident in the southern city of Minab on Sunday, January 23, young men in a city district confronted a group of eight agents of the Revolutionary Guards' notorious paramilitary Bassij, who were harassing the local residents. Ali Firouzi, a Bassij member, was killed in the clashes.
 

Khatami Concerned About Low Turn out in "Elections", Reuters, January 31

TEHRAN - Mohammad Khatami on Monday played down the elimination of many of his allies from Iran's parliamentary race and called for a massive turnout in the polls.

"Political groups must take a positive look at the elections. If they have misgivings, this must not be allowed to reduce enthusiasm for the elections," the official IRNA news agency quoted Khatami as saying.

"Anyone who has right to vote must show up at the polls and be sure that their presence will make a lot of difference to the fate of the country," he said.

The Guardian Council, a clerical-based body which vets candidates, and its screening boards have eliminated hundreds of entrants for alleged "ties to illegal groups," "reputation for corruption" or lack of strong faith in Iran's Islamic system.

Khatami stopped short of criticizing the council, saying it had acted according to the law. "Whether or not some like the (present) laws, we must uphold them," he said.
 

Tehran Accuses Albright Interfering in "Elections", Agence France Presse, January 31

TEHRAN - Iran's foreign ministry on Monday accused US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright of interfering in Iran's domestic affairs, and of ignorance of the realities in the Islamic republic.

In Davos Sunday, Albright said that the United States was closely following the legislative elections in Iran, in order to assess opportunities for a rapprochement with Tehran, 20 years after the two countries broke off diplomatic relations.

[She conceded that despite some talking between the two countries in recent years, the United States had "some endemic problems with Iran."

[Washington has accused Tehran of failing to back the Middle East peace process, suspects it of links to terrorist organizations, and opposes Iran's willingness to acquire weapons of mass destruction.]

"These type of statements are aimed at interfering in Iran's internal affairs and are completely unacceptable," ministry spokesman Asefi said. He also blasted rumors that election monitors from the European Union would observe the elections.

"The Americans want a parliament that will be docile and take a soft line towards them and the superpowers which dominate the world," said former foreign minister, Velayati, who remains influential as foreign policy advisor of supreme leader Ali Khamenei, in an interview with the hard-line daily Jomhuri Eslami.

Velayati accused the reformers of a lack of "firmness" in their rejections of ties with Washington, and warned that "the United States and Israel remain the most serious threats to the region and the world."

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