The overwhelming boycott of the second round of Majlis election in Tehran yesterday turned into a political fiasco for the mullahs’ regime in general and Khatami’s faction in particular. "Eye witness accounts collected from hundreds of polling stations across the capital by the Mojahedin Command inside Iran and secret internal reports prepared by the Interior Ministry showed that the number of people who turned out to vote was less than 50,000, meaning that the turnout in Tehran was less than one percent," a statement by the National Council of Resistance of Iran reported.

National Council of Resistance President Massoud Rajavi said: "The wholesome unity displayed today by the people of Tehran in defiance of the mullahs' regime is a rude awakening for all those who, in pursuit of their own economic and political interests, are trying to portray Khatami and his criminal gang as 'reformers' and representatives of the Iranian people."

"Beyond the mullahs' election games, the harsh reality is that the strife within the ruling body is becoming deeper and more acute," Rajavi said. "This is bound to result in whole new developments in the coming months, particularly as the next round of the internecine power struggle has already begun over next year's presidential election…"

"Whatever happens, time is up for mullah's rule in Iran and the final victors are the Iranian people and the Resistance," he said.
 

In Clashes with Young People, Paramilitary Commander, Bassiji Killed, Several More Wounded, Iran Zamin News Agency, June 30

At around 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday, June 28, a member of the notorious paramilitary Bassij of the Revolutionary Guards was killed and three of his cohorts were wounded in clashes with a group of young residents in Shahr-e Ray, south of Tehran. The mullahs’ regime arrested three young men on charges of killing the Bassij agent after a huge manhunt in the area.

In another development, Ayoub Ravan, the deputy commander of Bassij in Oshnavieh in West Azerbaijan province, was shot dead in the city’s Khomeini Street at noon on Thursday, June 29.

The paramilitary Bassijis, notorious for their ruthless suppression of the people, commit heinous crimes everyday across the country.

In recent months there have been increasing attacks, many of them fatal, on Bassij and security agents in clashes with young people in different cities.
 

Clinton Denounces Conviction of Iranian Jews, Associated Press, July 1

WASHINGTON - U.S. President Bill Clinton said Saturday that he was deeply concerned by the convictions, in an Iranian court, of 10 of 13 Iranian Jews on charges of spying for Israel.

Clinton said the U.S. Human Rights Commission has denounced the judicial process by which the 13 Iranian Jews were tried as "seriously flawed."

"We have raised our concerns time and again, when the Iranian government has treated intellectuals, journalists, Muslim clerics and members of the Baha'i community with the same fundamental unfairness," Clinton said.

"We are deeply disappointed that the Iranian government has again failed to act as a society based on the rule of law, to which the Iranian people aspire."
 

EU Condemns Convictions of Iranian Jews, Reuters, July 1

PARIS - France, speaking for the 15-nation European Union, condemned the conviction in Iran on Saturday of 10 Jews.

"The European Union learned with concern of the verdict handed down by the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz," it said.

"It (the EU) conveys its disappointment at the holding of the trial behind closed doors despite the assurances given by the Iranian authorities," it said in a statement.

Separately, French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin said the conviction of the Jews was unacceptable.

"The French authorities intervened at every level with the Iranian authorities to say that this trial was being conducted under conditions which failed to respect the rule of law."

Jospin said he believed international pressure had helped avoid the worst -- the death penalty.

"Obviously the question of whether the verdict was lenient or unjust makes no sense anyway when legal conditions were not respected in any case," he added.

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