TEHRAN, 27 July 2003 — Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has expressed alarm over the treatment of political activists by unofficial intelligence agencies, the country’s main reformist party told state media yesterday. Khatami issued a formal complaint to the office he set up after his election in 1997 to record violations of constitutional rights, said the reformist party Iran Participation Front (IIPF), lead by the president’s brother Muhammad Reza Khatami.
The president’s written complaint claims that around 60 political radicals have been arrested by unofficial intelligence agencies, kept in isolation and subjected to psychological abuse to extract forced confessions, official news agency IRNA reported.
Meanwhile, three more Iranian journalists have been arrested, press reports said yesterday. Cartoonist Arash Noorchian and cover designer Mohammad-Amin Golbaft both from the monthly Gozaresh (request), were arrested Wednesday on unspecified charges after failing to post the judicial bail demanded by Tehran’s prosecutor, reports said.
Nader Karimi, “adviser to the editorial” was also arrested and sent to Evin prison yesterday following an order by the press court in Tehran, the student news agency ISNA reported. Abolghasem Golbaft, the monthly’s director, was also sent to jail last month by the press court. A wave of recent arrests has targeted the reformist press since an outburst of virulent anti-regime protests in mid-June and July.
In another development, a parliamentary deputy told INSA yesterday random inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites are still years away even if Tehran accepted an additional Non-Proliferation Treaty protocol. Reformist MP Mohsen Mirdamadi and head of Parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee said: “Accepting the protocol does not mean that we are obliged to execute it tomorrow, the negotiations over the acceptance of the protocol can take a long time, even several years.
