Lessons from Four National Security Events

Iranian blogger, Hossein Bastani, Roozonline:

Last week, the scenarios presented by the conservatists regarding the possible murder of imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji who is currently on a hunger strike, and the attempts to put the blame on individuals such as Ganji’s lawyer or Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, has alarmed human rights activist.

But how seriously should we take these scenarios? A review of events of the last eight years indicates that we must not take such events lightly. So let’s review the unfolding of four distinct political events which began and ended with strikingly similar markings. READ MORE

1. The serial murders of 1998 occurred at a time when the viewpoints and the spokes-media of those who felt threatened by the intellectuals, writers and members of the Iranian Writers Association were well known. What is noteworthy is that even after the murders the critics of the intellectuals continued to paint a negative picture of the victims and attribute their death’s to other Reformist circles going as far as asking for the arrest of Abbas Abdi. Though Abdi was not implicated in these cases, other charges were later trumped up against him and led to his imprisonment.

2. Weeks and days leading up to the Tehran University uprising hardliner news outlets broadcast reports of the “wearing thin of Hezbollah’s patience” with liberals and foretold bloody clashes to come. When Ezat Ebrahiminejhad was murdered reports circulated pinning his murder on other his colleagues, including Rahmani, Saber and Alijani. These charges once again did not stick but true to form all three were later rounded up and arrested.

3. Saeed Hajjarian’s assassination attempt though unsuccessful was preceded by a series of proclamations in the media from hardliners such as Ayatollah Messbah who claimed what reformists media engage in is “a thousand time worse than murder.” No one was directly charged with firing the shot but the incident was reported as stemming from disagreements he had with other reformist journalists.

4. The reporting on the death of Zahra Kazemi, the Iranian-Canadian photo journalist, contains clear similarities with all the above listed cases. However, since she died while in the Judiciary’s custody, hardliners could not attribute her death to her friends and associates. Though they made the focus of their reporting on her association with Behzad Nabavi. In the end a lower ranking intelligence staffer was implicated who though associated with the government was not part of the inner circle of the Judiciary. The presiding judge in the case as expected gave him preferential treatment.

This pattern of dealing with dissidents is so clear that when the state media whose role is pivotal in staging these events, begins reporting on the death of a jailed journalist and starts pointing the finger for the murder at his family and his lawyer there is room for much concern.

In truth today we should all be anxious about the well-being and safety of both Akbar Ganji and Shirin Ebadi. Recent experience has taught us as much.