BRIEF ON IRAN
        No. 303
        Thursday, November 30, 1995


        Representative Office of
        The National Council of Resistance of Iran
        3421 M Street, NW, #1032
        Washington, DC 20007



A New Repressive Law Passed by Mullahs, Agence France Presse, November 29

        Iran's Majlis passed a new law ... which prescribes death sentence,
imprisonment and lashes for a series of political and civil offenses....
        The law considers possibility of death sentence for those who
damage the state security or plan a malicious act against state
officials....
        The law considers death sentence for those who "insult" Khomeini
and his successor, Khamenei. Iran's new penal code states that:
"individuals belonging to any association with more than two members,
created inside or outside the country, with the intention of damaging state
security will be sentenced to 2 to 10 years of prison." According to this
law, those engaged in "propaganda against the Islamic government" will be
sentenced to 3 months to one year prison terms.
        The new law considers 10 days to 2 months jail sentences or 74
lashes for women who are arrested in public without hejab [head-to-toe
cover]....
        A man who finds his wife in an illegitimate affairs can kill her
without being afraid of any legal consequences. Such right is not
recognized for a woman under the same conditions....
        Those arrested for importing, possession, manufacturing or drinking
alcoholic beverages will be sentenced to 2 to 6 months prison terms....


Cruel And Inhuman Punishment Under Mullahs, Reuters, November 29

        TEHRAN - An Iranian court has sentenced three men to death for
killing an elderly couple and ordered two of them to also have their
fingers cut off for robbing them, a newspaper said on Wednesday.
        The daily Car VA charger said the court in Tehran sentenced the two
men to have four fingers of the right hand amputated, according to Iran's
Islamic penal code, for the robbery.
        The three were sentenced to hang, it said. A fourth man received a
15-year prison sentence for assisting in the crime.


European Union's Continued Concern about Human Rights in Iran, Excerpts of
the speech by the Delegate of Spain on behalf of the EU in the 3rd
Committee of the U.N. General Assembly, Nov. 23

        ...The EU continues to be concerned about the grave human rights
situation in Iran, including the continued high number of executions, cases
of torture and degrading treatment or punishment, the absence of guarantees
of due process of law, the discriminatory treatment of persons belonging to
minorities, in particular on religious grounds, restrictions on the freedom
of expression, the repression of women, practices of gender based
discrimination and their cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment.
        We call on Iran to cooperate fully with the Special Representative,
Mr. Maurice Copithorne, and other mechanisms of the Commission of Human
Rights, as well as to implement existing agreements with international
humanitarian organizations.
        We repeat our condemnation of the fatwa threatening the life of
Salman Rushdie.
        The fatwa is a blatant breach of international law, contrary to the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the principle of the sovereignty
of states.
        The European Union will spare no effort to obtain from the
Government of Iran assurances that the life of Salman Rushdie will not be
threatened under any circumstances....


Iran Holds Missile Exercise at Mouth of Gulf, Reuters, November 29

        TEHRAN - Iranian navy, air force and Revolutionary Guards units
have held a cruise missile exercise near the mouth of the Gulf, a newspaper
said on Wednesday.
        The daily Jomhuri Eslami said the forces taking part in the Saeqe-4
(Thunderbolt-4) maneuvers tested "advanced missile systems" built by
Iranian navy experts for the first time by firing a land-based cruise
missile at a sea target near the port of Jask.
        It did not specify the exact date of the exercise, part of
week-long wargames held in the Gulf and the Caspian Sea to mark Iranian
Navy Day on Tuesday.
        Iranian Deputy Navy Commander Admiral Abbas Mohtaj said earlier
this week that Iran would take delivery of its third Kilo-class Russian
submarine some time next spring.
        Iran took delivery of two diesel-powered submarines from Russia in
1992, making it the only regional state to deploy subs in the oil-rich
waterway.
        Mohtaj said Iran also planned two joint exercises with the navies
of Pakistan and Oman to be held before March 1997.