Back to Brief on Iran
According to the reports received so far the dictatorship ruling Iran executed or stoned to death at least 200 persons in public in 1997. This is at least twice the number of executions in 1996 and four times the figure for 1995.
138 persons (or 70% of victims) were executed after Khatami was elected president. The actual figure of executions is much higher as Iran's criminal rulers continue to systematically and secretly execute or kill under torture large groups of political prisoners. A number of political prisoners have also been executed under the pretext of drug trafficking or moral corruption.
Unable to confront the growth of popular resistance, the mullahs' regime has stepped up repression, including public executions, in order to create an atmosphere of fear and terror to curb social protests.
The rise in the number of executions reaffirms that the clerical regime's different factions have common views and interests in repression and that the regime is in no way capable of taking a single step back from absolute repression.
In a related statement, the National Council of Resistance of Iran called on the international human rights organizations "to pressure the Iranian regime to open up its prisons to international fact-finding missions."
Even Pro-Khatami Papers Back Mullahs' Leader Regarding Ties with US!, Agence France Presse, January 6
TEHRAN - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami is under mounting pressure from Islamic hardliners to keep a distance from the United States…
Growing number of conservative officials and newspapers are speaking out in harsh tones against a possible rapprochement with the "Great Satan," amid uncertainty over the content of Khatami's interview with CNN due to be broadcast early Thursday.
"The president ought to be aware that his address will be closely monitored and its every word heard by Iran's Moslem revolutionaries. We hope that his speech will disappoint the enemy and make our friends happy," said the fundamentalist daily newspaper Jomhuri Islami.
The paper on Tuesday published an open letter to Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi containing a long list of wrongdoings committed by Washington against Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The letter warned that "any hands which reach out to America should be cut off."
"Our officials should know that we have not given them a (government) post for them to seek friendship with the enemy of our people," it said….
The English-language Tehran Times ran a banner headline Tuesday, saying Khamenei was the "only authority to decide on resumption of ties with US."
The paper published interviews with a dozen conservative MPs and political figures, all of whom rejected prospects of better ties with Washington.
"This is a sensitive issue and a final decision on that should be taken by the leader," said MP Mahmud Alavi....
"It should not be forgotten that a freeze in relations with the US has done us much good ... any attempt to revive ties would be a great mistake," Alavi warned.
Iran Hospital Holds Newborn Twins as Collateral,
Reuter, December 31
TEHRAN - An Iranian hospital has refused to allow the parents of twins born there three weeks ago to take their babies home until they pay their $1000 bill, a newspaper said on Wednesday.
The daily Salam quoted the babies' father as saying officials at Tehran's Hazrat-e Zeinab Hospital had threatened to turn the twins over to state welfare authorities after he said he was unable to pay the full three million rial ($1,000) bill at once.
The newspaper said hospital officials refused to discuss the case with its reporter.
The sum charged by the hospital for the births, during which the mother required an operation, is equivalent to a junior state employee's salary for 10 months. The minimum daily wage in Iran is 8,482 rials ($2.83).
Egypt's Top Director Denies Receiving Invitation to
Iran Film Festival, Agence France Presse, January 5
CAIRO - Egypt's top director, Youssef Chahine, on Monday denied reports from Tehran that he received an invitation to attend Iran's film festival next month.
"I have not received any invitation, and I will announce my decision whether or not to attend the Iran film festival when I get an invitation," Chahine told AFP in Cairo.
The Iranian newspaper Akhbar on Sunday reported that Chahine had been invited to the Fajr (dawn) film festival along with veteran actors Omar Sharif of Egypt and Anthony Quinn.
Sharif was not available for comment, and it is not known whether Quinn will attend the event, during which 14 of his movies are to be screened….