The Mojahedin Command inside Iran issued a lengthy report today, detailing the results of its investigations into a series of politically-motivated murders in Iran in recent years.

According to the report, political decisions on the murders were made by the "Special Operations Committee." Many leading figures in the Iranian regime are members of this committee, but the mullah who plays the key role in the committee is Mohammad Hejazi, head of the Special Office for Security and Intelligence Affairs of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

A panel of mullahs who are all Khamenei’s confidants issued the "fatwas" or religious decrees sanctioning the murders. They included Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardians Council, Mesbah Yazdi, Rasti Kashani, Abolqassem Khazali, a former member of the Guardians Council, and the ex-Chief of the Judiciary Mohammad Yazdi. They are known as "the Leader’s advisers on religious laws," the report reveals.

15 senior Revolutionary Guards officers headed by Brigadier General Mohammad-Baqer Zolqadr, deputy supreme commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, were also deeply involved in the political murders.

Khamenei and Khatami have made a deal to avoid at any cost any revelation about the role of Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards in the killings and also the atrocities that have been committed against members of the opposition, especially the Mojahedin, in the mullahs’ prisons.
 

Mullahs Tighten Screening Process of the "Elections", Associated Press, January 5

TEHRAN - Candidates who did not attend pro-clergy rallies will be disqualified from Iran's upcoming parliamentary elections, a hard-line council ruled in an apparent attempt to undercut "reformers," newspapers reported Wednesday.

Two "trusted supervisors" will decide whether candidates took part in the recent rallies to show support for the ruling Islamic establishment, the Fath newspaper reported.

It said the new procedure was ordered by the powerful 16-member Guardian Council, which must approve the list of candidates. It was not known when the by-law was passed, since the Guardian Council is not required to publicize its decisions.

Only the Khatami has the power to intervene in the decisions of the Guardian Council, and it was not clear if Khatami would risk a head-on confrontation with the hard-liners on this issue.
 

Threatening the Press with More Restrictions, Associated Press, December 24

TEHRAN - The government should curb the press before its "unlimited" freedom had serious consequences, a leading hard-line cleric in Iran said Friday.

"Stop this trend of insults. We have to do something to stop it, not just talk about stopping it," Mohammad Yazdi told worshippers at the traditional Friday prayers sermon at Tehran University.

Yazdi, who headed the judiciary until August, said Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, had expressed concern over the press's freedom.

"I'd like to say something to the president and the culture minister. If this trend goes on like this, and no serious measure is taken, then it's not clear where it will end, but I think it will not be a good ending," he said.

"Our people will not just watch and tolerate this," Yazdi warned. "Our people are alive. Some will write that (what I am saying) is a threat, but it is not."
 

"Hashemis: A Family in Form of A Party", State-controlled Asr-e Azadegan, January 4

The Rafsanjani family, which is very powerful, reflects a society in which secret deal makings rather than ballot box determine the course of the national politics. Here the government decisions and policies are made in the back rooms of powerful families, not through national elections.
 

Iran Flogs Two for Smoking in Public, Reuters, December 25

TEHRAN - Two Iranian men have been flogged in Tehran for smoking in public during the Moslem fasting month of Ramadan, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

The men received 10 lashes each on Friday after a court convicted them of smoking in the lobby of a judiciary building hours earlier, the daily Entekhab said.
 

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