Caledoniyya

Quickly, bring me a beaker of wine, so that I may wet my mind and say something clever.

Ali-Zamani: Iran’s First Post-Election Death Sentence

Has been issued by the Iranian revolutionary court to Iranian activist Mohammad Reza Ali-Zamani, 37, following a conviction on the grounds of muhabereh (taking up arms against Iran’s Islamic system).

Ali-Zamani admitted working for the exile group the Iran Monarchy Committee during the public mass trials that commenced in August.

According to prosecutors, Ali-Zamani plotted political assassinations with US military officials in Iraq before returning to the Republic with the aim of “causing disruption during and after the election”.

He is further accused of meeting an American called “Frank” in Irbil and trading information on Iran’s domestic conditions in return for money.

Ali-Zamani via FARS News Agency

It is further alleged that he received instructions on how to build a chemical weapon and furnished two US military officers “Mike” and “Robert” with details on Iranian officials targeted for assassination.

The sentence was imposed after he confessed to working for a little-known exile group, the Iran Monarchy Committee, which Iranian officials describe as a terrorist organisation. Prosecutors alleged that he plotted political assassinations with US military officials in Iraq before returning to Iran “aiming at causing disruption during and after the election”.
Ali-Zamani admitted guilt during a series of public mass trials that began in August in which scores of senior pro-reformist politicians confessed to fomenting the unrest that followed Ahmadinejad’s victory. Opposition leaders condemned the events as “show trials” and say defendants were tortured to force them to confess.

It goes on and inexorably on, though it has been argued that despite the bluster the prosecution has very little tangible evidence to go on.

Given that torture is the instrument du jour in Iranian trials and justice conspicuous in its absence, it is unlikely the fact that the man is potentially innocent will stay the hand of the executioner.

And so another innocent civilian dies in the name of political rights and personal liberty and the senseless machine that is the Iranian government grinds ever onwards, with impunity.

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