Jailed Iranian Critic Says IRGC Agents Do Whatever They Want To Prisoners

The Iranian Chief Justice on Monday carefully chose his words and controlled his tone not to sound the same as always, threatening opponents. The head of the Iranian Judiciary sounded very different from a weak ago.

He said: “I’m ready. Let’s talk. If we’ve made mistakes, we can amend them,” however, hardly any Iranian believed him. The call may have been made far too late.

Thousands of protesters have been jailed by Iran’s Judiciary since 2017 and almost no one has received a fair trial. The cases of hundreds of people killed by security forces in the streets in November 2019 has remained sealed.

The change in Ejei's rhetoric was so noticeable that many in Iran and overseas took it as a sign of weakness, not only for a senior cleric, but for an autocratic regime that was never shaken before, even when it faced major protests.

Ejei called on Iranians, who have taken to the streets for the 4th consecutive week, fighting back as they were beaten and shot at by regime thugs, to come forward, talk about their grievances and seek ways to bring back tranquillity to the streets of Tehran and tens of other Iranian cities.

On the same day, pundits who are allowed to speak told reformist daily Etemad that officials need to act like father figures and understand their children. Meanwhile, reformist figure Jalal Jalalizadeh called on the government in an interviewwith conservative website Nameh News to “quickly start a dialogue with the people.”

Jalalizadeh warned the government that “if it fails to sympathise with the people, the society will become even more bipolar and that is in no one’s interest.” He suggested. That the regime needs to consider itself as the people’s representative, respect their vote and views and listen to their demands.

He added that the new generation of Iranians have different demands from the previous generation.

Meanwhile, reformist Etemad Online website quoted renowned sociologist Asef Bayat as saying that “in the current uprising the people wish to take back their normal life that has been taken away from them immediately after the 1979 Islamic revolution. He said that the morality police has humiliated millions of women in the streets since then.

Comparing Iran to the Arab world where the Arab Spring took place more than a decade ago, Bayat said that the gap between the government and the majority of the people is wider in Iran than anywhere else such as Tunisia or Egypt.

He described the uprising in Iran as an all-encompassing movement that has gathered together all Iranians regardless of their social class and ethnicity. “Like the people in Tunisia and Egypt the people of Iran also want the government to respect for their dignity.”

Bayat added that "the main difference between the movement in Iran and those in Arab states is that the women have taken the lead in Iran in the struggle against the authoritarian regime," which has killed at least 91 [protesters] in Zahedan in the Province of Sistan-Baluchestan, and scores of others including two dozen under 18 young women and 12 children in Tehran, Kurdistan, Gilan and other provinces during the past three weeks. The sociologist noted that Iranian women started their opposition to the government dictated lifestyle from the first day after the 1979 revolution.

He made the remarks about a month ago in a meeting with families of the “martyred” athletes but was published by its official website on Monday. 

Deprivation of athletes of medals due to a ban on competing with the representatives of “the Zionist regime” is actually a victory because competing means recognizing the regime, he noted.

There is no legislation banning athletes but under pressure from federation officials, they usually lose games intentionally, forfeit matches or claim injury to avoid facing Israelis. Khamenei has often praised Iranian athletes who refuse to play against Israelis, and in September 2021 said they should continue to do so even if facing punishment by international sports bodies.

About 30 Iranian athletes in recent years have defected from Iranian national teams and sought asylum in other countries, including Judo champion Saeid Mollaei, Greco-Roman national team wrestler Ali Arsalan, and many others.

Pointing to the prominent role of popular sport figures in different strata of society, Khamenei said observance of religious teachings by the athletes and sports managers has a great social and spiritual impact on people. There is no Muslim religious rule against competing with Israelis.

Amid widespread protests by the Iranians against Khamenei, the government, and the Islamic regime, many officials are trying to boost the discourse of theocracy in the society.

Those who are looking for news in Iran will not turn to the state TV, Abdi argued.

Ironically, when hackers interrupted the state TV news program October 8, playing a short clip, most Iranians found out about it through social media reports or on foreign-based satellite TV rather than watching the actual program on the state TV.

Meanwhile, former Vice President Mostafa Hashemi Taba has argued in another interview that the state TV, also known as the Islamic Republic of Iran's Broadcasting organization (IRIB) excels in keeping Iranians uninformed about developments. He added that Iranians no longer trust the state television and the officials who appear on TV.

"When the television broadcasts what only a tiny segment of the population believes, others will inevitably turn their TV sets off and turn their backs to it."

Meanwhile, former IRIB Chief Mohammad Hashemi also criticized IRIB for airing the news only after they have been broadcast on foreign-based satellite channels. Nonetheless, he praised the state TV for countering lies and rumors, without citing an example.

According to Didban Iran [Iran Monitor] website in Tehran, the activity of IRIB's deputy chief for political affairs, which is in charge of news has been reduced to responding to information programs that foreign-based Persian media broadcast about Iranian developments.

IRIB is directly controlled by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office, especially its news and political programming.

The state broadcaster usually repeats what has already been aired during previous hours and sometimes days, adding a spin to please the organization's management and its supreme chief, Khamenei.

During the three weeks since the start of antigovernment protests in Iran, IRIB's most eye-catching output was showing the half-naked image of an Iranian protester abroad, for which the organization was forced to apologize later. It was meant to help the regime’s cause by discrediting protesters, but it touched a raw religious nerve among some insiders.

IRIB’s penchant for one-sided news has deeply annoyed viewers who currently get their news from social media and Persian-speaking satellite TV channels based in Europe and the United States. The viewers no longer trust the media that belongs to and echoes the voice of a government they have ceased to trust for the same reason: Unilateralism, justifying and beatifying the government's often wrong measures and its police brutality in the streets.

IRIB Chief Payman Jebelli has described the organization as "the regime's media outlet," an expression that was also used later by former President Hassan Rouhani. The same thing was said even more elaborately by the chairman of the state TV office in Khorasan Province Mohsen Nasrpour who stated, "the state TV is the mouthpiece of the government and the regime."

This was most recently reiterated by Hashem Hosseini Bushehri, a senior cleric, during a meeting with Jebelli on October 8. According to the Qom Seminary's official website, Bushehri said: "IRIB is the official podium for the Islamic Republic regime."

The people who have been chanting slogans in the streets of almost all major Iranian cities during the past three weeks, saying that they no longer want the Islamic Republic, are not likely to be interested in the same regime's mouthpiece. Following the hacking on Saturday, an Iranian Twitter user commented: "Thank you. Next time, please unplug the entire state television."

Babak Namazi, Siamak's brother, made the announcement in a statement on Saturday, expressing hope that his brother's 10-day leave will lead to his permanent release from prison. 

Namazi has spent seven years in jail on trumped-up espionage charges. His father, who went to Iran to free him in 2016, was also arrested and accused of espionage. 

Last week, Bagher (Baquer) Namazi, Siamak’s father, finally left Iran after 6.5 years of detention, and Siamak was let out of prison for a furlough. The United States that has been demanding freedom for four citizens held Iran said that Namazi’s release was not part of deal.

Tehran has it will receive $7 billion of its frozen funds for a prisoner exchange deal with the United States, but it did not specifically claim that the money is related to the Namazis.

The United States said last week that reports from Iranian sources of a transfer of funds related to the release of Bagher and the furlough for his son are categorically false.

United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric announced about Namazis in a statement on Saturday, October 1, but the Islamic Republic periodically announces that release of its frozen funds is imminent to prop up its currency.

Trying to show the realities in Iran differently and discredit the protests, Hezbollah organized rallies in support of the regime in Tehran with students from its private educational system – the Mahdi schools. 

Lebanese activists have published videos of children from Al-Mahdi schools carrying photos of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Qasem Soleimani, the slain commander of Quds force, the extraterritorial wing of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard. 

Hezbollah held ceremonies at the schools in which children were used to show "obedience to religious authority" and “condemning the Western conspiracy” against the Islamic Republic and its "achievements," the Lebanese website al-Modon reported. 

Mahdi schools are a cornerstone of Hezbollah’s “Society of Resistance,” featuring a standard modern technology-heavy curriculum mixed with its Islamic doctrine.

Iran has been engulfed in widespread antigovernment protests since September 19, after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman was killed in the custody of hijab police.

Oslo-based organization Iran Human Rights said on Saturday that at least 185 people have been killed in the uprising ignited by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini. The NGO added that about 20 of the killed were minors. 

The protests first erupted in Mahsa Amini’s hometown Saqqez and capital Tehran and soon spread to all over the country and garnered support from Iranian expatriate communities around the world as well as foreign governments and officials.