Dissident commander tells Paris crowd regime change must be internal process, says he backs “liberation” from the Islamic regime.
PARIS – Most Iranian military officers are not loyal to the regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and would not fight to protect the Islamic Republic, a former Iranian pilot who defected to France said on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference in Paris, Lieutenant Behzad Masoumi Legwan gave a speech saying: “It is a fact that the overwhelming majority of the officer corps are in no way obedient followers of the regime. On the contrary, they are looking for the first opportunity whereby they can openly display their true sentiments by standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Iran”.
A one-time Iranian Air Force pilot seeking political asylum in France, and armed with what he says is a valuable list of contacts, says he intends to serve as a bridge between military officers and resistance forces.
Behzad Masoumi Legwan claims dissent in Iran’s military is widespread.
Masoumi’s arrival in France was announced Nov. 10 by the Europe-based Green Wave Iran movement, which says it helped him come to Paris.
Masoumi said at a news conference Wednesday that he established links with dissident military officers and can now be a bridge between them and resistance forces.
He was purged in 2001 but says he had access to bases till 2007, then escaped to Iraqi Kurdistan after June 2009 unrest
BERLIN — An Iranian activist said a woman sentenced to death by stoning for adultery could be executed as early as Wednesday, citing sources close to the court.
“We received the information three days ago,” exiled human rights activist Mina Ahadi told AFP by telephone Tuesday, citing a letter sent from a court to the northwestern city of Tabriz where Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani is in custody.
“If the decision is taken, she could be executed on Wednesday. We are very afraid.”
Ahadi said her organisation, the International Committee Against Stoning, planned a two-day march from Paris to Brussels on behalf of Mohammadi-Ashtiani beginning Tuesday.
“We want to make the media aware and convince governments to step up the diplomatic pressure (on Iran),” she said.
Mohammadi-Ashtiani was sentenced to death by two different courts in Tabriz in separate trials in 2006.
The first death sentence, by hanging, for her involvement in the murder of her husband, was commuted to a 10-year jail term by an appeals court in 2007.
But the second, by stoning, was on a charge of adultery levelled over several relationships, notably with the man convicted of her husband’s murder, and was upheld by another appeals court the same year.
Since July, Iran has repeatedly said that the stoning sentence has been stayed pending a final decision, amid international outcry over the case.
Mohammadi-Ashtiani’s son Sajjad Ghaderzadeh and lawyer were arrested in Iran last month, as were two German nationals, reportedly while interviewing the son. The Germans were granted consular access in late October.
The International Committee Against Stoning has called for the inmates’ immediate and unconditional release.
Two Iranian diplomats stationed in Europe have resigned from their posts. One has already sought asylum.
Radio Free Europe reported, “A senior official at Iran’s embassy in Helsinki who quit in order to join the opposition has said he is seeking political asylum in Finland.
“Hossein Alizadeh, who quit as deputy head of mission on September 10, today accused Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad of stealing the June 2009 election from opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi and of persecuting opposition members.”
In December, Mohammad- Reza Heydari resigned and sought asylum in Norway.
According to Bloomberg A third Iranian diplomat, Farzad Farhangian, resigned from his post in Brussels on Sept. 9 to join the opposition, Heydari said in a separate phone interview from Oslo today. Farhangian is now in Oslo under police protection, Heydari said by phone.”
As these men seek out refuge in another country, the Christian should be reminded to continually to seek refuge in God. Psalm 31:2 says “Be a rock of refuge for me, a strong fortress to save me
Internet media have been involved in organising the mass protests in Iran following the controversial presidential elections in June 2009, and disseminating information and footage throughout the world. The web comic strip “Zahra’s Paradise” is also a child of this media revolution.
“They can ban as many newspapers as they want, but the people’s press won’t be subdued.” These are the words, spoken in a comic strip, of the owner of an Internet café who is at that moment producing a thousand copies on his photocopier of a flyer with details of a missing person. That missing person’s name is Mehdi, he’s 19 years old and took part in the large-scale demonstration on Freedom Square in June 2009, four days after the presidential elections, when more than a million people thronged the streets of Tehran, calling out: “Where is my voice?” Since then he has fallen silent, and disappeared.
His mother and his brother, a blogger, go in search of Mehdi. The first place they go to is Freedom Square, the scene of violent clashes between security forces and demonstrators the previous day. Then they trail from hospital to hospital, see a great deal of blood and badly injured people. But there’s no trace of Mehdi anywhere, not even at the notorious Evin prison for political detainees. It’s after dark, and the tall buildings of Tehran are bathed in artificial light. There are numerous men and women standing on the rooftops, their arms stretched up towards the sky, defiantly calling out the words “Allahu Akbar”.
Last week’s decline in the Iranian currency against the dollar and lines of people gathering to buy them (pictures here).
Somayeh Tohidlou has written in her blog (“Bar Sahel-e Salamat,” On the Shore of Health) about the spread of long lines in Tehran, which she says is a sign of concern over an uncertain future:
Lines are a social phenomenon. When a group of people are forced to stand in lines in order to access what they need, it means that either there is a problem in the distribution of the needed goods or the quantity or quality does not meet the demand.Standing in line is not very unusual for us. You shouldn’t be too old to remember the time of the war [with Iraq] and even some time after it. Of course, standing in lines goes to times before that, including when there was a shortage of petroleum in the early days of the 1979 revolution and there were long lines. Even until a few years ago, there were long lines in our neighborhood for subsidized milk in the early morning hours.
Yet after several years of not having witnessed many lines, we’re hearing news these days of long lines, lines for changing money to dollars, long lines for buying gold coins from the bank, long lines for gasoline. All of these events are the result of hastily made decisions, the reasons for which are unknown.
On the other hand, the minister of economy is not willing to announce the exact time of the of subsidy cuts. [Officials] don’t like to speak about the rise of prices. The [lack of transparency] is the factor that is leading people to try hoarding what they can. And this is how the lines for gasoline get longer and longer.
In fact what is going on these days in society should have happened only after people had been informed or after the changes would have taken place. The issue is even more complicated.
All the news is about rising prices. For example, the 30 percent rise in the price of plane tickets, which means a rise in the price of other things and also a rise in the price of rice and oil, which has led many to go to shops to buy rice and oil at the old price.
There is worry these days over an uncertain future. A future that will bring a shock to the economy and to people’s lives like the 10 percent increase in the dollar rate did. These days in different lines that are spreading, you can hear the concern of the people about their way of life now and in the future.
