Iran Protester On Death Row ‘Confessed Under Torture’: Attorney

Iranian political activist, lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shirin Ebadi urged people on Sunday to join the campaign of withdrawing money from banks, noting that state-controlled banks in Iran are not institutions to serve the people and only act as the economic arm of the “killing Republic” referring to the clerical regime.

"Now it has been proven to everyone that there is no will in the regime to accept the demands of the people," she said, adding that the campaign to shun banks in daily transactions can deal a "fundamental blow" to the government. 

This movement dubbed “Join this campaign" has been formed so that citizens can deal a major blow to the government’s repressive structures, she said.

Ebadi added that such campaigns should not be limited to banks, noting that time has come for a coordinated action against all institutions that have a part in the crackdown on the popular protests. Some activists have suggested that people should refuse to pay their utility bills and other payments to government entities.

Her remarks come as grassroot groups and activists have also announced calls for another three-day nationwide protests and strikes starting Monday, for December 19, 20, and 21. In addition to daily protests on the streets and sit-ins at universities, strikes continued among employees of many industries, particularly in the oil, gas and petrochemical sectors. 

It has become obvious for many Iranians that the banks are not able to survive if people start to use cash instead of debit cards, which have managed to keep the level of liquidity at a level that banks do not go bankrupt. 

The head of the Central Bank of Iran (CBI), Ali Salehabadi, said in addition to US sanctions on Iran, recent popular protests have encouraged capital flight from the country and contributed to the fall of the rial. But he promised to reduce the alarming growth in the money supply until March, when the Iranian calendar year ends.

As a psychological op to counter the capital drain from the banks, rumors are circulating on social media that the Islamic Republic plans to increase interest rates by five percent. However, Salehabadi said Monday that no decision has been finalized to increase the rates.

Most economist in Iran have repeatedly told the local media that there is no quick fix to the deep-rooted banking and financial problems facing the regime.

Iran’s rial was hovering near 400,000 against the US dollar on Monday, while in most of 2021 the rial was stable at around 250,000, a more than 50-percent drop in 15 months, which coincides with the presidency of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi.

The banks run by regime insider have always been under pressure to grant loans to the powerful circles or invest in state-run projects, but they prefer to avoid such financings because most of the projects in the country are not producing profits and banks would face problems redeeming their loans. 

Iran has also a problem with the demands made by the international financial watchdog, the FATF since 2017, to enact legislation against money laundering and financing of terrorism. Without this, Iran will remain blacklisted by many international financial institution

Bahaoldin Hosseini-Hashemi, an economist in Tehran, says the closing months of the year are usually when more money is printed by the CBI, because the government has to pay its end-of-year obligations. Hosseini-Hashemi drew attention to official reports showing that the CBI has printed money at a faster pace since the end of September as government debt to the bank has increased. A second challenge is presented by state or quasi-state banks, which also rely on borrowing from the CBI.

CNN on Monday quoted an Iranian woman who says she has been accused by Iranian authorities of running an anti-regime activist group on Telegram.

The woman introduced as Negin has denied the allegation, but she has told CNN she has “some friends” who were political prisoners.

“They put in front of me transcribed printouts of my phone conversations with those friends,” she said, and “questioned me on what my relationship with those people were.”

“They told me ‘Do you think you can get out of here alive? We will execute you. Your sentence is death penalty. We have evidence, we are aware of everything,’” said Negin, which is not her real name.

Negin said that she realized security agents accessed her Telegram account with a different IP address.

Iranian regime reactivated her Telegram account to see who has been in touch with her while Negin was in jail, she added.

Negin was one of hundreds of protesters detained at Iran’s notorious Evin prison in northern Tehran within the first few weeks of anti-government protests following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody in mid-September.

The Iranian government may have used similar tactics to surveil the Telegram and Instagram accounts of Nika Shahkarami, the 16-year-old demonstrator who lost her life after a protest in Tehran on September 20.

The public relations office of Qom University of Medical Sciences announced that the four clerics were wounded by a sharp object, but another source said they were hit by shotgun pellets.

Tasnim website quoted Qom University of Medical Sciences as saying that before noon on Sunday, unknown people injured four mullahs in “several different regions” of the city, and two of them were taken to the hospital for treatment, for injuries in the shoulder and leg.

Before the eruption of anti-regime protests in mid-September, several cases of attacks on clerics had been reported in Iran. On August 29, two who were introduced as imams of mosques in Qom, were attacked with an “iron pipe”.

Before that, a young mullah was attacked with a knife in the evening of July 28 in Karaj, west of Tehran.

On July 1, Iranian media reported that the imam of a mosque in Isfahan was attacked by an unknown motorcyclist with a firearm.

During the recent protests against clerical rulers following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody, youth tossed turbans of many mullahs in the streets to show their anger at them.

According to the Cinema for Peace Foundation, a Berlin-based charity that focuses on humanitarian and environmental issues, security detained member Nika Nikulshina, an associate of the protest group, Peter Verzilov, and a Ukrainian member of Pussy Riot.

Reuters was not able to independently verify the reports.

The activists were stopped by security forces before they could invade the pitch, Cinema for Peace said in a statement.

Jaka Bizilj, founder of the Cinema for Peace Foundation, told Reuters that Verzilov told him that he was pulled back by security forces seconds before entering the pitch.

"When I texted with Peter he was in police detention," Bizilj said.

Iran's clerical rulers have faced the biggest protests in years since September when 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police who enforce strict dress codes.

The 2018 World Cup final in Moscow was briefly interrupted when Pussy Riot activists, including Verzilov, burst onto the pitch to draw attention to human rights abuses in Russia before being hauled off by stewards.

Cinema for Peace evacuated Verzilov after the 2018 World Cup in Moscow for treatment for alleged poisoning. The foundation also brought Navalny in 2020 from Russia to Berlin for life-saving treatment after his poisoning.

Reuters Report

After meeting with the North Korean ambassador, the head of the Student Affairs Organization of the Ministry of Science said professors and students can take advantage of exchange programs with the isolated country.

Prof. Mehdi Zakerian said, “I have studied and lived in the United States and France, I have not been to North Korea, but I know there is not even the possibility of accessing the Internet in this country.” He was speaking to Khabaronline website in tehran.

“How is that the children of our officials study in the US and Europe, but advise other students to go North Korea to study?” he asked.

Many Iranian regime insiders have sent their sons and daughters to study and live in North America and Europe, while they continue to support the anti-West rhetoric and policies of the Islamic government. Some regime officials said in recent years that up to 4,000 family members of current or former officials live in the West.

Canada in October banned 10,000 members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards from entering its territory and reports say that Ottawa is investigating to see if there are undesirable individuals currently living in the country.