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Iran Hardliners Arrest Two High-Profile Reformists
by Jean-Michel Cadiot
TEHRAN (AFP) - In a show of strength, Iran's hardliners cracked down decisively Sunday on the country's bruised reform movement with the arrests of student leader Ali Afshari and dissident nationalist Ezatollah Sahabi of the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM).
Both men face charges of insulting Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in speeches given to Tehran students in November. Sahabi has also been charged with delivering anti-government propaganda in his remarks.
During the gathering at the Amir Kabir University on November 26th, Sahabi denounced the country's conservatives, affirming that the "politics of repression will not be able to last for long."
He accused conservatives of wanting to reduce pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami's "room to maneuver," for which he said, "They use religion and the belief of the people."
He also lashed out against the conservative-led judiciary, which has imprisoned several high-profile reformist journalists and Khatami allies, of "incessantly trying to stir up crises in order to block reforms."
"Eighty-five percent of the people don't want the conservatives anymore," said Sahabi.
The secular IFM is unrecognized but tolerated by the Islamic regime in power since 1979.
Hours after Sahabi's arrest Sunday, Afshari, the head of the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU), Iran's largest pro-reform student group, was also jailed for his remarks made at the same rally as Sahabi, the source said.
In his speech to more than 2,000 students, Afshari had called for a referendum on the Islamic Republic's foundation of "velayat-e-faghi," or religion before politics.
"The view that velayat-e-faghi is above the constitution must be put before a referendum," Afshari told more than 2,000 students gathered at the campus.
The OCU helped organize students in July 1999 pro-reform protests that erupted into clashes with conservative forces, the worst violence in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
In addition, Afshari and Sahabi have been tried for attending a controversial seminar in Germany on the future of reform in Iran last April.
The Berlin gathering enraged Iran's conservatives with its speeches by Iranian opposition figures along with appearances by a bare-armed female dancer and a male stripper.
But Sahabi told the court that in attending the conference he had done nothing to endanger national security and that he was hoping to encourage Iran's ties with outside world, notably European countries.
Also appearing in court, Afshari said he had been kept from seeing his lawyer and demanded the presence of a jury.
The arrests follow the resignation of Cultural Minister Ataollah Mohajerani, a champion of artists and newspapers, which went into effect Sunday.
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