Sunday, October 11, 2009

Is There a Peace Prize Winner in the House?

3 Iranian protestors face hanging

Rick Moran
Hey! Remember the Iranian protestors who marched for a free and fair election last summer?

The administration may have forgotten them, barely acknowledging them in the first place. But the Iranian government is about to take their revenge by executing three of the protestors.

Aresu Eqbali of AFP reports:

Three people arrested after Iran's disputed presidential election have been condemned to death despite a global outcry over trials of people who claimed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election was rigged.

"Three people who were accused (for their role) in the post-election incidents have been sentenced to death," said Zahed Bashiri Rad, media officer at the justice ministry, quoted by ISNA news agency on Saturday.

Bashiri Rad, giving only the initials of the convicts said that "MZ and AP were convicted for ties with the Kingdom Assembly of Iran and NA for ties with the Monafeghin (exiled opposition group commonly known as the People's Mujahedeen)."
Massive street protests broke out in Iran following Ahmadinejad's re-election.

About 4,000 people were arrested, and 140 of them, including senior reformers and journalists, have been put on trial for seeking a "soft" overthrow of the regime and for inciting protests.

On Thursday, a reformist website reported that a member of a group seeking to restore Iran's monarchy has been sentenced to death for his involvement in the unrest, identifying him as Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani.

Judiciary officials were not available to confirm if he was the "MZ" mentioned by ISNA on Saturday.

On Friday, Amnesty International urged Tehran to lift the death sentence on Zamani. A member of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, he was among scores of arrested people in the post-vote mass demonstrations, it said.

Amnesty condemned such "show trials" as a "mockery of justice".

Will President Obama raise his voice to try and stop this travesty? Will our State Department?

Don't hold your breath.
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