PJM has obtained the following English translation of Afshin Ellian’s article. Ellian reveals that Khamenei has now approved an arrest warrant against Mousavi, which could be enforced at any moment by the Revolutionary Guards.
The website for Green Freedom has a citation by Mostafa Tadjzadeh that illustrates the heart of Iranian politics:
The agreement was that we were to become the Islamic Japan. Now we are on the way to become an Islamic North Korea and if Ahmadinejad becomes the next president then we shall become the Islamic Zimbabwe.
Mostafa Tadjzadeh was a junior minister under President Khatami. Like many others, he was arrested in Tehran one day after the June elections. He is presently in Evin prison.
We are now in the well-known phase when “the revolution devours its young.” Many political prisoners have been compelled to publicly submit false confessions. In a scene worthy of the purges of Mao or Stalin, Mohammed Ali Abtahi, vice president under Khatami, begged the judge to give him the maximum punishment. The purges affect everyone, even the intelligence services. Not only was the minister of intelligence recently removed, but also dozens of top men at the ministry, including the head of the Department of Culture (Habibolah), the head of counterespionage (Khazai), the head of the technical department (Firoozabadi), the head of the Parliamentary department (Mansouri), and the head of protection and security (Moin).
These men are professionals — tough guys who have served the Islamic Republic for a long time. Why have they been targeted at this moment?
The public at large does not care about such people. These men have been targeted now to send a message to other individuals at or near the top of the governmental pyramid:
If such men can be purged, you face the same destiny.
The message comes from the current rulers. According to Iranian and international sources, it is Modjtaba Khamenei — the son of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — who on behalf of his father is at the center of power in Iran. He has gathered around him a small handful of allies — a few apocalyptic ayatollahs, the supreme commander of the Revolutionary Guard, representatives of the intelligence services, the judicial branch, Basij, Ahmedinejad, the chief of staff of the Iranian Forces, and perhaps a few others.
These people organized the show trials in order to intimidate would-be opponents and dissidents.
Above all, the show trials were aimed at four individuals: Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second most important man in the regime; former President Mohammed Khatami; and the two other presidential candidates, Mehdi Karoubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi.
The message from the rulers is as simple as it is brutal: this is what awaits you. You, too, can be dishonored, disrobed, and put on display. We have methods to make you confess to being western spies.
Indeed, several leading Iranians have already called for the arrest, trial, and punishment of Mousavi, whose Green Movement has so severely shaken the regime in the past two months. Several members of parliament have lodged complaints against Mousavi, and legal filing forms are available online, containing ready-made complaints against Mousavi.
Anyone can put his signature on the forms.
The question of the day: which organ of the state is going to undertake the arrest of the opponents of the regime?
Last Saturday, Mohammad Reza Khatami — the brother of the former president — revealed that the targets of the show trials had not been arrested on orders of the courts or even the intelligence services. They were all arrested by the Revolutionary Guard. He even specified their home base as the Tharallah barracks, and he went on to say that the Revolutionary Guard have in their possession a very broad arrest warrant issued quite some time ago.
Some days ago several sources in Tehran informed me that Supreme Leader Khamenei has approved the arrest warrant against Mir Hossein Mousavi. Only two persons are authorized to issue such a warrant — the supreme commander of the Revolutionary Guards or the chief prosecutor of the revolutionary courts in Tehran. The arrest warrant is a blank check which the authorities can use at any time.
The rulers are clearly fed up with the demonstrations and want them terminated as quickly as possible. They think that if they can arrest and break Mousavi, his movement will disintegrate. In reality, the opposite is more likely. Mousavi has told his supporters “if they come for me, shut down the country,” which many of them will do. The arrest of Mousavi will immediately lead to more protests, more bloodshed, and even greater repression.
This is the path on which the regime is now marching, and only outside forces have the chance of deterring the leaders of the Islamic Republic. It is urgent that the European Union issues a warning to Iran about the potential consequences of the arrest of Mousavi. If this cannot be achieved, then leading European countries should do it themselves, ignoring the specious argument that this would constitute improper interference in Iran’s internal affairs.
The future of Iran is of global importance, and countries like Germany, France, Italy, and the Netherlands — who are major trading partners of Tehran — are fully entitled to warn the mullahs that the arrest of Mousavi is unacceptable and would have grave and immediate consequences. They should also call on the United Nations to appoint a special investigator for the massive human rights violations committed by the regime.
The message should be clear: Mousavi is not to be arrested. If he is, we will face “Zimbabwean circumstances” in Iran, with the difference being that Iran is much more important to the world than Zimbabwe.
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