Free Mostafa Tajzadeh

UPDATE Radio Zamaneh 05/26/2013

Reformist slams Supreme Leader’s “absolute monarchy”.

Political prisoner Mostafa Tajzadeh, a top reformist figure, announced in a letter from jail that the establishment has left no alternative for reformists but to boycott the elections.

Tajzadeh writes that the disqualification of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, Esfandiar Rahim Mashai and other volunteers for the presidential race has simply “left the road open for the victory of the Supreme Leader’s chosen candidate… which means Iran’s political system has been turned into the absolute monarchy of the clerical leader.”

Tajzadeh’s letter was published on the Norooz website, which is linked to the banned reformist group the Islamic Iran Participation Front. He writes: “In view of the calamities that the establishment has brought upon our country, creed and people, we expected that with an apology to the people, they would take the path of recovery by allowing a free, legal and conclusive election so that a window of hope out the current dismal situation would appear.”

Iran’s Guardian Council disqualified Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the top candidate for the reformists, and Esfandiar Rahim Mashai, the candidate endorsed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his supporters. The final eight candidates approved by the council are basically figures that will act in complete obedience to the wishes of the Supreme Leader.

Tajzadeh, who was involved in the Interior Ministry in the reformist government of Mohammad Khatami, was arrested immediately after the presidential elections of 2009, as allegations of vote rigging in favour of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sparked major street protests across the country.

Tajjzadeh predicts “a decline in public participation in the election, especially compared to 2009; widespread problems in economic leadership, government corruption, growing fissures between the conservatives, growing pressures of international sanctions and ever-increasing public discontent will bring the absolutist system into crisis sooner that they think.”

He adds that since the election is “engineered and illegitimate” and the ruling conservatives have stolen the “right of free elections” from the people; therefore, there is no alternative but to boycott the elections.

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UPDATE 7 FEBRUARY , 2013

Tajzade's medical treatment in Farabi Hospital prevented

HRANA News Agency - Islamic revolutionary guards agents prevented the continuation of medical treatments on Mostafa Tajzade's teeth and eye in Farabi hospital and claimed that since now all the process will be continued in a hospital which is under revolutionary guards management.

According to a report by Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), quoted from Norooz, After a few months of internal eye bleeding the medical treatments on Mostafa Tajzade started in Farabi hospital but islamic revolutionary guards transferred him from Farabi hospital to Baqiatollah hospital and prevented the continuation of medical treatment process. This happens while the judge issued permission for Tajzade to be under medical treatment in Farabi hospital.

According to Tajzade's wife, she has been informed 2 days ago that the medical treatment for teeth and eyes of this prisoner could not be continued in Farabi hospital anymore and he will be under medical treatment in another hospital under revolutionary guards management.

The head of election committee during reform time has detained and quarantined illegally since 30 months ago. He started fasting as a way to protest and the consequences affected his body in different ways.

Some of the consequences of his protest are eyes problems and blood pressure which increased because of delay in treatment. Tajzade's family is concern about his medical treatment in the revolutionary guards hospital.

Recently, the wife of this political prisoner through a letter to Hossain Taeb claimed that he is responsible for what happened to her husband and asked him to introduce the guilty person if he himself is faultless.

Translated by: Ramyar Hassani

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UPDATE Radio Zamaneh 01/14/2013

Jailed reformists have joined with former interior ministry chief Mostafa Tajzadeh to publish another letter from Evin Prison that urges Tajzadeh’s peers to give their firm support in the quest for free elections.

The Kaleme website quotes Tajzadeh’s latest letter as saying: “In effect, free elections is the strategy of Iranian reformists, and as the Green Movement took shape through the elections, its victory is tied to free elections, and in such a case, whoever really wins the majority vote would naturally gain the respect of all.”

The prominent reformist writes: “In the recent fanfare, we must not fear and we must stand firm with integrity for free elections, because in Iran we can either have free elections or, God forbid, an ignominious one.”

Tajzadeh stresses once more that the key to the country’s survival is free elections, adding: “If I were on the outside, I would launch the biggest campaign for the defence of free elections, which is a legal and legitimate concern.”

In recent weeks, after a number of top reformists called for commitment to free elections, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei snapped back at their statements, saying that to insinuate that the elections are anything but free is to fall in line with the country’s enemies. He stressed that talk of free elections should be considered as the “new code of sedition.”

Mostafa Tajzadeh went on to add in his letter: “I urge any individual who is concerned about Iran’s independence, territorial integrity and security, and who does not want our country to end up with the fate of Libya, Yemen or Syria, to work hard for free elections in Iran, and that is not only in the coming election but for all elections to come.”

Tajzadeh was arrested after the 2009 election, when reformist allegations of vote fraud were followed by mass street protests.

The establishment chose to crack down violently on challengers of the election results and labelled election protesters as “seditious elements.”

SOURCE : Radio Zamaneh

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Mostafa Tajzadeh:
Reformist sentenced to six years in prison

Mostafa Tajzadeh, member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (Jebhe-ye Mosharekat) and Islamic Revolution Mujahedin Organization. Tajzadeh was a high official, serving as Deputy Interior Minister in the Khatami cabinet and Interim Head of the Interior Ministry after the sitting Minister, Abdollah Nouri, was impeached. Prior to that, he had served as Deputy Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance in the Mir Hossein Mousavi cabinet during the time Mohammad Khatami was Minister of Culture. Tajzadeh also worked at Hamahsahri Newspaper.

On 13 June 2009, only one day after the disputed presidential election, Tajzadeh was arrested. He spent about four months inside solitary cells at Evin Prison, where he was pressured to give television interviews and confessions. He was finally transferred to Evin's General Ward on 14 October 2009. During the first 100 days of his arrest, Tajzadeh was not allowed contact with his family and lawyer.

Tajzadeh was one of dozens of individuals arrested following the election who were tried during a group trial at Branch 15 of Tehran Revolutionary Court under Judge Salavati. The trials, which were later referred to as "show trials," convened without the presence of the suspects' lawyers and their families and government media reported on their proceedings.

Tajzadeh and his party faced heavy charges in his indictment. During the fourth session of the trial on 24 August 2009, many detainees who had been under pressure and torture were forced to make confessions against themselves. Tajzadeh attended two more trial sessions, but did not offer any defense and did not allow his lawyers to defend him, either. His charges were "assembly and collusion with the intent to disrupt national security," "propagating against the state," "insulting the authorities," and "keeping classified documents." On 17 April 2010, Tajzadeh was sentenced to six years in prison and ten years' ban on activities in parties and media. Tajzadeh did not appeal the court's decision and it became final.

After nine months in prison, on 10 March 2010, Tajzadeh was granted furlough and was temporary released. He had refused to post bail and his release was made possible without posting bail.

Tajzadeh was one of seven leading reformists who filed a law-suit against several commanders of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC) for their alleged intervention in Iran’s rigged presidential elections. When he refused the Intelligence Ministry's demand that he "take back his lawsuit," he was arrested again on 15 August 2010 and transferred to solitary cells inside IRGC's Ward 2-a at Evin Prison, banned from having visitations. Eleven months' detention inside solitary cells led to a deterioration of Tajzadeh's health. He was allowed six days of leave in June 2011, five days in August 2011, and one day of leave in March 2012, after which he was immediately transferred back to prison. Tajzadeh has embarked on several hunger strikes to protest inhumane prison conditions.

Tajzadeh has written several letters from prison which have angered the authorities who have in turn put him inside Evin Prison's Methadone Ward, a ward generally reserved for hardcore criminals and drug addicts. His wife, Fakhrossadat Mohtashamipour, was also arrested and detained for several weeks in 2011, after she engaged in activities to protest her husband's detention and to form a support group for prisoner families.

SOURCE : IRANIAN.COM