From the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners
Spreading the International Emergency Appeal – Around the World and on the Airwaves
| revcom.us
Editors’ note: We received the following from the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners
August 13, 2021
IEC Emergency Appeal Impacts Nouri Protests in Stockholm, Sweden
From August 11 to 13, the trial of Hamid Nouri began in Stockholm, Sweden. Nouri was being tried for his role in the massacre of at least 5,000 political prisoners in 1988 when he was an assistant to a prosecutor at Iran’s Gohardasht Prison in Iran.
The trial started just days after the inauguration of Ebrahim Raisi as president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In 1988, Raisi was a member of the “death commission” directing these executions, and this trial is implicitly about his role in those massacres.*
Activists with the Burn the Cage/Free the Birds prisoner support movement in Europe joined the protests in front of the Stockholm courthouse. They displayed a gigantic enlargement of the Emergency Appeal as published in the current Summer issue of the New York Review of Books.
The Mothers of Khavaran, some of whom are family members of the victims of the 1988 massacre, brought posters of their lost loved ones to display in front of the courthouse.
*For more see, Press Release from the Center for Human Rights in Iran: “Swedish Trial of Iranian Prosecutor Offers Historic Opportunity to Shed Light on Iran’s 1988 Massacre,”August 4, 2021
***
The New York Review of Books ad of Emergency Appeal taken up in Toronto, Canada
On Thursday August 5 (coinciding with Raisi's inauguration), a protest took place in Toronto, Canada against the Islamic Republic’s shooting down of Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in January 2020. Supporters of Burn the Cage movement made a large poster with the printout of the Emergency Appeal as published in the current Summer issue of The New York Review of Books. The poster said “1988 MASSACRE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS ORDERED BY DEATH COMMISSION THAT EBRAHIM RAISI WAS KEY MEMBER OF. WE MUST NOT ALLOW THIS TO HAPPEN AGAIN.”
Toronto, Canada
Spread the ad of the International Emergency Appeal
These are examples of what everyone can do in spreading the ad of the Emergency Appeal – taking it into protests and amplifying its impact at the grassroots. Go to www.FreeIransPoliticalPrisonersNow.org and click the “Download PDF” tab on the right for a PDF of the New York Review of Books ad.
Email photos and reports of such actions in your area to the Campaign at: FreeIransPoliticalPrisonersNow@gmail.com
***
Spreading the International Emergency Campaign on the airwaves
KPFK: New developments in the fight to Free Iran's Political Prisoners
Larry Everest and Mariam Claren on the Michael Slate Show–August 13
There have been important new developments in the fight to free Iran’s political prisoners – including the publication of a very important Appeal in the New York Review of Books – and in the Iranian people's fight against oppression. So on today’s show host Michael Slate talks with two members of the International Emergency Campaign to Free Iran’s Political Prisoners about these developments – Mariam Claren (daughter of Nahid Taghavi) and Larry Everest.
Update (8/14/21)
The Burn_the_Cage movement announced on their instagram that on Saturday, August 14, seven defense lawyers and political activists were arrested at the office of the Association for the Protection of Civil Rights in Tehran. The arrestees included Mostafa Nili, the lawyer for political prisoners Nahid Taghavi, Mehran Raouf, Bahareh Soleimani, Somayeh Kargar, and Nazanin Mohammadnejad who were recently sentenced unjustly. https://www.freeiranspoliticalprisonersnow.org/updates
Also arrested were attorneys Arash Kaykhosravi, Mohammand Reza Faghihi, activist Mariam Farafraz, Leila Heidari; as well as Mehi Mahmoudian, who is a journalist and a member of Etihad Mellat party (People’s Unity Party). Attorney Mohammand Hadi Esfanian Kaseb was arrested but then released.
Ominously, not only has no information has been released by the Islamic regime on the reason for the arrests but those arrested “have been moved to unknown locations.” The Burn_the_Cage instagram said that during the arrests, computers, notebooks, cell phone and other personal items were confiscated. This report was confirmed on the websites of Radio Zamaneh and HRANA in Farsi (Human Rights Activists News Agency).
These arrests follow a pattern of repression of defense lawyers who heroically stand up for their defendants such as Nasrin Sotoudeh and many others. https://iranhumanrights.org/2021/06/zilabi-iran-human-rights-lawyers/
Stay tuned for further updates from the International Emergency Campaign. Now is a good time to show everyone the film Nasrin to inform and involve others in this campaign.
Follow: @TheRevcoms
Read: www.revcom.us
Watch: youtube.com/TheRevComs
Together, WE passed $40,000 in revcom's Winter fundraising campaign to “Transform Revcom.us’ Web Technology and Presence”!
Reaching this goal is a real achievement and a victory for the people of the world, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the dedicated efforts of many people working creatively and collectively to meet this pressing need: those who donated whether large or small contributions, who fundraised, who spread the campaign, who sent statements, who raised comments, questions, criticisms or suggestions – and of course those who worked so hard on modernizing and upgrading our web technology and presence. It all made a difference!
The Ongoing Need for Sustainers
During this four month fund drive, Revcom.us continued to incur thousands of dollars of costs each month for our office, maintaining our existing site and other expenses. But thanks to our existing monthly sustainers we were able to meet these expenses and use all the funds raised in the drive to transform the website.
So we encourage all our donors and those who’ve not yet donated to become monthly sustainers at whatever level you can afford.
Remember, humanity’s fate truly hinges on millions taking up the revolutionary science, strategy, and new communism brought forward by Bob Avakian which they can find at revcom.us.
You’ve read this article and now you need to be part of making sure revcom.us is able to make an urgently needed leap and transformation.
Get a free email subscription to revcom.us:
