Deathly Confessions
When is a confession not a confession of absolute guilt? When it has been wrenched from an individual's denial-screeching mind seeking surcease from interminable torture techniques no human being could conceivably resist.There is torture, one assumes, and then there is torture. As in mental torment and physical atrocity visited upon those unfortunates whom fate has given to be victimized by regimes of horror. There is then, nothing particularly new about torture as a reality and as a symbol of state power in certain geographical areas of the globe, in particular.
And the Islamic Republic of Iran, for one such country, has been well recognized as a state purveyor of terror and torture. And a totalitarian theistic state that takes its direction from One on High who instructs those of that peculiar brand of fanaticism that what they do is well justified in the name of God.
Iran's Green Movement, the protest movement born in the wake of the country's June election for president has been on high alert and with good enough reason. Political dissent is not countenanced in totalitarian states.
Two men have now been hanged for offences against the state. For taking part in opposition rallies against the government, on the Shia holy day of Ashura, last month.
Both their lawyers and their relatives have themselves protested; that the two men, Muhammad Reza Ali Zamani and Arash Rahmanipour had been in prison a full three months prior to the election. And they therefore had no connection to the demonstrations. The crime they had been implicated in, a mosque bombing, had been identified as an accidental blast.
Nonetheless, they are the first of the Green Movement martyrs. To be hanged, that is. There have been other, earlier martyrs, those killed outright during protests, by the Basiji and the Republican Guard, and those who succumbed to death through the severity of the torture they were exposed to while imprisoned.
An additional five protesters have also been sentenced to death. Or is that eleven? With more, many more to come. Until their numbers are decimated. At which time, the administration may hope that the enthusiasm for dissent will have been somewhat modified through fear of similar treatment. Deity-sanctioned and state-manipulated.
Meanwhile, protesters are once again being urged to take to the streets on the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, on February 11th. Messrs. Rahmanipour and Zamani were found guilty of the crime of representing "enemies of God". Proven by the accusation they were members of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, seeking a return to monarchical rule.
Arash Rahmanipour was all of nineteen. He agreed under unbearable physical duress that he was guilty of having been trained by western governments to foment instability during the election in June. Odd that, since two months earlier he had been arrested with his family, along with his pregnant sister - in April.
"He confessed because of threats against his family", his grieving sister testified.
A rampagingly bestial government, and a courageous population. An obvious formula for trouble.
Labels: Justice, Middle East, Traditions, Troublespots
posted by Pieface @ Friday, January 29, 2010
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