A pre-planned coup and wave after wave of arrests

We know now that the election-coup was pre-planned and Ahamdinejad and his band planned everything to the last detail. This is not the subject of this article though. What is the subject is the manifestations of this coup which is identical to any other coup. Wave after wave of mass arrests, beatings on the streets of demonstrators, detaninig men, women and anyone who the thugs could get hold of. No one knows how many have been taken away from various places; homes, work, street, universities and mosques. No one knows how many have been murdered in the past months since June 2009. Torture, beatings, rapes and solitary confinement, execution in various cities under various pretexts, long prison sentences for attending peaceful demonstrations have plagued Iran. It is a disgrace to see that its president who has lost all his legitimacy in his won country has once again began travelling abroad and is welcomed by some countries regardless of his status at home. It is a shame that the international community has focused only on one aspect of the regime's policies: nuclear programmes, ignoring the fact that human rights and democracy in Iran are intertwined with this issue. If Iran had an elected democratic president it wouldn't persue the road the present leadership has taken.

However, all this set aside, Iranians are deeply concerned about the fate of the detainees in the Iranian prisons. As said before, no one knows of the exact number but when one is released on heavy bail in one part of town, two are detained in another part. At the moment Behzad Nabavi was released after months in prison while many human rights activists were detained, including Said Kalanaki who was taken away from his workplace, his home was searched and items confiscated and his whereabouts unknown. Said is a well-known human rights activist whose only crime is defending the innocent peapole who are caught in the web of a notorious regime. He is now caught in the same web.

Hengameh Shahidi, another human rights activist who was in prison for months and released on bail has been sentenced to 6 years in prison. Ali Kalai, another human rights activist would have to appear in court charged with similar offences. Bahamn Amoui has been tranmsferred to solitary and refused visitation by his wife, Jila Bani-Yaqub, who herself spent months in prison. the number of students in prisons is so large that one loses the trace of count. Many Kurdish detainees have been sentenced to death for attending peaceful demonstrations.

The list  goes on and on, the web is getting tighter on the Iranian civil society. The Iranian authorities are desparately holding to the power by use of force and buying the friendship of some countries, by the oil money which belongs to the Iranian people. We are wondering how long the nightmare might last.