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"Weltbürgertum":
13 Juden droht im Iran die Todesstrafe
Im Iran droht 13 unter Spionageverdacht festgenommenen
Mitgliedern der jüdischen Gemeinde die Todesstrafe. Wie das iranische
Außenministerium am Donnerstag mitteilte, sollen die Juden nach dem
islamischen Recht, der Scharia, verurteilt werden. Dieses sieht die
Todesstrafe bei Spionage für Israel und die USA vor.
Der desiginierte israelische Ministerpräsident Ehud Barak bat nach
israelischen Radiomeldungen Bundeskanzler Gerhard Schröder, Teheran um deine
Freilassung der Beschuldigten zu ersuchen. Bonn ist derzeit um Kontakt zum
Iran bemüht. Die am Montag vom iranischen Rundfunk gemeldeten Festnahmen
sollen schon vor 2 Monaten in Isfahen und Schiran erfolgt sein.
Die jüdische Minderheit im Iran, dessen Bevölkerung zu 99 % dem
Islam angehört, ist seit der Machtübernahme der moslemischen
Fundamentalisten im Jahr 1979 von 62 000 auf etwa 25 000 gesunken. Die
Hälfte der iranischen Juden lebt in der Hauptstadt Teheran, die übrigen in
den Städten Schiras, Hamadan, Kermanschah, Kaschan und Isfahan.
Die Proteste westlicher Staaten sowie der USA und Israels wurden
vom iranischen Außenministerium als "Einmischung in innere Angelegenheiten"
Irans kritisiert.
A farewell gift from Yazdi
The hardline head of Iran's judiciary system,
Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi, will end his public career with a flourish. The
arrest and trial of 13 Iranian Jews on espionage charges is certain to
embarrass the moderate regime of President Khatami and to raise protest
against U.S. attempts to block arms sales to Tehran.
By Zvi Bar'el (haAretz Sunday, June 20, 1999)
"Public opinion polls cannot be relied upon. Everything is in
God's hands. Whether the polls predict victory for this candidate or that,
the outcome is already determined by God. Polls are thus against the will of
God." This profound philosophy is among the more moderate utterances of
Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi, the head of the Iranian judiciary, in denunciation
of all things modern.Yazdi, one of the more powerful figures in Iran today,
has an opinion or a saying on nearly every issue. "Women," he declared back
in 1986, "are the property of the husband, which means their purpose is to
serve men ... Even if prostrating oneself before Allah is not mandatory,
women must prostrate themselves before their husbands." On the appointment
of women as judges, Yazdi says: "Women simply lack the patience to follow
the legalistic twists and turns that take place in a court of law. Believe
me, I know. I've been there, and I know what I am talking about."
But Mohammed Yazdi's chief battle is against the Iranian press,
especially those who support the president, Mohammed Khatami. Yazdi is
responsible for the closure of at least a dozen newspapers, including an
attempt to halt the publication of "Zen," a women's magazine edited by
Faezah Rafsanjani. Rafsanjani, the daughter of former Iranian president
Hashemi Rafsanjani, published a letter from the Shah's widow on the eve of a
Muslim festival. Yazdi hastily assembled a special panel of religious judges
to decide her fate. Rafsanjani announced that she would not appear before
Yazdi's court and "he could not tell her, the daughter of the Rafsanjani
family which had spilled its blood in fighting for the homeland, what
treason was." Formally, she accused the court of being unconstitutional and
unauthorized to judge her case.
Yazdi is also furious at the former minister of Islamic
instruction, Atta'ullah Muhajerani, a moderate man who supports President
Khatami. He has accused Muhajerani of ignorance of the laws of journalism.
"Better that he should read the law again before ruling that a newspaper
which has just changed its name but not its editorial board is a new
publication ... Newspapers and magazines that have sprung up like mushrooms
simply pick up sharpened pencils to attack the foundations of the Islamic
nation," he charged.
The sound of Yazdi's name sends shivers down the spines of
intellectuals, moderate politicians, businessmen and those who belong to
minority groups. As the head of the judiciary and the country's institutions
of law and order, he has control over the intelligence agencies, the police
and various investigating authorities. He can interpret the law as he sees
fit, issue regulations on how to deal with detainees and prisoners, and if
there is any question, determine the nature of the crime of which they are
accused. Two months ago, when several members of the opposition were
murdered, among them writers and journalists, President Khatami gave orders
to establish an investigating committee to track down the killers. Yazdi
quickly set up his own committee to insure that Khatami's men would not lay
hands on the wrong people. These two bodies did not cooperate, of course,
and Yazdi's committee was forced to lower its tone when it was discovered
that intelligence agents of the Revolutionary Guards were responsible for
the murders.
Religious watchdog
Yazdi is also a member of the "Council of Experts," a body
established by Ayatollah Khomeini to keep an eye on religious matters
connected with the state. This elected council has expanded its activities
far beyond its original mandate. It checks out the suitability of candidates
for presidency and parliament, oversees parliamentary legislation to insure
there are no conflicts with religion - or its interpretation of religion -
and has slowly become the supreme judge not only in religious affairs but in
matters of state. This Council of Experts can decide whether going to war
against Afghanistan or Iraq is the will of God or not. As a member of this
council, for example, Yazdi declared that Iraq's war against Kuwait went
against Islam and hence Iraq should not be supported.
Yazdi, who walks around in public armed with a Kalashnikov, is
certainly an interesting character. Now, with the fate of 13 Jews accused of
spying for Israel and the United States, including the rabbi of Shiraz,
resting in his hands, interest in him has skyrocketed. Yazdi has already
declared that if they are found guilty, they will receive the maximum
punishment, i.e. the death sentence, "and we don't care what the world
says."
Through Iran's conservative newspapers, Yazdi has been spreading
the idea, through commentators, that these people are dangerous spies. One
paper quotes the spokesman of the Iranian State Department, who was asked to
comment on the arrest of the Jews. "The spokesman said he was not authorized
to speak about intelligence matters," writes this political analyst. "This
is a very odd response. It proves we are talking about an intelligence
matter." Another analyst maintains that because the arrests were carried out
in March and they have been made public only now, talks must have been going
on incognito to release the prisoners earlier - and secret talks are for
inscrutable affairs. The decisive proof, according to this Iranian
commentator, lies in the fact that 30 Jews were originally arrested and now
only 13 are left. If the authorities were after them just because they were
Jews, they would all be in prison now.
The fact that Yazdi holds the fate of these Jews in his hand is
probably why international efforts to release them have hit a brick wall.
American diplomatic sources say that even the Iranian ambassador to the
United Nations has been instructed not to get involved, and that the affair
is being dealt with at the highest echelons. The Americans speculate that
the charges have been fabricated to serve two main purposes: to embarrass
Khatami and to arouse protest against U.S. attempts to block arms sales to
Iran. The power struggle being waged in Iran between Khatami and the
conservative elements headed by Ayatollah Ali Khameni and Yazdi's gang,
needs no proof.
"We are no longer talking about the character of the state," says
an Iranian journalist living in the United States, "but about power, money
and influence. It is clear to Khameni and his men that they have lost the
public battle. The outcome of the presidential and municipal elections have
proven that the public is not with them. Now they are fearfully awaiting the
elections for parliament. But they still wield a great deal of power, which
can torpedo Khatami's liberal aspirations. An affair like this, especially
if the Jews are executed, will set up a great outcry against the Iran
government, to the point where no one will distinguish any more between
Khatami and Khameni. As far as the world is concerned, there is only one
Iran."
The last hope
After Jesse Jackson's failed attempt to meet with the Iranian
ambassador to the UN, and European diplomats, especially Germans, have made
inquiries and tried to influence the Iranians without success, the Americans
believe the Russians are the one last hope. Here the matter becomes very
complicated for the United States. A bill proposed by congressman Bill
Gillman at the urging of American Jewish lobby AIPAC now lies on the table
in Congress, setting up some stiff conditions. It calls for the government
to freeze financial aid to the Russian space program until the president
ascertains that the Russians are opposed to the transfer of weapons of mass
destruction to Iran and are taking practical measures to keep this from
happening. A further condition is that the Russian space agency and its
subsidiaries do not cooperate with any missile programs in Iran.
Russia, which does not lack for reasons to be angry at the U.S.,
considering all that has happened in Kosovo, is absolutely furious about
this bill. If passed, it could mean a serious setback for the Russian space
program and the Russian economy. "To say that the United States feels
uncomfortable about asking the Russians to negotiate the release of the
Jewish prisoners in Iran is the understatement of the year," says an
American diplomat. "Nowadays, it is also hard to find ways of pressuring the
Iranian government - when you have Khatami, whom we believe is interested in
helping, and when every sanction you can think of is already being imposed."
"The best solution one can hope for is a vague wording of the
charge sheet," says an Iranian lawyer exiled in London. "That's how problems
were usually avoided in the past. If they charge them with harming the
country rather than espionage, for example, that could be seen as a desire
for compromise. Releasing them altogether is more than I would expect. The
judicial system, which has certainly flexed it muscles in this case, has
climbed up a very high tree. How can Khatami challenge the judicial system
while he himself has been calling for equality in the courts? He couldn't
even save his staunchest supporters, like the mayor of Tehran, so what use
could he be to members of a minority?"
This minority group - Iran's 30,000 remaining Jews - made haste,
through its representatives in parliament, to declare that it enjoys all the
rights to which it is entitled under law, and has no complaint against the
government. Reports compiled by journalists and researchers who visited Iran
before the arrests show that the religious and minority rights of Jews are
indeed being safeguarded. Guards are stationed beside the large synagogues,
the study of Hebrew is permitted, and bar mitzvahs and Jewish weddings are
performed. The Jews are the only ones in Iran allowed to hold mixed
celebrations for men and women, even if they do so in synagogues decorated
with portraits of Khomeini. Jews, it is true, cannot hold senior government
positions, and they are barred from visiting Israel. Such a visit would mean
losing their Iranian citizenship. Nevertheless, the fact that only half the
Jewish population has left Iran illustrates that it is not perceived as just
a temporary shelter but a homeland.
Yazdi has bestowed upon the Jews and the Iranian government a
farewell gift, after announcing that this August, after two terms and ten
years in office, he plans to retire from public service. Diagnosed with
cancer of the liver, he has already chosen a replacement for the Council of
Experts. From accounts in the Iranian press, the new man appears to be a man
no less conservative in his views than Yazdi. Yazdi could not have chosen a
more successful way of leaving office. What could be better than accusing
Jews of spying for the Zionists and imperialists, and getting Khatami, the
father of all evil, tangled up in it
©
copyright 1999
Ha'aretz. All Rights Reserved
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Verhaftung von Juden im
Iran:
Der iranische Fundamentalstaat versetzt die Welt
in Schrecken und unsere Brüder in Todesangst!
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