As America votes in the midterm elections, Iran’s medieval regime is doing what it does best. Sakineh reportedly faces execution tomorrow, November 3rd. This from the International Committee Against Stoning, via The Propagandist:
The Islamic regime of Iran plans to execute Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani immediately
According to news received by the International Committee against Stoning and International Committee against Execution on 1 November 2010, the authorities in Tehran have given the go ahead to Tabriz prison for the execution of Iran stoning case Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. It has been reported that she is to be executed this Wednesday 3 November.
We had previously reported that the casefile regarding the murder case of Ms Ashtiani’s husband had been seized from her lawyer’s office, Houtan Kian, and found missing from the prosecutor’s Oskoo branch office so as to stitch Ms Ashtiani up with trumped up murder charges. Ms Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, and her lawyer, Houtan Kian, have warned of the regime’s plan to do so on many occasions. With the arrest of Ms Ashtiani’s son and lawyer on 10 October and her not having had any visitation rights since 11 August and after fabricating a new case against her, the “Human Rights Commission” of the regime has announced that: ‘according to the existing evidence, her guilt has been confirmed.’ In fact, the regime has created a new scenario in order to expedite her execution.
The International Committees against Stoning and Execution call on international bodies and the people of the world to come out in full force against the state-sponsored murder of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani. Ms Ashtiani, Sajjad Ghaderzadeh, Houtan Kian and the two German journalists must be immediately and unconditionally released.
International Committee against Execution
International Committee against Stoning
Email: minaahadi@aol.com
Tel: 0049 (0) 1775692413
As the World Cup continues apace - any predictions? I’m cautiously picking Argentina - here is some news, via Gene of Harry’s Place, of a heartening Israeli initiative.
On a pitch at the Wingate Institute in Netanya, Sudanese refugees team up with Jewish kids to play against a team of kibbutz youth and kids from a Palestinian village. A bad first touch or missed shot on goal are met with pep talks and shouts of encouragement. A goal is scored and a player asks their teammate how to say “great job” in a new and different language. A victorious result leads to hugs all around; a victory for all rather than victory over someone else. Across the other fields, similar scenes and similar teams run about and bring to life Mifalot Chinuch’s Third Annual Mixed Teams National Tournament.
Find out more about Hapoel Tel Aviv’s Mifalot project here.
June 12 marks the first anniversary of Iran’s stolen election. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues his brutal repression at home while enjoying a warm welcome in certain countries abroad, with Turkey the destination for this week’s visit.
One body which has remained conspicuously silent on Iran is the UN Human Rights Council. While Israel is a permanent item on the Council’s agenda, the Council - which brought us the Goldstone report and is now calling for a similar “investigation” into the Gaza flotilla - has behaved as though the events in Iran were taking place on another planet.
Many seasoned observers view the Council as a write-off, and for good reason: its membership is typically drawn from serial human rights violators like Saudi Arabia and Cuba. Nevertheless, last year the US reversed its position of shunning the Council by joining it. “Working from within, we can make the council a more effective forum to promote and protect human rights,” said US Ambassador Susan Rice.
Now is the time to put that objective to work. AJC has launched a campaign to commemorate the anniversary and to urge American action on Iran at the Human Rights Council. Please visit the campaign page, sign the letter to Hillary Clinton and spread both the video - which you can see above, and there’s another one coming shortly - and the letter via blogs, websites and social media platforms.
Last week’s ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day‘ generated a number of depressinging stupid responses; nowhere more so than in Pakistan where the government resorted to blocking access to Facebook, Youtube, Flickr and parts of Wikipedia in an effort to ‘protect’ its citizens from the heinous sight of several thousand photoshopped stick-men with word ‘Mohammed’ scrawled underneath. Continue reading ‘“Everybody Research the Holocaust Day”’
My colleagues at the Washington, DC office of the American Jewish Committee have started a fund to help the family of Stephen T. Johns, the security guard murdered during Wednesday’s gun assault by white supremacist James Von Brunn on the Holocaust Memorial Museum.
I’d urge all readers of this blog to make a donation. You can do so online here or by mailing a check payable to AJC with “Stephen T. Johns Memorial Fund” in the memo line to this address:
American Jewish Committee – Washington Chapter
Attn: Melanie Maron Pell 1156 15th Street, NW, Suite 1201Washington, DC 20005
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