The Judiciary Strikes Back
Harsh Sentences and New Prosecutions Mark Renewed Iranian Hardline Offensive

Iran's political and culture war has heated up again with what appears to be a new offensive by the hardline judiciary against the reform movement. Despite the reformers' consistent victories at the polls, winning the Presidency, control of the Majles, and control of most major municipalities, the conservative judiciary has long been (along with the Council of Guardians) the main force blocking implementation of reform legislation. Last year the courts closed virtually all of the reform-oriented newspapers and magazines, despite their having been licensed by government ministries. Late last year, President Mohammad Khatami himself and many of his supporters rather gingerly and cautiously complained about the judiciary. This year has begun with what looks like an across-the-board full-court press by the judiciary to dampen reform activities before the June Presidential elections. And now, the Majles is fighting back, or trying to.

Perhaps the biggest salvo in this offensive was the handing down of stiff sentences against a number of reformers accused of participating in a controversial conference in Berlin last year (and other offenses), including a ten-year sentence against Iran's most outspoken investigative journalist, Akbar Ganji (See Profile). Ganji is more than just Iran's most famous investigative journalist: his books are also the country's best-sellers, and he has become something of a hero figure to Iran's reform-minded young people. He has been in prison for months and now appears likely to stay there for years.

The sentences against Ganji and other reformers were only a prelude to a judicial assault on Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh, who was summoned for "questioning" about alleged vote-rigging in last year's Majles election but found himself convicted by a judge on the spot. The fact that Tajzadeh is the man who — if he is not in jail — will be in charge of oversight of the Presidential elections is not seen as a coincidence by anyone; in fact, a whole series of accusations against Tajzadeh have either been raised or revived since it became clear recently that he would have that responsibility.

He has been accused of irregularities in last year's election count, with complaints from both the judiciary and the Council of Guardians; one allegation supposedly is that since he belongs to the reform movement, he cannot be an unbiased vote-counter.

Tajzadeh has also been accused of inciting the troubles last August in Khorramabad, in which a student gathering was broken up amid clashes between reformist students and radical hardliners. (See "The Specter of Khorramabad" in The Estimate for September 8, 2000.) Most accounts suggest that the hardliners, including vigilante groups and members of the Basij or mobilization corps, were the instigators there, but Tajzadeh has been accused of inciting the students.

After being released on a high bail, Tajzadeh told the press he thought he was merely appearing to give testimony when the judge summarily tried and convicted him. The attack on Tajzadeh seems to be a not-too-subtle attempt to remove reform sympathizers from the vote-counting process for the June 8 Presidential elections.

Heavy-handed as it may have been, the attack on Tajzadeh was merely one of many fronts in the judicial offensive. The sentences handed down in the Berlin conference case struck a nerve because among those accused were some of the most well-known journalists and intellectuals in the country, including Ganji and ‘Ezzeddin Sahabi.

The Berlin conference has long been controversial; what was intended to be an opening between Iranian reformers and the West was to some extent dominated by Iranian exile groups, some of whom made controversial presentations which infuriated the hardliners back home. Although Ganji reportedly walked out of the conference when it became too outrageous, he was nonetheless among those charged.

The charges were extended to include various charges of insulting key conservative leaders (Ganji has been particularly attacked for his criticisms of former President ‘Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani). But Ganji is also known as the man who broke the story of the so-called "serial murders", carried out by Intelligence Ministry agents (whether rogue or not-so-rogue is still controversial). That earned the enmity of the security establishment, and may be the real motive behind the attacks on Ganji. (Along with his popularity: some of those close to the reform movement have expressed the opinion that in a genuinely free election in which the Council of Guardians did not vet candidates, Ganji could probably be elected President.)

The latest round of judicial activism against the reformers — and it is much broader than the few high-profile cases mentioned above — comes in the wake of a continuing resistance to the elected reformers by the non-elected elements of the Iranian establishment: particularly the judiciary, the security services, and the Council of Guardians. When the reformers resist one attack on one front, they find a flanking attack from the other. Thus when the courts had closed down some 20 newspapers and dozens of magazines, virtually silencing the reform press, the Majles passed a new press law to liberalize press rules, and the Religious Leader, Ayatollah ‘Ali Khamene'i, personally intervened to block it. When the Majles allowed women to travel and study abroad without first seeking their husbands' permission, the Council of Guardians blocked the law. More and more, members of Parliament and the President himself have complained about the seeming one-step-forward, two-steps-back course of reform.

The reformers have not accepted the assault silently. On January 24 it was announced that some 150 members of the 290-seat Majles had signed a letter to the Head of the Judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi (himself not a hardliner), complaining that the judiciary was "violating the rights" of citizens, denouncing the Ganji and other verdicts, and saying that as the people's elected representatives the legislators have to defend those rights.

And there is the more sinister threat of violence behind the scenes. The "serial murders", blamed on rogue agents, are still before the courts, but the journalist who broke the story is now sentenced to 10 years in prison. After the strong showing of the reformers in the Majles elections last year, a key reform editor, Sa‘eed Hajjarian, was shot down and nearly killed. The violence in Khorramabad in August broke up a student convention; Tajzadeh, not the Hizbollahis who attacked the students, has been accused of fomenting violence.

The arrest of Tajzadeh not long after he was designated to oversee the June vote count is heavy-handed and obvious, but the hardliners are not known for their subtlety. With President Khatami still playing Hamlet as to whether he will actually run (See the Last Issue), the full-court press at this time may even be intended to further demoralize and dissuade him. If Khatami were to stand aside, it is far from clear who the reformers could agree on as a candidate: they are divided among themselves, and several of the few pro-reform figures with a national reputation — Ganji, ‘Abdullah Nouri — are already in jail or sentenced to go there soon.

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