Ideological, Propaganda Outfits In Iran Receive Hefty Budget Boosts

Herischi & Associates, who are based in Bethesda, Maryland, say they have taken a case in the United Kingdom against the National Iranian Tanker Company (NITC), and against insurers for NITC and the Sanchi. The Panamanian-flagged, Iranian-owned tanker caught fire in January 2018 after colliding in the East China Sea, 530km south east of Shanghai, with a Hong-Kong registered Chinese cargo ship, the CF Crystal.

While the 21-strong Chinese crew were rescued, Iran announced that all 30 crew members on the Sanchi – 30 Iranians and two Bangladeshis - had died due to explosions, fire, and release of noxious gases resulting from a volatile 136,000-tonne cargo of natural-gas condensate.

But in a press release to publicize its latest case, Herischi & Associates claimed that the crewmen successfully left the ship, that the Sanchi was carrying a “secret cargo to be delivered secretly to North Korea,” and that 22 crew were alive in Iranian custody “weeks after the accident.” The press release gave no indication of what the secret cargo was.

Letter from Kim Jun Un

The law firm said it had discovered all this through gaining access to emails and recordings of Iranian officials, “volunteered sensitive information” from Iranian security forces, as well as “top secret Iranian documents” including a message from Revolutionary Guards intelligence to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Herischi & Associates even claimed to have a letter from North Korean leader Kim Jung Un to Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei “thanking him for delivery of the cargo and his sadness [sic] for the accident.”

Iran at the time announced that the Sanchi was sailing from Asaluyeh, Bushehr province, southern Iran, to South Korea. Nader Pasandeh, a senior official at Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization, told reporters that the Crystal had caused the collision through human error.

But in early 2019, Iranian media carried reports of family members protesting outside the foreign ministry, the Chinese embassy and the presidential office. Relatives told Shargh, Hamshahri and other newspapers that they had received telephone calls, broken off as soon as answered, from sailor relatives who had been on the Sanchi. Mohammad Mehdi Boroumandi, who chaired a government committee into the disaster, said claims “about the Sanchi crew being taken hostage” were “based on hearsay,” while parliament member Mohammad Reza Kouchi called for an investigation into hoax calls.

‘Undisclosed location’

In December 2019, Herischi filed a lawsuit in a district court in Washington DC against the ‘National Iranian Tanker Company’ and named officials on behalf of families of ten crewmembers of the Sanchi. According to the law firm’s press release at that time, the families alleged “the crew of the Sanchi were seized after the collision” and had “been held in detention for nearly two years in an undisclosed location.” Herischi cited “the key piece of evidence” as “multiple phone calls…made from crewmembers’ cellphones to their relatives in the months following the ship’s destruction.”

In October 2020, Herischi announced thy were seeking over $1 billion damages for US citizens who lost relatives when a Ukrainian passenger airliner bound for Kyiv was January 2020 shot down over Tehran by a mobile missile launcher during high tensions with the US.

Lahouti also criticized the Iranian government for not communicating with the world in the right way. Referring to the ideological divide between Iran and the international community, He said: "We should communicate with the world while preserving our values." Lahouti added in his interview with Nameh News website that "In an interconnected world, we cannot remain isolated."

Without mentioning the ongoing protests in Iran, Lahouti said: "The current political atmosphere has convinced some Iranian officials that the system of governance should be changed." He added that this s in fact what the Iranian nation is demanding.

Explaining what he means by changing the system of governance, Lahouti said: "First of all, we need to break the international consensus against Iran by communicating with the world. The second point is that we need to reform our economic structure." He explained that the government currently controls 80 percent of the economy, and this means it does not trust the people.

"The same distrust also exists in the political space. The government does not seek the people's views in matters such as accepting the terms of the FATF while the parliament and the Guardian Council are still undecided about that. The same is also true about the JCPOA."

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The Financial Action Task Force is an inter-government financial watchdog that has blacklisted Iran, demanding legal reforms to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Tehran has dragged its feet since 2017 on passing compatible legislation.

Meanwhile, the secretary general of the reformist Jomhouriat party Rasoul Montajabnia warned the government by saying: "You cannot silence the people by using force against them." Referring to harsh treatment of jailed protesters in Iran, he said, "No one can be convinced by use of force." He reiterated: "By use of force you might be able to silence the people, but you cannot convince them and the fire under the ashes will flare up once again on the smallest pretext."

Montajabnia quoted Iranian officials that hundreds of protesters have been killed and thousands wounded so far, and a lot of damage done to public assets. However, he continued, "The hardest blows were dealt to the prestige and image of the Iranian political system and the Islamic revolution while at the same time, a vast divide was created between officials and the people, particularly the Iranian youth."

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"People's religious beliefs also received a hard blow, and the resulting suspicion of the government's intentions can be hardly compensated for," the reformist figure said.

Referring to the country's current all-conservative political establishment, Montajabnia charged that "A particular gang has taken over the political system by pushing everyone else aside and dividing the people into outsiders and insiders."

A report on Khabar Online website also referred to this divide and asked Expediency Council Ahmad Tavakoli about prospects. Tavakoli issued a "red warning" to the government about this divide and said that the poor might take over the streets.

Khabar Online also quoted Iranian economist Mohammad Khoshchehreh as saying that the current situation is the outcome of the regime's miscalculation in its attempt to concentrate power with conservatives. He said: "Some Iranian politicians believe that people can be controlled better when they are poor. When they are better off they begin to question the government. Now a majority of Iranians have become poor. Part of the middle class has disappeared. Only one fourth of Iranians can afford buying milk. These are serious threats that cannot be ignored."

He added that generally, the pattern of economic growth and development in Iran has become problematic and the system cannot go any further before these problems are solved.

Britain called the execution a barbaric act immediately after announcement by Iran on Saturday and said it would not go unpunished.

"I am appalled by the execution of British-Iranian citizen Alireza Akbari in Iran," British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on Twitter. "This was a callous and cowardly act, carried out by a barbaric regime with no respect for the human rights of their own people."

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly also tweeted to say: "This barbaric act deserves condemnation in the strongest possible terms. This will not stand unchallenged."

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly had said late on Friday Iran must not follow through with the execution - a call echoed by the US State Department. Britain had described the death sentence as politically motivated and called for his release.

Before the execution was announced, the US State State Department had joined the UK to condemn Akbari's death sentence.

"The United States echoes the British government's strong call for Iran not to proceed with this execution, and to release Mr. Akbari immediately. The charges against Ali Reza Akbari, and his sentencing to execution, were politically motivated. His execution would be unconscionable," Vedant Patel State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson said.

Mizan website of Iran’s hardliner Judiciary said in a Tweet early on Saturday the sentence had been carried out, without saying when.

"Alireza Akbari, who was sentenced to death on charges of corruption on earth and extensive action against the country’s internal and external security through espionage for the British government's intelligence service ... was executed,” it said.

The report accused Akbari, arrested in 2019, of receiving 1,805,000 euros, 265,000 pounds, and $50,000 for spying.

In a 30-minute audio recording from Akbari received by Iran International on Thursday, he is heard saying that after thousands of hours of interrogation he was forced to confess to acts he never committed.

"After more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure, they took away my will. They drove me to the brink of madness. They instilled in me what they wanted and forced me to make false confessions at gunpoint and threats of death," he said.

Iranian state media broadcast a video on Thursday that they said showed that Akbari played a role in the 2020 assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed in a 2020 attack outside Tehran which authorities blamed at the time on Israel.

In the video, Akbari did not confess to involvement in the assassination but said a British agent had asked for information about Fakhrizadeh.

Iran’s state media often airs forced confessions by suspects in politically charged cases.

London-Tehran ties have deteriorated in recent months as efforts have stalled to revive Iran's 2015 nuclear pact, to which Britain is a party.

Britain has also been critical of the Islamic Republic's violent crackdown on antigovernment protests, sparked by the death in custody of a young Iranian-Kurdish woman in September.

A British foreign office minister said on Thursday that Britain was actively considering proscribing Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a terrorist organization but has not reached a final decision.

Iran has issued dozens of death sentences as part of the crackdown on the unrest, executing at least four people.

Akbari was a close ally of Ali Shamkhani, now the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, who was defense minister from 1997 to 2005, when Akbari was his deputy.

A source close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has provided documents to Iran International showing that accusations against Akbari and his death sentence were aimed at weakening Shamkhani’s position in the clerical regime. It seems that President Ebrahim Raisi, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib and Interior Minister Ahmed Vahidi are exerting pressure to remove Shamkhani from the post.

With reporting by Reuters

Alireza Akbari, who holds dual Iranian-British citizenship and is sentenced to death on charges of spying for the UK, says in the audio file his forced confessions are a result of 3,500 hours of torture. 

According to the audio file obtained by Iran International, Akbari says he only confessed because the authorities had promised to release him. 

"After more than 3,500 hours of torture, psychedelic drugs, and physiological and psychological pressure, they took away my will. They drove me to the brink of madness. They instilled in me what they wanted and forced me to make false confessions at gunpoint and threats of death," he said. 

The regime’s state media reported January 11 that Akbari will be executed for allegedly spying for MI6. In a statement published by Iran's Intelligence Ministry, Akbari was described as "one of the most important infiltrators of the country's sensitive and strategic centers". There are unconfirmed reports that Akbari, who was kept in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran since 2019, has already been executed. Iran’s state media denied the rumors on Friday. 

The agents promised him freedom in exchange for forced confessions and said that if he resists, they will send him to the dungeons of Evin, where he would be whipped, Akbari claimed. 

He added that the intelligence ministry imposed its desired verdict on the judge, noting that "The prosecutor's office ordered my release with the minimum amount of bail, but the Intelligence Ministry prevented it. The Supreme Court overturned the (execution) sentence, but the Intelligence Ministry threatened the judge and reinstated the verdict."

"I was under temporary detention for more than three years with an illegal sentence, and the judge in the case who intended to annul the sentence suddenly died," he said. 

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He alleged in this audio file that there is no evidence against him while the Ministry of Intelligence claims he took information from Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, and passed it on to Britain. "The Ministry of Intelligence claims that I met Shamkhani in 2018 or 2019 and I gave him a bottle of perfume and a shirt and Mr. Shamkhani gave me secret information about the country, and I passed it to foreigners.”

Akbari says that he told the judge if this allegation is true, why doesn't he summon Shamkhani and former president Hassan Rouhani, to which he replied, "I don't have the power to summon them, but I will destroy you."

Akbari had been deputy defense minister under the reformist President Mohammad Khatami, from 1997 to 2005. He was an advocate of the Iran nuclear deal known as the JCPOA that was eventually signed in 2015 with world powers. 

He was also close to Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, who is now rumored to be replaced because his former aide received the death penalty as a “British spy”. A source close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has provided documents to Iran International showing that the death sentence for Akbari is aimed at weakening Shamkhani’s position in the clerical regime. It seems that President Ebrahim Raisi, Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib and Interior Minister Ahmed Vahidi are exerting pressure to remove Shamkhani from the post.

UK foreign secretary James Cleverly Thursday called on Tehran not to execute Akbari. In a tweet, James Cleverly said the Islamic Republic “must halt the execution of British-Iranian national Alireza Akbari and immediately release him.” He further called the move a “politically motivated act by a barbaric regime that has total disregard for human life.” 

On Friday, he again tweeted about Akbari, saying that “The Iranian regime should be in no doubt. We are watching the case of Alireza Akbari closely. Iran must not follow through with their brutal threat of execution.” 

"Our priority is securing his immediate release and we have reiterated our request for urgent consular access," a UK Foreign Office spokesperson said.

Mohammad-Mehdi Hosseini Hamedani, the Friday prayer imam of the city, reiterated that observance of hijab should be enforced strictly in society. 

Describing anyone who unveils in public as an enemy, he emphasized that all such people must be confronted by the state. "It is not possible to imagine that we are living in an Islamic country when we enter some institutions, shopping malls, pharmacies, etc.!" he said, calling on the authorities to warn shops and malls that serve women who have removed their hijab and close them down if warnings did not suffice. 

This is not the first time that the Islamic Republic’s hardliners are linking Islamic rituals to drought or natural disasters. 

Ahmad Alamolhoda, a senior firebrand cleric who is the father-in-law of President Ebrahim Raisi, had earlier called on people to say prayers for rain to solve the problem of drought in the country. 

Prosecutor General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri in 2019 said, "The judicial system does not allow women to unveil in public, because it causes natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes in the country.”

Yousef Tabatabai Nejad, Ali Khamenei’s representative in the central city of Esfahan (Isfahan), said in 2016 that women who unveiled and took photos “like Europeans” are the reason for the city’s river, Zayandeh-Roud (Zayanderud) to go dry and added that if this continues, its headwaters will also dry up. 

The water crisis has been getting worse in Iran for the past decade because of mismanagement in constructing unnecessary dams, encouraging water-thirsty crops like rice and political influence in water distribution.