Iranian authorities have arrested seven for allegedly planning to provoke riots on the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Several are charged with being in the employ of the CIA.
Two Iranians were executed and nine others sentenced to death for their roles in last summer’s post-election protests. The two executed men were convicted of “enmity against God.”
Iran’s Guardians Council approved President Ahmadinejad’s “Economic Reform Plan,” which will remove subsidies on oil, electricity, water and basic foods.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, commenting on the murder of leading quantum physicist Massoud Ali Mohammadi, said, “The method of bombing was a Zionist one.”
Iran’s Prosecutor General Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei called for sedition trials against leaders of the protests following last June’s contested presidential election.
At least five protesters arrested in Iran during last week’s protests will be tried on charges of “enmity against God,” which carries an automatic death sentence if they are convicted.
On a tour of Central Asia, Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad arrived in Turkmenistan’s capital Ashgabat to inaugurate a new natural-gas pipeline linking the the two countries.
An Iranian parliamentary inquiry has found that Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi was responsible for the deaths of at least three detainees involved in post-election protests.
Iran’s Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar warned that opposition protesters could face execution—as Tehran University professors demanded an end to the repression.
Eleven Iranian police agents were killed when a highway patrol intercepted what officials called an “illicit drug convoy” in Southern Khorasan Province near the Afghan border.
In a fourth day of protests during the Ashura holy period in Iran, police fired teargas to disperse demonstrators. The death toll in the past 48 hours stands at at least eight.
In a heart-warming display of holiday spirit, the New York Times runs a Christmas Eve op-ed making the case for illegal pre-emptive military strikes on Iran.
