Iranian cleric says election protesters should be executed

REUTERS, TEHRAN
Saturday, Jun 27, 2009, Page 1

A hardline Iranian cleric yesterday called for the execution of “rioters” in a sign of the authorities’ determination to stamp out opposition to the June 12 presidential election result.

Iran’s top legislative body, the Guardian Council, said it had found no major violations in the election, which it called the “healthiest” vote since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The council had already rejected a call for the annulment of the vote by former Iranian prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi, who has led mass protests since he was declared a distant second behind incumbent Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

‘WITHOUT MERCY’

“I want the judiciary to ... punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson,” Ahmad Khatami told worshippers at Tehran University.

Iranian state TV said on Thursday that eight Basij militiamen were killed by “rioters” during the protests. State media previously said 20 people were killed in the marches.

Iranian authorities have accused Mousavi of being responsible for the bloodshed.

Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading “rioters” for being mohareb, or one who wages war against God.

“They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely,” he said.

Under Iran’s Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as mohareb is execution.

Mousavi’s supporters planned to release thousands of balloons yesterday with the message: “Neda you will always remain in our hearts,” in memory of Neda Agha Soltan, the young woman killed last week who has become an icon of the demonstrations.

Khatami said Neda was killed by the rioters themselves for propaganda purposes.

“By watching the film, any wise person can understand that rioters killed her,” he said.

‘MURDERED’

Britain’s Times newspaper quoted Arash Hejazi, an Iranian who appeared on Internet videos helping Neda, as echoing charges the student was killed by a government militiaman.

“She was just a person in the street who was against the injustice going on in her country, and for that she was murdered,” he said.

Hejazi said that after the protest he left Iran for Britain, where he is resident, fearing arrest.

The authorities have used a combination of warnings, arrests and the threat of police action to drive large demonstrations off Tehran’s street, with small gatherings being dispersed with tear gas and baton charges.

Councilors protest prosecutors’ probe
　

UNWITTING AIDES: Sources said that a probe into the ‘assistants’ of Kaohsiung City councilors found that many did not even know the officials they were ‘hired’ to assist

By Shelley Huang and Flora Wang
STAFF REPORTERS
Saturday, Jun 27, 2009, Page 3

“The city councilors whose offices and homes were searched are from both pan-green and pan-blue camps. Prosecutors did not target any particular party.”— Chung Chung-hsiao, Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office spokesman

Prosecutors yesterday continued their probe into Kaohsiung City councilors who allegedly gained reimbursements from government funds by submitting falsified lists of councilor assistants.

Kaohsiung district prosecutors on Thursday led hundreds of investigators, police officials and honor guards in a mass raid of city councilors’ offices and homes in the investigation.

Chung Chung-hsiao (鍾忠孝), spokesman for the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors’ Office, said prosecutors had questioned more than 70 people whose names have been listed as councilors’ assistants and would continue to round up people for questioning.

As many as 40 to 50 current and former councilors from both the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) are implicated in the case, including Kaohsiung City Council Speaker Chuang Chi-wang (莊啟旺) of the KMT.

“The city councilors whose offices and homes were searched are from both pan-green and pan-blue camps. Prosecutors did not target any particular party,” Chung said, adding that after the prosecutors finish questioning the “assistants,” they will evaluate the evidence and consider whether to question the city councilors.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, sources from the prosecutors’ office said that 22 prosecutors who were assigned to question people listed as assistants found instances in which “assistants” were not even aware they had been hired by the councilors. Some did not even know who the councilors were or resided in northern Taiwan, while some names led to hospitalized patients who had suffered strokes. Prosecutors said they suspect that a criminal ring may have provided the “assistants” personal information to the councilors.

Chuang said yesterday the councilors enjoyed the freedom to handle public funds set aside for their assistants.

Chuang said that on Jan 26, 2000, the fund — about NT$240,000 (US$7,300) per councilor per month — was included in their budget to cover expenses incurred while gathering information.

The fund was later renamed the “salary to councilors’ assistants,” but councilors had the power to decide how to spend the money, Chuang said.

A document by the Ministry of Finance dated Oct 18, 2001, said that city or county councils should give the money to councilors and have councilors report the money as part of their income if councilors did not submit a name list of their assistants to council administrators, he said.

“I believe the fund should be interpreted as a cash subsidy to councilors. It is the right of councilors to determine how they want to use the money,” he said. “I hereby voice my objection [to the prosecutors’ allegations].”

Chuang called the prosecutors’ allegations a “historical glitch” and compared it to the special ­allowance fund given to government chiefs and the “state affairs fund” enjoyed by the president.

Chuang said prosecutors should probe city and county councilors and legislators across the nation instead of targeting Kaohsiung City councilors alone.

He also threatened to stage a protest against the prosecutors’ investigation or sue the prosecutors.

DPP Councilor Lin Ying-jung (林瑩蓉) also lashed out at the prosecutors for questioning her and searching her office.

Lin protested her innocence, saying that she had submitted related documentation to the prosecutors.

Tsai laments authoritarian mentality of the judiciary
　

By Loa Iok-sin
STAFF REPORTER
Saturday, Jun 27, 2009, Page 3

The government should be held responsible for judicial reform, especially on detention rules, Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Chairperson Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) said yesterday.

Tsai made the remark yesterday during a keynote speech at a joint meeting of the North American Professors’ Association, Taiwan Association of University Professors and the Union of Taiwanese Teachers.

Tsai accused the judiciary of having a residual authoritarian mentality from the martial law period.

Martial law, which began in 1949, was only lifted in 1987.

She said that most judicial workers in Taiwan consider themselves representatives of justice, and often disregard the human rights of the defendants.

“Instead of making judgments independently, many judicial workers accept guidelines from their superiors or guess what their superiors want when they make judgments,” she said. “Even public opinion can have an impact on the judiciary.”

To train judicial workers to think independently, Tsai said they should be challenged at school.

“The government must take full responsibility for making changes in the judiciary — especially in reforming detention rules,” Tsai said. “Not wanting to intervene in ongoing cases cannot become an excuse to avoid responsibility.”

Tsai’s remarks came only days after the DPP, along with several civic groups, launched a signature campaign to protest the repeated extension of former president Chen Shui-bian’s (陳水扁) detention.

The law stipulates that a person can be detained for up to four months before he or she is indicted. The detention may be further extended if the court finds new evidences against a detainee.

Chen was first detained on Nov. 12 last year before being briefly released.

Chen was then indicted on Dec. 12 last year, and has been detained at the Taipei Detention Center in Tucheng (土城), Taipei County, since Dec. 30 on charges of corruption, money laundering and embezzlement.

Meanwhile, Tsai yesterday also voiced her concern about authoritarian tendencies appearing in Taiwan over the past year.

“Compared with advanced democracies in international society, Taiwan still has a long way to go before becoming a complete democracy — and the mentality of the people in power is the most important factor,” she said.

Tsai said that a government with the correct mentality can make a wrong system right, however, a government with the wrong mentality can contort a good system.

“The current government seems to believe that democracy can be compromised in exchange for economic prosperity — such a mentality in the government would certainly have an impact on the public,” Tsai said. “It really worries me that our society has become more conservative and accepting of authoritarianism in the past year.”