Iranian Regime Makes Terrorism Claims Against Jailed Athletes
The Islamic Republic has framed several Iranian athletes saying they were planning a terrorist bombing in a case full of contradictory remarks by the officials.
The Islamic Republic has framed several Iranian athletes saying they were planning a terrorist bombing in a case full of contradictory remarks by the officials.
Security organs have arrested at least five athletes – all hailing from the city of Shiraz – on charges of being involved in a "bombing" plot, which the agents of the Islamic Republic claim to have foiled.
The five were arrested in a period of about one month from late October to November 2022 in different cities. Iran International’s Maryam Moqaddam says at least 10 people were implicated in the case but only the names of five of them were released to the media. Snowboard instructors Dena Sheibani and Arsalan Mahdavi, climbing instructor Hesam Mousavi, former national team mountain biker Eshragh (Eshraq) Najafabadi, and mountaineer Mohammad Khiveh are the five detained on charges of planning the bombing.
As is the new normal for the detentions in Iran, the authorities also extracted confessions from them under duress. There are some unconfirmed reports that Sheibani and Khiveh were released on bail.
Their case had been full of conflicting statements since the beginning. Even the place of the alleged bombing is not yet known. On October 28, the authorities announced that they arrested someone carrying “a bag of explosives with strong destruction power” who wanted to plant a bomb in Shiraz’s Ma'aliabad neighborhood.
A deputy for political and security issues of Fars province’s governor earlier rejected reports of “the bombing” saying that no bomb was planted and explosives such as TNT were not involved. Someone with a package that contained “flammable liquids and some accessories" was arrested in the neighborhood, he claimed.
In a video of forced confessions, the climbing instructor Mousavi said that the bombing was planned to take place outside the governor’s office, which is more than a two-hour walk to the Ma'aliabad neighborhood. In the videos, Dena Shibani, the only woman accused in this case, was introduced as the "publicity officer responsible for advertising and testing operations" without providing further details about her role.
However, on December 1, some state media reported a different story of the alleged "bombing" saying that a “suspicious package” was “neutralized” by the bomb squad. In videos published by the state media, some officers seem to be removing small plastic bags of something supposed to be explosives from a small bucket.
The real reason for arresting so many sports people is not even clear, but the indications of extracting forces confessions and contradictory statements by officials clearly show an attempt to frame the detainees.
The arrests occurred only a few days after Iran’s intelligence ministry had announced the arrest of 26 people including foreigners on charges related to an attack on a Shia shrine October 26 that killed 15 people. The ministry said in a statement that these people were detained in different provinces as well as “at the eastern borders while fleeing the country.”
The ministry identified the assailant in Shahcheragh shrine as a Tajik citizen named Sobhan Komrooni with the nickname “Abu Aisha” and an Afghan person named Mohammed Ramez Rashidi as the “supporting element” of the operation. ISIS took responsibility for the attack on the Shahcheragh in Shiraz on October 26, but some questioned the Islamic Republic’s account saying it was staged by the regime itself to distract attention from nationwide protests.
Recently, French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo has launched an international competition -- called "Mullahs Get Out" -- to produce caricatures of Khamenei, as a “symbol of backward-looking, narrow-minded, intolerant religious power.”
On Tuesday, French daily Le Monde published one of the cartoons, saying that Charlie Hebdo is publishing a special issue on the occasion of the eighth-year anniversary of the Paris terrorist attacks, mocking Khamenei in support of the protests in Iran. Charlie Hebdo has been the target of three terrorist attacks: in 2011, 2015, and 2020. All of them were presumed to be in response to a number of cartoons that it published controversially depicting Islam’s Prophet Muhammad. In the 2015 attack, 12 people were killed.
“The freedom to which every human being aspires is incompatible with the archaism of religious thought and with submission to every supposedly spiritual authority, of which Ali Khamenei is the most deplorable example,” Charlie Hebdo wrote.
On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian censured the controversial French magazine Charlie Hebdo for publishing caricatures of Khamenei, warning of an “effective and decisive response.” The satirical magazine recently launched an international competition -- called "Mullahs Get Out" -- to produce caricatures of Khamenei, as a “symbol of backward-looking, narrow-minded, intolerant religious power.”
As part of the special "January 7" issue, commemorating the anniversary of the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack, the satirical weekly chose to support Iranian men and women and to "beat the mullahs," Le Monde said, adding that the paper was able to view 35 drawings selected from the 300 sent to the Charlie Hebdo editorial office, including from Iran, Turkey, the United States, Senegal and Australia.
The magazine advised that a cartoon of Khamenei should be the "funniest and meanest" possible, noting that "Cartoonists and caricaturists have a duty to help support Iranians in their struggle as they fight for their freedom, by ridiculing this religious leader who represents the past and casting him into history’s garbage bin.”
“One cartoon shows Khamenei being punched with the slogan 'Women, Life, Freedom,' while another depicts a mullah being crushed under a heel. Among the very political drawings, the supreme leader is also depicted as Marilyn Monroe, whose dress is lifted by the wind of the headscarves that women have freed themselves from. In another, armed with stones, they pommel him,” Le Monde described some of the works.
Since the beginning of the current wave of protests in mid-September, Charlie Hebdo also published other cartoons of Khamenei, one of which prompted the Islamic Republic’s Foreign Ministry to summon the French chargé d'affaires in Tehran. In the cartoon, Khamenei is depicted with bloody hands and a turban and an attire with the logo of clothing manufacturing company Nike and its motto: Just Do It.
The landscape of Iranians’ protests against the regime has never been this openly full of insults and slogans against the country’s ruler. Chanting “Death to the Dictator” and “Death to Khamenei” was still a taboo until very recently even during the protests. But now, making fun of the authorities and even the dead ones – which is extremely frowned upon in Iranian society – has become a common way of protests.
In December, a famous Iranian actor lashed out at Khamenei saying at least try to be a “personable dictator”. He compared Khamenei with other dictators such as Francisco Franco, Mao Zedong, Joseph Stalin and Benito Mussolini, saying he is “mentally ill” just like his “colleagues”.
January 3 marks the death anniversary of the commander of IRGC’s Quds (Qods) Force -- a division primarily responsible for extraterritorial military and clandestine operations. He was one the most revered figures of the Islamic regime and was killed in a drone strike ordered by former President Donald Trump. His body was so mutilated in the explosion that many social media users described him as a “Cutlet” after his death, an Iranian dish resembling hamburgers mixed with potatoes. Despite extravagant ceremonies to honor his memory, Iranians are burning his banners and statues all over the country and even named January 3 as World Cutlet Day.