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Former Transportation Minister
Ahmad Khorram |
Majlis Ousts
Transportation Minister
On Sunday, October 3rd, the Transportation
Minister of Iran, Ahmad Khorram, became the first of
President Khatami's Cabinet to be ousted by the Majlis
(parliament) since the hardliners took over in February
2004. The final count was 188 in favour, 58 against and
9 abstentions.
The conservatives claimed that since the beginning of
this Persian year on March 20th, road
accidents had already gone up, and that fatalities on
the roads of Iran, as well as air accidents had been on
the rise. They cited that over the last three years 212
people had been killed in 86 flight accidents.
However it is believed that the main reason for the move
to impeach the Minister was due to his handing over of
the construction and operation contracts of the Imam
Khomeini International Airport to a Turkish-Austrian
consortium, which they referred to as a breach of the
national security.
The airport was closed in May by the Iranian Army, after
the landing of a single flight.
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Aghajari became a cause celebre
for protesters |
Aghajari Sentenced to Death Once
Again
A court in Hamedan
has upheld its original sentencing of the death penalty
for Mr. Aghajari, a history professor from Tehran.
Hashem Aghajari was
first sentenced to death in Novermber 2002, for
apostasy, after he spoke out against the mullahs of the
regime and called for religious reform and 'renewal'.
The verdict was then appealed and turned over by the
Supreme Court and instead he was sentenced to a
four-year prison term, which he is currently serving in
Tehran’s Evin Prison.
The overturning of
the death penalty occurred after it incited and sparked
the largest student protests in years.
Mr. Aghajari, a
Muslim, and a veteran of the eight-year Iran-Iraq war
which resulted in him losing a leg in combat, stated in
a speech in August of 2002, that Muslims are not
'monkeys' and 'should not follow [the clerics]
blindly'.
Regarding this
latest setback, Aghajari’s lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht,
stated that the case will now be sent back to the
Supreme Court.
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Iran Dismisses Kerry’s Nuclear
Proposal
On Sunday October 3rd,
the Islamic Republic of Iran dismissed a proposal by
Democratic Presidential nominee, John Kerry, to provide
Tehran with nuclear facilities if the Islamic Republic
if the Islamic Republic of Iran agrees to abandon its
own fuel-making activities.
Foreign ministry
spokesperson, Hamid Reza Asefi, called the proposal
“irrational”. He continued, “we have the technology [to
make nuclear fuel] and there is no need for us to beg
from others”.
The U.S. President
George W. Bush wants the Islamic Republic’s dossier to
be sent to the United Nations Security Council for
possible sanctions over its nuclear program.
Kerry says that he
would test the Islamic Republic’s intentions by
supplying it with nuclear fuel for its power reactors,
if Tehran ceased its efforts to make its own fuel and
returned the spent fuel after use.
Asefi said that the
Iranian government could not trust any agreement with
the West to supply it with reactor fuel. “What
guarantees are there? Will they supply us one day and
then, if they want to, stop supplying us on another
day?” he said.
Iran is allowed to
enrich uranium for peaceful purposes under the nuclear
Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). It has rejected
repeated calls by European countries to freeze its
nuclear fuel cycle activities.
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‘10 On Ten’ and ‘Turtles Can
Fly’ Represent Iranian cinema at FNC
At a press conference last Tuesday,
founder Claude Chamberland Said, presented the 33rd
Festival du Nouveau Cinema, which will be held in
Montreal from October 14th to the 24th.
This year’s FNC has its most impressive
lineup in years, with 208 features, short films,
documentaries, performances and master classes from over
40 countries.
Cinéphiles can
enjoy screenings of such globally respected and
prominent filmmakers as: Jean-Luc Godard, Wim Wenders,
Claire Denis, Emir Kusturica, Spike Lee, Agnes Varda,
Denys Arcand and internationally acclaimed Iranian
filmmakers, Abbas Kiarostami and Bahman Ghobadi.
‘10 On Ten’,
Kiarostami’s latest work, will be shown in the Special
Presentation Series of this year’s FNC. ‘10 On Ten’ is
an “auto- documentary” which emerges from more than
three decades of Kiarostami’s experiences in cinema.
‘Turtles Can Fly’ written and directed by
Bahman Ghobadi is another film, which will represent
Iranian cinema at the 33rd FNC. This film
which was recently awarded the
Concha de Oro (Golden Shell) at the prestigious San
Sebastian film festival in Spain, is Ghobadi’s
third feature film. It is a co-production between Iran
and Iraq and has been proclaimed the first serious film
ever made in Iraq. This film will be shown in the
International Selection Series.
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