Les juifs emprisonnés en Iran
Suite du dossier au quotidien. Faits et presse
Hommes de paix, nous demandons la bonté à un peuple de
qualité
au nom de ses propres valeurs

L'Agence de presse iranienne Irna vient de diffuser la nouvelle suivante
que je vous traduis et transmets immédiatement :
"Espoir pour l'acquittement des 13 Juifs inculpés d'espionnage.
Le député Majlis (à l'Assemblée nationale
iranienne) pour la minorité juive, Manouchehr Elyasi,
nous a déclaré ce mardi que "J'espère que le
procès des 13 Juifs suspectés d'espionnage pour Israel
se terminera par leur acquittement parce que ce dossier portera
des fruits
aussi bien sur le destin de la comunauté juive que pour le
peuple iranien".
Répondant aux journalistes, il a dit : "Mon opinion est que
les suspects n'ont rien à voir avec l'espionnage".
En réponse à la question de savoir s'ils avaient oui
ou non des activités politiques, il dit que la plupart des suspects
sont des enseignants et l'un d'eux est un instructeur de l'Université
Chiraz tandis qu'un autre est un
employé du gouvernement travaillant dans l'industrie électronique.
Tous les suspects sont des enseignants religieux donnant des cours
de religion juive,
a t'il précisé.
Il serait très étrange pour moi qu'ils puissent être
engagés dans des activités politiques,dit-il.
Louant la sincère coopération dans cette affaire avec
les officiels de haut rang, il déclara :
"pendant l'an dernier, nous avons eu diverses rencontes avec le
Président Khatami, le Ministre de l'Intérieur et le Ministre
de l'Information qui ont été très efficaces et maintenant
nous saisissons l'opportunité qui nous est accordée
pour solliciter à nouveau leur assistance afin de mener cette
affaire à bonne fin."
Selon les officiers judiciaires, les audiences pour le jugement
auront lieu le 13 avril."
"We will accept the decision of the court, whatever it may be," he said.
"If they condemned to
hang, they will be hanged, if they are acquitted, they will be freed."
Younessi said the 13 had all
the rights of other prisoners.
"They can meet their families and practise their faith.
" He said the cases against the accused were now complete.
The 13 Jews and eight Muslims being held for allegedly spying for Israel
are expected to be tried
shortly by the Revolutionary Court in Shiraz.
They face the death sentence if convicted under a 1996 law which imposes
capital punishment
on those found guilty of spying for the United States or Iran's arch-enemy
Israel.
Younessi commenting on the screening of the candidates for the Majlis elections
said the people,
not the secret service, should assess candidates and determine the fate
of the nation.
Younessi told Entekhab newspaper his agency had exercised unprecedented
restraint in vetting
candidates for the February 18 poll.
"We must allow the people to be completely involved to determine their
future, and we must
not be afraid of the possibility of one or two people getting into Parliament
by mistake," he
said.
Under Iran's election laws, the Information Ministry, the police and other
agencies must
approve candidates to elected office essentially giving them veto power.
The Guardian Council
then makes the final ruling.
Younessi said his ministry used its right to disqualify three to four percent
of the record 6,800
hopefuls, a fraction of the 12 percent it banned from the last parliamentary
elections four years
ago.
The final candidate list will not be available until the Guardian Council
rules on all outstanding
appeals sometime around the end of the month.
"The ill effect of decreased public participation is much greater than
the effect of the presence of
certain people in parliament.
Not paying attention to the people is very dangerous," said Younessi.
He also pledged to continue efforts to reform the ministry, seen by many
Iranians as a power
unto itself with little or no oversight by the president or Parliament.
"The Information Ministry is determined to restructure itself to conform
to the new situation.
In reality the ministry is more than happy to change and reform." Younessi
was appointed last
February after his predecessor was forced out over the "mystery murders"
scandal, in which
elements of the secret service were identified as having carried out the
killings of intellectuals
and dissident politicians.
The murders shocked the nation and produced fierce calls for wholesale
reform of the secret
service, but promised trials for those implicated have yet to be held,
AFP dispatch said.
Analyse :
2. Aucune mention n'était faite depuis des mois
sur le sort des prisonniers juifs dans la presse iranienne.
Situation identique, mêmes rumeurs, même
silence, même campagne internationale de l'Iran pour les droits de
l'homme et pour le dialogue avec toutes les civilisations. Cela voulait
dire : aucune aggravation.
3. La campagne électorale seule décidera
du sort des prisonniers selon la proportions des forces qui apparaîtront
dans les résultats.
Le président Khatami a demandé aux étudiants
de respecter le calme nécesaire dans l'Etat mais de se mobiliser
pour jouer "un rôle actif" lors des prochaines élections législatives
de février.
4. L'ouverture de la campagne semble avoir pour la première fois, autorisé ces deux expressions totalement nouvelles (points 1 et 3) sans faire surgir la réplique officielle de condamnation de la part du Guide Suprême de la Révolution et de ses courroies de transmission.
5. Concernant Israël et la politique étrangère, les attaques semblent s'orienter davantage contre "l'arrogance, l'intervention et l'espionnage" des Etats-Unis que contre Israël. Certes, est réaffirmé le soutien de l'Iran à la proposition d'Arafat pour un sommet arabe contre la politique israélienne dans les territoires et la préoccupation des Palestiniens en cas d'accord avec la Syrie et le Liban. Mais la reprise officielle des conversations de paix israélo-syriennes est relatée avec l'expression de satisfaction de la Syrie envers l'issue prochaine des négociations selon ses objectifs. Cette satisfaction arabo-musulmane sur les résultats présagés à travers la phase préparatoire est peut-être le motif pour lequel l'Iran ménage aussi quelque peu en ce moment Israël et permet cette expression des juifs iraniens. Les déclarations du Premier ministre d'Israël sur l'espoir d'une issue positive des négociations sont relatées sans aucun commentaire négatif.
6. Rappel :
Pour connaître la situation globale des droits
de l'homme en Iran, visitez
cette page.
- En Israël
Il faut prendre la mesure globale en signalant un autre
fait irano-israélien.
Pour la 1e fois, le Mouvement islamique d'obédience
iranienne, et composé d'arabes israéliens et non pas d'arabes
sous les territoires de l'autorité palestienne, est passé
à l'action verbale violence de façon publique. Cela après
le meurtre d'israéliens par des arabes israéliens affiliés
à ce mouvement. Ce sont deux faits extrêmement graves et nouveaux
dans la vie israélienne qui auront sans aucun doute une importance
considérable. Voici les faits : Vendredi 17 septembre, à
Oum el Fahm, 35000 Arabes israéliens (chiffre considérable)
ont manifesté aux cris de "nous libérerons la mosquée
El Aksa (sur le Mont du Temple qui est d'ailleurs en leurs mains) dans
le feu et le sang". Le leader du mouvement le Sheikh Kamal Hatib déclarait
: "ils font une grave erreur ceux qui s'imaginent que les mises en garde
des autorités israéliennes à la suite des derniers
attentats contre des israéliens nous impressionneront et nous feront
peur".
Iran Jews' Case Handed Over to Court for Trial
TEHRAN Iran's intelligence service has handed over
the case of 13 Iranian Jews charged with spying for Israel to the judiciary
for trial, a newspaper said on Saturday. "The accused have already been
handed over to the judiciary.
These are 13 Jews and a few Muslems," said the
English-language daily TEHRAN TIMES, quoting an official from Shiraz, a
city in southern Iran where the suspects are to be tried. The official
said he did not know if the trial would be in public, but said the suspects
would be entitled to a lawyer and "other rights".
The Jews, who were arrested by the intelligence
service in Iran early this year, have been accused of passing on secret
military information to Israel, a charge which can carry a death sentence
Iranian authorities have not identified the suspects or the nature of the
evidence against them.
Iran says the arrests had nothing to do with their
religion and has promised a fair trial. But it has said it would not accept
foreign "meddling" in the case. "Iran does not act under pressure, but
in conformity with its own values and principles.
The judiciary must be given time to do its job,"
newspapers on Saturday quoted Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi as
saying. "The espionage network was very complicated. This is why the investigations
took so long. In fact, there was some pressure from certain political circles
demanding early trial," the official from Shiraz was quoted as saying.
He said investigation would continue about possible
involvement of others. "There are some considered the brains of the network.
They must be arrested too," the official said. "The suspect used advanced
communication devices to send information to the Zionist regime (Israel)
from Shiraz," he said.
"They dispatched members of their network abroad
for training and assisted some Iranians to illegally leave the country,"
the official said. (Reuter)
King Hassan -- Moroccan or Israeli?
TEHRAN TIMES POLITICAL DESK
The following is an article published in the daily As-Safeer on July 24,
1999 on Moroccan King
Hassan II. The article was also published in the Persian daily Sobh-e Emrouz
last week. The
name of Moroccan King Hassan II, who ruled since 1961, has been associated
with many
internal and regional issues.
The most important issue was his stance on the Middle East peace process.
In 1970, King Hassan
II was the first Arab leader to openly receive a Zionist official and,
in the 1965 Arab summit, he
officially called for recognition of Israel and acceptance of its membership
in the Arab League.
King Hassan II, who was a descendant of one of the most ancient dynasties
in the world and who
was given the title `Amir-al-Mo'menin', left behind many of the challenges
which threatened him
and his reign, including two coup d'etats in 1971 and 1972, and the 1973
national uprising led by
the leftist opposition.
When he gained the control of the country, many believed that he will not
remain on the throne
for more than six months, but in spite of all threats and challenges, he
could preserve the stability
and security of his country in the years after independence in 1956, with
a heavy cost which was
thousands of victims and prisoners during his 38-year reign.
Mehdi bin Birka who was kidnapped in 1968 and killed afterwards was one
of the victims. King
Hassan managed to settle a national reconciliation in his country during
the past two years by
removing his bad record in the field of human rights and releasing political
prisoners.
He even approved the appointment of Abdurrahman al-Yousefi, an opposition
leader, as
Moroccan prime minister. However, he created a difficult economic crisis
in his country.
Decrease in growth rate and increase in number of the unemployed and those
living below the
poverty line (out of a population of 29 million, 5 million live below the
poverty line).
He had a great role in preparing the ground for the visit of the then Egyptian
president Anwar
Sadat to the occupied Palestine. He openly tried to make the Arabs recognize
Israel and make
peace with it. In 1970, for the first time he met with the head of the
Jewish International Agency,
Nahum Goldman, in Rome.
King Hassan, who still enjoys high popularity among the Israelis of Moroccan
origin (the largest
Jewish tribe in Israel), paved the way for immigration of 25,000 Moroccan
Jews to occupied
Palestine in the late 1960s.
He allowed the Israeli general Chaim Herzog, who later became the president
of Israel, to pay a
visit to Morocco in 1969. In 1976, he received Yitzhak Rabin, the then
prime minister of Israel,
who traveled to Morocco in disguise with Arabic-style clothing and held
talks on peace talks with
Egypt.
In 1977, he held another meeting with Moshe Dayan, the then defense minister
of Israel, and
discussed with him Sadat's visit to Al-Qods. During the years 1978 and
1979, Shimon Peres
travelled to Morocco two times. His second trip was made in the presence
of King Hassan and
the then Jordanian crown prince.
He took another trip there in 1981. In 1982, and after the end of the second
session of FAS, King
Hassan sent a message to Israelis calling for a reply to measures taken
by Arabs -- in the
framework of the decisions made in the same session on a copy of King Fahd's
plan.
In 1984, he also allowed the Moroccan Jews' conference to be held in Rabat,
in which over 35
Israeli personalities attended the official invitation of the Moroccan
regime. From early in 1985,
King Hassan started secret contacts with Shimon Peres.
Following the Dar-al-Baida meeting, he said to the reporters that he would
welcome any proposal
to be forwarded by Israeli leaders. Finally, after many contacts the first
meeting between King
Hassan and the then Israeli premier Shimon Peres was held in 1986.
He had repeatedly said that to develop the Middle East, Jewish talent should
be associated with
the Arab wealth! Biography of King Hassan II: * Hassan was born in Rabat
in 1929, the eldest
son of King Mohammad V and the 17th king of a dynasty, which ruled over
Morocco for three
centuries.
He was married in 1961, had five children, including Mohammad (born 1963),
who became
crown prince and his successor. He graduated from France in 1951 in law.
In 1953, the French
colonialists sent Hassan and his father to Corsica and Madagascar in exile.
They returned to their homeland in 1955; in the same year, the young prince
became army chief of
staff. In 1956, he was appointed army commander. While Hassan led military
talks between
France and Morocco, the talks resulted in independence for his country
and he became crown
prince in July 1957.
Maintaining the post of defense minister, he became prime minister in 1960.
He became king of
Morocco on February 26 and held the ministerial post, too. In 1963, Moroccan
officials
uncovered a plot for killing the king and charged Algeria with backing
the plotters, naming Bin
Birka the main element behind the plot.
After the people's uprising in Dar-al-Baida in 1965, the Parliament and
Constitution were
dissolved and King Hassan, pronouncing exceptional conditions, took over
power. These
circumstances continued until 1970. In this year a new Constitution was
set by the king which
met opposition.
During the ceremonies held on the occasion of the king's birthday in 1971,
some army troops
attacked the palace in Sakhirat, and other army units revolted, calling
for the establishment of a
republic. This move lasted a few hours and the King was miraculously saved.
Following the coup d'etat, 10 people were executed without trial and 2,500
military and
non-military people were imprisoned. In October 1973, a group of Moroccan
forces were sent to
the Golan war front in Syria and some to Egypt's war fronts.
In 1975, he called for rallies named "Green Demonstrations," in which 350,000
Moroccans
attended, moving towards the Western Desert. As the aftermath of the rally,
Spanish forces
withdrew from the desert in 1976. Hassan became the head of the Qods Committee
in 1979.
King Hassan made his last trip on July 14, 1999 to Paris. During his visit
a new chapter opened
in France-Morocco relations. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih was the
last president to meet
with the king in Rabat.
Among books written by King Hassan are Challenge (1979), and the king's memoirs (1994).