Tag Archives: iran

The rest of The Voice’s Daily View team may have decided to have a lie in each morning during August, but we’re made of sterner stuff here on the Sunday slot. And as it’s a Sunday, this time by popular demand (sort of) there’s a special bonus social networking meets beards sing-a-long supplement.

2 Big Stories

Iranian protesters go on trial

Forcing critics of a government to recant in implausible public confessions is both a display of a regime’s power but also of a display of absurdity. If it makes people fear that power it strengthens the regime, but if it makes people ridicule that absurdity it weakens it. So far in Iran it seems to be doing at least some of the latter:

Iran’s biggest reformist party has dismissed the court appearance of 100 people, including leading opposition figures, as a “laughable show trial”.

The accused are on trial for alleged involvement in post-election violence, on charges including acting against national security and vandalism.

Pro-government media reported what they said were confessions by some of the leading reformists.

But the party, Mosharekat, said the “confessions” had been forced.

It said “even a cooked chicken” would laugh at the charges.

Kasra Naji, special correspondent for BBC Persian Television, says the timing and scale of the trial came as a surprise and suggests Iran’s leadership wants to send a message to stop any more protests.

But judging from messages on micro-blogging site twitter and the internet, our correspondent says, the move may have the opposite effect, with several people talking about the need for new demonstrations and calling those on trial “national heroes”. (BBC)

Immigration