Over the past days, as pro-government media have engaged in a cyclical pattern of reporting so-called “confessions” extracted from recent detainees on the soft overthrow and velvet revolution accussations, prominent political and religious individuals and associations have on their part have been writing about the illegitimacy of the current administration created on top of a coup d’etat and a fraudulent election.
The condemnations come even after ayatollah Jannati announced on Fridaay during Tehran’s Friday prayers that confessions were gradually being extracted from the detainees and that the public would be informed of appropriate parts.
No System Can Permit Violence Towards the Public
In response to recent clashes, ayatollah Sanei released a statement addressed to “all forces that must protect order and the public’s lives, liberty and honor,” noting, “No command or order can permit or excuse aggression towards peoples rights, let alone their beating, injuring or murder, which is befitting of punishment in this world and hereafter.” This Shia source of emulation (or Marjae Taghlid as they are formally titled and called) addressed the police, security and military officers in his statement, declaring the beating and killing of people as “haram” [forbidden by Islamic law].
In a separate development, meeting with a group of political activists and members of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s campaign, ayatollah Bayat Zanjani condemned the beating, injuring and killing of people by the police and military, adding, “Certainly, confessions that are extracted today using strange, puzzling and unfortunate methods, lack any kind of legal or moral legitimacy and cannot be used in any court of law. Those who extract these confessions will be responsible and accountable to God.”
Confessions Accelerate Regime’s Demise
Coinciding with these visits and remarks, the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom Seminary School – an influential clerical body - released a statement calling on “Clerics and elders to take proper action once again in line with the sense of responsibility that they have always had.”
This clerical association also called on the judiciary to immediately release the individuals arrested during peaceful rallies and identify and punish those responsible for beatings and murders and savage attacks on the Tehran University dormitories and other areas.
The student group Adva-e Tahkim Vahdat also released a statement expressing concern about the incessant plot of publishing confessions extracted from detained political activists in state-owned media outlets, noting, “The directors, writers and executers of these dangerous plots must know that lost credibility cannot be restored through discredited confessions extracted in hidden detention facilities, which lack any legal or moral value. In addition, they will not be able to question the independence and indigenousness of the popular movement by reverting to such suppressive methods.”
Advar-e Tahkim’s statement also stated that the administration which has come to power through fraud puts no value on the lives, property and security of its citizens, emphasizing, “The security regime’s policies in attempting to extract confessions from detained political and civil society activists will not only fail to strengthen the foundations of tyranny but will serve as the beginning of the disintegration of the system of oppression and lies.”
The opposition group known as “Nationalist-Religious Front” also released a statement declaring television confessions to be worthless, adding, “Insistence on continuing defunct practices not only seriously contradicts legal, religious and human rights principles, but also adds to the existing crisis of legitimacy.”
This group also expressed concern about the well-being of detained individuals: “Some judiciary officials as well as human rights organizations have repeatedly condemned such methods for conflicting with the Constitution and human rights principles. Public opinion will under no circumstances accept the confessions broadcasted on television and do not have the least bit of trust towards the discussed issues.”
