Seven of the detainees arrested in the aftermath of last year’s presidential elections last week drew up and submitted a complaint letter to the heads of the judiciary and the judiciary organization of the armed forces. In their relatively long grievance they shed light on some aspects of last year’s electoral coup and expose other facets of the event through their analysis and documentation by referencing the speech of a military-security official to the point that one can perhaps say that the speech, which was apparently made to politically ideologize its supporters and justify the actions of the suppressors through a security-ideological logic, will most likely turn into a major political headache for the perpetrators of the coup, while also causing more loss of legitimacy, credibility and trust of the ruling gang because of the disgrace it has brought to them.

The reality is that the writing and submission of this complaint to judiciary officials and its open publication could be interpreted as a turning point in the current atmosphere and since the abatement of the waves of challenges and rapid political tensions witnessed last year. Regardless of the response that the judiciary may embark on, the event itself will leave a lasting political impact on the ruling elite and the opposition, and in the final count the public will be the judge of what the military-security official on one side and the victims of the electoral coup on the other have claimed. The validity or erroneousness of the claims is something that only time will tell.

But before evaluating and predicting the possible responses of the judiciary to the complaint, it is important to note that the very act of writing and publishing this complaint speaks of the failure of the security-military methods in suppressing the protest movement so much that after the passage of a year since last year’s interrogations and fake cases the regime is still held accountable by the public and must respond to the claims of those very people it prosecuted. If one takes into account the fact that these complainants were immediately arrested after last year’s presidential election and then subjected for months to directed interrogations in solitary cells, and that some of them are currently spending their prison term while others await their heavy sentences, yet they embark, without any reservations, to write and publish a complaint against the apparent and hidden individuals who directed their arrests, one can see how successful last year’s electoral coup was. In other words, the publication of the complaint has once again and like the days and weeks following the rigged elections of 2009, put the public and reformers in the seat of complainants and the regime and its extremist supporters in the seat of the accused, solidifying the continuation of the protest movement in the deeper mind of Iranian society and guaranteeing its further growth.

To get a more tangible image of the current conditions in the country, it may suffice to compare last year’s suppressive measures with other similar events such as the 1953 coup d’etat to realize the effectiveness of such suppressive methods and the success of the coup perpetrators in crushing the protest movement. While the planners and implementors of the electoral coup who have held all political, military, security, economic and administrative powers view themselves as the winners and to be in control of events, the victims of the coup whom the public respects and revears as national heroes have critiqued for the public every single act that the ruling faction undertook in its illegal and engineered elections, and then submitted this as a documented complaint to the head of the country’s judiciary. Under these circumstances the roles of the complainant and respondent have reversed, and while the public which views the official judiciary orders to lack credibility because of public distrust and lack of independence and impartiality of the institution, makes its own judgment on the situation, the regime too, despite its formal rejections, accepts the reality which is precisely why it is afraid to be openly judged by the public and particularly through legitimate and legal means, and is not accepting to hold free, fair and competitive elections or issuing permits for peaceful and legal demonstations for protestors precisely because its know well what the public thinks of the nature and record of its actions.

This is something that was known since the reform period and has been repeated. From the serial murders of the regime to the massive closure of the media, from the events that took place on July 9, 2009 to the Berlin Conference and the massive arrests of of the summer of 2003, from the fake cases against the Iran Freedom Movement and national-religious figures on charges of overthrowing the regime and the execution judgments for Dr Aghajari on comical charges of being at war with God, to many other similar measures, at no time has resort to such actions, in such amateur ways, led to a better image of a regime in the eyes of the public, but has in fact produced just the opposite. During this period those in power have done everything they could, but have received nothing but thin air in return.

Last year’s engineered elections are a good example of this assertion and despite the counter-security and suppressive measures to control the crises have not untied this knot and in fact have only postponed the eruption of more protests. The speech of a senior military-security official which was made with the purpose of solidifying the illegitimate position of the ruling gang, has after its publication turned into a serious document to prove the interference of the military-security forces in the presidential electoral process and its drive to eliminate the political opponents and rivals of an extremist ruling faction. This document is neither negateable nor defensible. The publication of this complaint by seven victims of last year’s electoral coup based on the remarks of this military –security official as one planner or executioner of this coup is the best example and evidence of the failure of such actions. Now we must patiently wait to see what tools the rulers will resort to in order to flee from this political-security disgrace.