IRGC Accuses LGBTQ Activist Of Leading Human Trafficking Gang
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says an Iranian LGBTQ rights activist detained since last October has been slapped with new charges of "trafficking Iranian women" to Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard says an Iranian LGBTQ rights activist detained since last October has been slapped with new charges of "trafficking Iranian women" to Erbil, in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The intelligence organization of the IRGC made the accusation in a statement on Monday about Zahra Mansouri Hamdani, also known as Sareh, who was previously arrested on charges linked to an appearance in a BBC documentary on gay rights in Iraqi Kurdistan.
The statement described her "the leader of the biggest gang of Iranian girls trafficking to Erbil,” saying that following months of surveillance, the IRGC intelligence tracked her to the trafficking gangs that had “sold hundreds of Iranian women and girls” to customers in Erbil.
The IRGC also accuses her of promoting homosexuality, gambling and fraud as well as de-stigmatization of illicit sexual relations in cyberspace.
The organization added that her gang was run in collaboration with a man identified as "Alireza Farjadi-Kia" and another woman that goes only by the name "Kati".
She was arrested while trying to cross the border and seek asylum in Turkey on October 27, 2021. She was held in solitary confinement for 53 days, during which, the Revolutionary Guard subjected her to intense interrogations, insulted her identity and appearance, threatened to execute her and to take away custody of her children. On January 16, Sareh was accused of “spreading corruption on earth,” including through "promoting homosexuality”, “communication with anti-Islamic Republic media channels” and “promoting Christianity.”
Rights group Amnesty International appealed to Iran’s Chief Justice Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei on January 25, calling for release.
The formal reason for Putin’s visit is a tripartite summit with his Iranian and Turkish counterparts to discusses Syria, where Tehran and Moscow back Bashar al Assad and Turkey backs the residual rebel forces in the north of the country.
Turkey's President Rcep Tayyip Erdogan also arrive in Tehran and received by President Ebrahim Raisi.
However, Iranian government-owned media has been portraying the visit as a major event to counter the West. Fars news website affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard on Tuesday splashed a headline decaling, “The end of Western monetary and financial hegemony”.
Presumably, Iran and Russia are setting up a mechanism to interchange currencies, but the outline is so vague it is impossible to clearly describe it.
Last week, the US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan twice warned that Iran might provide military drones to Russia to be used in the Ukraine war. Iran’s foreign ministry tried to deny it, saying Tehran is neutral in the war and will not aid any side.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Monday [July 18] reiterated that Washington is monitoring the situation. “Well, we’ve spoken about our concerns regarding a potential Iranian provision of UAV technology to Russia. We will continue to watch very closely. All of our sanctions remain in force,” he said, adding that such a transaction might violate of host of American and other sanctions on the two countries.
Despite their political alliance, which since the invasion of Ukraine has increasingly taken an anti-Western tone, economic transactions between Iran and Russia remain small.
Bilateral trade rose to $4 billion in 2021, but this is far less than, for example, Russia’s trade with Turkey at $33 billion, while Moscow’s exports to Iran are mainly foodstuffs, which are less vulnerable to US third-party sanctions than other sectors.
Before its costly adventure in Ukraine, Russia was mindful of US third-party sanctions on Iran and there were no major cases of, for example, banking violations.
The specter of an emerging US-backed Arab-Israeli bloc that could tilt the Middle East balance of power further away from Iran has accelerated its clerical rulers' efforts to strengthen strategic ties with the Kremlin.
"Considering the evolving geopolitical ties after the Ukraine war, the establishment tries to secure Moscow's support in Tehran's confrontation with Washington and its regional allies," Reuters quoted an unnamed senior Iranian official as saying.
Sending a clear message to the West that Russia will seek to boost ties with anti-West Iran, Putin will meet the Islamic Republic's most powerful authority, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, just a few days after US President Joe Biden visited Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Emboldened by high oil prices after the Ukraine war, Tehran is betting that with Russia's support it could pressure Washington to offer concessions for revival of a 2015 nuclear deal.
Almost a year of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington in Vienna stalled in March, with Iran questioning the US resolve and Washington calling on Tehran to drop extra demands.
But Moscow and Tehran, both subject to US sanctions, have overlapped interests. Iran, whose oil industry has struggled for years under US sanctions, has long relied on exports to China to keep the economy afloat. Since the start of Ukraine war, Moscow has taken away a big chunk of Iran's oil market in Asia.
In May, several reports said that Iran's crude exports to China have fallen sharply as Beijing favoured heavily discounted Russian barrels, leaving almost 40 million barrels of Iranian oil stored on tankers at sea in Asia and seeking buyers.
Gharazi argued that the Guardian Council, a body tasked with vetting presidential and parliamentary candidates and ensuring that all legislations are consistent with the religious law (Shari'ah) and the country's Constitutional Law is so powerful that politicians have lost the courage to question its behavior.
Gharazi's comment as part of an interview with Didban Iran website comes a few days after Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei reinstated Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, 96, and two other clerics for another six years.
Although the Guardian Council's very existence has always contradicted the Iranian establishment's claim about being a democratic system, its decision to disqualify nearly all of pro-reform candidates since 2019 has made it subject to many criticisms from within the system.
The Guardian Council, which was established in 1980, has 12 members, including 6 clerics chosen by Khamenei, and 6 lawyers chosen by the Judiciary Chief and endorsed by the parliament. The 6 clerics do not need the blessing of the parliament. In fact, as the Judiciary chief is also directly appointed by Khamenei, all 12 members of the council are hardliners trusted by the Supreme Leader. The members' term of office is 6 years and every 3 years, half of them may change or be reinstated.
Ahmad Jannati has been the secretary of the Guardian Council since its establishment in 1980. Based on the new order by Khamenei, he can carry on doing his job until he turns 102 in 2028.
Gharazi said about Jannati's reinstatement: "I hope he lives for 120 years. God knows how long one lives. Who am I to say anything about this?" There are many jokes about Jannati's long life, including one that says he was the witness in Adam and Eve's marriage.
Gharazi, who was Iran's Post, Telephone and Telegraph Minister in the 1980s, said in a damning comment that "Neither the Guardian Council, nor the other councils in the Iranian government have ever done any service to the revolution," adding that the Guardian Council has given big jobs to individuals who have not been able to help the people in any way.
Gharazi said: "When I wanted to become a candidate in the 2017 presidential election, somebody from the Guardian Council told me that I cannot be a candidate as I was over 75 years old at that time. I told him how come a 75-year-old person can be a member of the parliament but cannot run for President?"
The same question was raised in another way following Jannati's reinstatement. Iranian cleric Rashid Davoodi, a graduate of the Qom Seminary who holds a Ph.D. in political science according to his Twitter bio, wrote In a 16 July tweet referring to Jannati’s son, "In 2018 when Ali Jannati was less than 70 years old he was dismissed from his post as an adviser to the Office of the President based on a law that prohibits employing retirement age people. In 2022, his father Ahmad Jannati, 96, was reinstated as a member and the secretary of the Guardian Council for another six years!"
The Guardian Council disqualified all the reformist candidates and even conservative candidates who could be real contestants in the 2020 Majles election, an act that paved the way for sending 290 "revolutionary" hardliners to the parliament. Critics have also lashed out at council for barring reformist candidates from the 2021 presidential elections.
