NEWS))))))

Delara Darabi was hanged on May 1st, International Labour Day
National Council of Resistance of Iran said in a statement on May 1st that Delara Darabi, 23, was hanged this morning, May 1, despite widespread international opposition. This has shocked all freedom loving and democratic forces around the world. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, described the execution of the young woman, who at the time of the crime attributed to her was only 17 as a sign of savagery, barbarism and misogyny of the medieval regime ruling Iran. She urged the international community to condemn this unprecedented and hideous crime. Mrs. Rajavi added that the world community, in particular the EU and the US, are facing a big test; continue keeping silence and inaction in face of the bloodletting religious fascism ruling Iran or standing up to responsibilities that the UN Charter, conventions and international regulations have defined for them in dealing with such regimes.

Int’l Workers Day celebration led to clashes across Iran
According to reports, while the streets around Laleh Park in Tehran were crowded with the people and the eyewitnesses said around 2,000 people gathered to mark May Day, the clerical regime blocked all of the Park entrances and surrounding streets and established an unannounced martial law and prevented any gathering of more than two people around the park. These measures were taken in fear that the May Day demonstration might evolve to a big anti-government demonstration. The State Security Force (SSF) agents brutally beat the May Day participants either men or women; the reports indicated that on Friday afternoon 20 people including a member of Workers’ Syndicate by the name of Khani were arrested and transferred to an unknown location; there are four women among the arrestees. In Kermanshah, despite severe security measures by the regime, the workers from different factories demonstrated on May Day. The workers of Polyethylene Petrochemical Company, Porcelain and Kurd Ceramic companies gathered in front of the governorate Building in Kermanshah, while carrying placards and asking for their rights.In Sanandaj, hundreds of workers marked the May Day under severe security measures.In Qasr-e-Shirin, more than 1,500 workers held a demonstration on Friday Morning and clashed with the suppressive State Security Force (SSF) agents. They carried placards saying 'the workers want their rights, we boycott sham elections.' 10 workers were arrested by the agents during the clashes.In Arak, 500 angry workers gathered in front of the governorate building and demonstrated their anger and disgust of the clerical regime by throwing stones. In this gathering the workers of Arak Industries Company, Azarab Company, Pars Wagon Company and several other companies participated too.In Qom, more than 1,000 workers from different companies demonstrated on May Day. The workers chanted against the regime’s anti-worker policies and carried banners saying “Incompetent minister should resign”.

Iranian American refugees will continue fight over contributions to opposition group
Source: American Civil Liberty Union of Southern CaliforniaLos Angeles, Calif., 01 May 2009 - Seven Iranian American refugees have conditionally pled guilty to providing material support to an Iranian opposition group known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). The agreement enables them to appeal the ruling on the ground that their prosecution violates the U.S. Constitution, an argument that the trial judge indicated should be decided by a higher court. Their challenge focuses on the fact that the MEK does not threaten U.S. national security, in large part because the U.S. government has itself provided material support to the same group, as court documents obtained in the case revealed. The pleas yesterday by the six men and one woman were made reluctantly after an eight-year legal battle, and only on condition that the government drop over 100 other charges to which they had pleaded not guilty and allow them to pursue their argument that they should not be prosecuted for contributing to the MEK. That organization -- the main Iranian opposition group -- supports a free, non-nuclear Iran, has provided valuable information to the U.S. and has even worked to make the U.S. government’s 'surge' in Iraq a success.'It boggles the mind that that these seven refugees would be charged with providing material support for a so-called terrorist organization, when the U.S. government has supported the same organization for years,' said Ahilan Arulanantham, Director of Immigrants’ Rights and National Security of the ACLU of Southern California, which represents one of the seven defendants. 'In the interests of justice, the federal government should drop its prosecution of this case, which is based on a law that denies due process to those accused of supporting designated terrorist organizations.'The U.S. government officially designated the MEK as a terrorist organization in 1997 -- thereby criminalizing almost all assistance rendered to the group -- and has maintained that designation despite the objections of more than 228 members of Congress. Senior Clinton administration officials acknowledged at the time that the designation of the MEK was a political, 'goodwill gesture' to the so-called moderate Iranian president Mohammad Khatami. The European Union and the United Kingdom initially followed the United States and made the same designation, but recently withdrew their designation after considering overwhelming evidence that the MEK does not threaten their national security. Under the U.S.’s anti-terrorism law, however, the seven defendants were not permitted to argue at a trial that the MEK was not a threat to American national security. Currently, the United States and Iran are among the few government entities to continue to officially classify the MEK as a terrorist group.The seven refugees, some of whom were personally subjected to incarceration, persecution and torture before fleeing Iran, raised money at the Los Angeles Airport and within Los Angeles’s Iranian community, and sent some of it to the MEK. The funds were used for a variety of humanitarian items, such as the purchase of shoes and other aid to Iranian refugees in Iraq, as well as the promotion of speech such as television time for ads about Iran and the publication of the group’s newspaper.In 2002, the seven refugees successfully challenged the legitimacy of the government’s prosecution, but the charges were later reinstated by the U.S. Court of Appeals. Evidence released in court recently showed, among other things, that the U.S. government supported a camp in Iraq where the MEK leadership currently resides, and provided consular services to the residents there.'The American people are well-aware that the U.S. government supports those who oppose the tyrannical Iranian regime,' said Nasser Shareef, President of the California Society for Democracy in Iran. He added, 'Under these circumstances, it is indeed ironic that the U.S. government has prosecuted these seven individuals for bravely supporting resistance against the Iranian regime, whose hands are stained with the blood of tens of thousands of Iranians at home as well as hundreds of innocent people outside Iran, including many Americans in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.' A sentencing hearing is presently scheduled for August where the issues of the proper designation of the MEK, the oppression and torture that some of the defendants endured in Iran, and the current working relationship between the MEK and the U.S. government (despite the continued designation) will be presented to the court.

Political prisoner supporter of PMOI was slain under torture
Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran said on April 27, 2009 that Mr. Mahmoud Ghassemzadeh, 48, a supporter of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI), was brutally murdered under torture by the clerical regime on April 18. He was arrested at his house in Babolsar (northern Iran) on April 14 by the agents of the Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS). He was subsequently taken to MOIS headquarters in Babol and Ghaemshahr, before being transferred to city of Sari (provincial capital of Mazandaran). Mr. Ghassemzadeh who suffered from heart and respiratory ailments, was put under torture immediately. After four days of torture, he was transferred to Sari’s Nimeh-Shaaban Hospital in critical condition on April 18 at 3 PM. Due to bureaucratic obstacles created by the MOIS agents, his treatment began with a two and half hours delay. But the doctors’ endeavors to save him were futile and he passed away at 11 PM.In order to cover up its crime, the MOIS prevented an autopsy to be conducted and the coroner declared the reason for death as “unknown.” According to eyewitnesses in the hospital and in the coroner office, signs of torture and injuries were visible on his body.The Iranian Resistance calls on all international human rights organization to condemn this heinous crime, and to take urgent measures to save the lives of political prisoners. It calls on the UN Secretary General, the Security Council and the High Commissioner for Human Rights to send a fact finding mission to investigate the state of the Iranian regime’s prisons, political prisoners, torture as well as murder of political prisoners under torture.
Prisoners protested against inhuman treatment and torture at Isfahan Prison
The prisoners of Isfahan central prison protested against torture and inhuman treatment carried out in the prison by the regime’s executioners.According to received report, the sanitary condition in the prison is deplorable. Kaffashan, one of the prison’s officials has said: 'We have 100 entries into the prison per day, but we have only 600 Tooman (60 cents) budget for each prisoner; the sanitary budget of the prison has been reduced to one fifth too.'Due to tortures and overbearing condition in the prison, 30 prisoners tried to commit suicide only last year.

Teachers strike across Iran to protest grave livelihood condition
The Iranian teachers staged a nationwide strike for the second consecutive day. This strike was held in the provinces of, among others, Tehran, Isfahan, Fars, Kermanshah, Kurdistan, Lorestan, Yazd, Eastern and Western Azerbaijan and Hormozgan. In different districts of Tehran, teachers refrained from going to the classes.The teachers’ strike took place in protest to the poor livelihood condition, discrimination and the anti-cultural policies of the clerical regime.The strike took place at a condition when the clerical regime tried to prevent the strikes by dispatching a big number of its security and intelligence agents to suppress the protests; nonetheless the teachers’ resistance foiled regime’s efforts.