Iran Defence Committee Formed

from Stan Newens, M.P. A British Committee for the Defence of Political Prisoners in Iran has been formed, Will Griffiths, M.P.4 is President, Ted Fletcher, M.P., Treasurer and I am secretary, A statement has been issued by the Committee on the Teheran trial,. Issued on November 8th, the statement readss "On the lst of November, a military court in Teheran sentenced two young Iranians to death and another to life imprisonment with hard labour on a charge of complicity in a 'plot! to assassinate the Shah, Nine others received various terms of imprisonment. The attempt on the life of the Shah referred to in the charges occurred on the 10th April this year when a conscript of the Royal Guard opened fire on the Shah in the Marble Palace, Teheran, First reports attributed the incident to a personal quarrel between two soldiers but on the 29th April several British newspapers reported the arrest of 8 Iranian graduates of British universities in connection with the incident. All were reported to have "confessed to their treacherous aims" but later reports indicated that two of the accused were abroad throughout and were not even under arrest. Soon afterwards rumours of torture began to leak out of Iran. "At this stage many letters expressing concern were sent to Iranian Embassies abroad including a letter signed by 50 British Members of Parliamnt which was later answered by 58 Iranian Deputies, Assurances were given whilst the most abusive denunciations of those who expressed concern followed in the Iranian presse But during the summer, documents appearing to confirm the use of torture arrived in Britain. Unlike previous military trials, the Iranian authorities permitted the proceedings to be reported and the following points now became clears (1) the arrests were arbitrary and, in the case of eight of the accused, kept secret until the opening of the trial. (2 The arrests, trial and sentences are based largely on political grounds and not on Judicial, "The military prosecutor stated quite clearly: '...there are many youths now studying in high schools and unvisersities,..if you are punished they will understand that this is the wrong path. They will then go and choose the right path - the path opened before them by the state, the path taken by our society's organisations - the path opened before us by our leaders whom we have to obey. This is the aim,! "The only incriminating facts were that one of the accused sentenced to death (Mansouri) made a confession to the Shah which he retracted in court, The other (Kamrani) knew the dead conscript, Shamsabadi, who was responsible for the shooting, Witnesses were not produced in court to substantiate the case based on thise The case against Nikkhah (sentenced to life imprisonment) was based on his authorship of a revolutionary thesis and charges against other accused included lending Nikkhah £35, membership of a communistic organisation, helping Nikkhsh to type pamphlets, obtaining books and pamphlets from Nikkhah and burning them, membership of Eushidj (a commercial company formed by five of the prisoners), taking part in demonstrations while in England, supporting the Teheran taxi-drivers! strikee Quite clearly the principles of the Declaration of Human Rights have been violated by these trials and sentences and people of goodwill everywhere must protest. Contary to a widespread impression in Britain, Iran is not a free countryececesc" Editorial note: messages of support, enquiries, etc. should be sent to Mre Newens, M.P., 16, Vicarage Lane, North Weald, Essex - hurry, time is short!