The domestic situation in Iran is worsening as the weeks go by. What kicked it all off was the protests that started at the end of December last year. The people took to the streets across the whole country, fed up with the dire economic situation in the country that was making the most basic of essential items unaffordable to much of the population. The discontent spread rapidly and small protests turned into nationwide anti-government demonstrations. They started to call for an end to the regime’s rule, certain – now more than ever – that regime change is long overdue.

As well as battling against the general population of the country, the Iranian regime is struggling to unite as one. The different factions face a huge divide, and the hardliners and the more “moderate” Rouhani camp cannot agree on anything. They are bickering publicly in the media and are incapable of reaching compromises that will serve the greater good of the country.

On 14th February, an Iranian MP highlighted that Swedish-Iranian scientist and academic Ahmadreza Jalali was not given a fair trial and that he was put under immense pressure to give a false confession on national television. Jalali was jailed for “spying on Iran for Israel” – charges that he strenuously denies. His application for appeal was rejected and the Iranian regime has ignored pleas from international human rights organisations to scrap the death penalty he was handed. He was in Iran at the time of arrest for a work-related matter.

It has now been reported that former President of the Iranian regime, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has spoken out about the corruption in Iran’s leadership. He was banned from participating in the court trial that his colleagues have been subject to. He criticised the country’s judiciary and the Supreme Leader in remarks outside the criminal court in Iran’s capital city.

He said that the anti-monarchic revolution of 1977 was for justice because there were people dying from poverty while others were revelling in great riches. He said that another aim of the revolution was for freedom of speech so that people were able to exercise their rights. He pointed out that the government has the responsibility of ensuring that the rights of the people are respected – not the opposite.

Ahmadinejad slammed the country’s judiciary – “one of the most important bodies of the state” – for confronting the people and supressing those that dare to voice their criticism. He said: “A protesting youth is detained, a man who is ashamed of his family because of poverty and is protesting is arrested. They (regime’s suppressive security forces) arrest and imprison people and deliver the dead body and announce that he was dead because of suicide or drug overdose! There is no independent state body in this country, everything is one sided.”

During the recent protests, thousands of people were arrested and thrown in jail. There were also dozens of deaths, many of which happened in suspicious circumstances. The regime has attributed some of the deaths to suicide – an unlikely explanation.

Ahmadinejad voiced his positivity about future change: “But let me tell you one thing, this will not stay the same forever and I promise you the change Is on the way, you will see that God willing very soon the change happens.”

Source » ncr-iran