Human Rights, Economy Test Iran's Leader

April 28, 2014- Published on The Wall Street Journal

Less than a year after Iranian President Hasan Rouhani was elected in a landslide vote on a platform of change, he faces his first domestic crisis, as public anger roils his administration.

Many Iranians who voted for Mr. Rouhani in the expectation that he would improve human rights and the economy have protested his government in recent weeks over what they say is his neglect of domestic issues, as he focuses on foreign policy.

On the economic front, Mr. Rouhani's move to trim gasoline and energy subsidies, which went into effect on Friday, leading prices to nearly double, is testing support for his government in a country already battered hit by inflation and consumer shortages.

On the human-rights side, the alleged beating of dozens of prominent political prisoners last week set off an unusual public fury, evident in a flood of calls into television talk shows, newspaper commentaries, social media and spontaneous protests and vigils. The government said it was investigating the alleged beatings but he has yet to publicly comment on them.

"If he doesn't show any reaction now, he has betrayed the people's votes," said a 42-year-old doctor in Tehran.
The issues threaten to tarnish Mr. Rouhani's reputation as his government prepares to meet with world powers on May 5 in New York for a new round of talks aimed at reaching an accord over the country's disputed nuclear program. Tehran's top priority has been to end international sanctions against Iran over the program, for which it must provide guarantees that it won't build nuclear weapons.

Although nuclear policy is decided by Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Washington is eager to have a credible partner for the talks. Mr. Rouhani's policy emphasis suggests that Mr. Khamenei has given him free rein to negotiate a nuclear deal but curtailed his domestic agenda, Iranian officials say.

"Rouhani is appearing very weak on domestic issues," said opposition supporter Hossein Karoubi, the son of opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi, whose house arrest along with Mir Hossein Mousavi is another tense issue for Mr. Rouhani. "He told us he wants to resolve the nuclear issue first but people are getting fed up."

The April 17 incident at Evin Prison in Tehran—which holds dissidents and some political prisoners arrested in connection with the 2009 Green Movement demonstrations after an allegedly fraudulent presidential vote—crystallized the anger.
In an rare public protest, about 150 people, including prisoners' relatives, opposition supporters and student activists protested outside the parliament and presidential offices this week chanting, "Why are you sitting and doing nothing?"
In solidarity with the prisoners, dozens of Iranian men and women shaved their heads—and posted those pictures on social media sites and opposition websites—and have visited their families.

The Facebook pages of Mr. Rouhani and his foreign minister, Javad Zarif, which serve to take the pulse of the public, have been filled with hundreds of messages of discontent from Iranians across the nation—a shift from the sites' customarily doting comments.

"I voted for you.…But now I see I made a very big mistake," wrote Arash, a young man from Tehran, on Mr. Rouhani's Facebook page this week.

"Mr. Zarif, isn't it time for the government of moderation to fulfill its slogans? You are only after your nuclear rights. What about our rights to freedom and security?" wrote a woman named Nasrine on Mr. Zarif's Facebook page.

Mr. Rouhani is in a tricky political bind. He faces challenges from within his own government, which is divided between reform-oriented moderates and hard-liners. Mr. Rouhani and the moderates favor a more-open society and friendly ties with the West, while hard-line factions loyal to Mr. Khamenei adhere to an Islamic revolutionary ideology that rejects such policies.

Mr. Rouhani appears to be gambling that if he succeeds in converting a temporary nuclear agreement into a permanent one that eliminates crippling sanctions he will face less pressure on human rights, analysts say.

That strategy "has backfired both at home and abroad because we have vibrant Iranians inside and outside who don't give up on human rights and the international pressure is also helping," said Hadi Ghaemi, the director of the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran.

The U.S., European Union and United Nations have all recently condemned Iran's human-rights record. Human-rights groups have criticized Iran's judicial system for arbitrary arrests, an opaque judicial process and for carrying out one of the world's highest number of executions, a total of 369 in 2013, according to the government

On Friday, U.S. State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the U.S. was "greatly concerned with the numerous reports of Iranian security forces' violent raid last week on a political prisoners' ward in Tehran's Evin Prison" and urged the judiciary to hold those involved accountable.

The head of the country's prison network, Gholamhossein Esmaili, at first denied the beatings on Iranian media. He then acknowledged them but played down the event by saying only a few prisoners were mildly beaten for resisting a routine cell check. Mr. Esmaili was removed from his post on Wednesday and promoted to oversee Tehran's judiciary and appeals court, a move the government said was in the works for months and was unrelated to the Evin incident.

The head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, rejected all wrongdoing by prison guards and blamed Iran's enemies and the "seditious" opposition for spreading rumors. He also threatened to arrest anyone who used the Evin incident to smear the regime.

Mohamad Bagher Nobakht, a government spokesman, said a committee would investigate prison abuse allegations and that the "government would definitely not fall short on defending the public's rights."

After the beatings, prison authorities on Monday initially told families that their visitation rights were revoked. But after a several-hour protest—during which several mothers threatened to commit suicide on the spot if they weren't allowed to see their children—they relented.

"We were all crying and screaming and asking the prison guards: 'Why, why did you do this to our children?'" said Fatemeh Kabiri, mother of 27-year-old student activist Yashar Darolshafa. Her son was sentenced to 5½ years for taking part in antigovernment protests in 2009 over the disputed presidential election.

In telephone interviews, mothers, wives and siblings of several prisoners said a group of men in plain clothes and carrying batons raided Evin Prison's Ward 350, which houses the political prisoners, saying the planned a routine inspection.
Prisoners told their relatives that they weren't regular prison guards, who they would recognize, but special agents of the Intelligence Ministry, which human-rights groups say runs the ward.

The guards formed a gauntlet along the narrow corridor of the ward, and began to beat them on the head and face with batons, throwing them to the floor and kicked them in their backs.

The agents then shoved the prisoners into the prison yard, handcuffed and blindfolded them, and beat them further until most of them collapsed. They then shaved their heads and beards as a form of humiliation, the families said.
The agents dragged the prisoners—most of them activists, students, lawyers, including one Christian convert—out of their cells, the relatives said. Human-rights groups that spoke to prisoners' families said more than 100 prisoners were beaten.
More than a dozen of the prisoners sustained severe injuries such as a broken neck, broken ribs, internal bleeding and heavy bruises. Only four were allowed medical treatment at the prison clinic, the families said.

Thirty-two prisoners were further punished with solitary confinement, where 11 of them still remained on Friday, relatives said. They were given bandages and iodine and told to treat their own wounds. Many of them, along with their relatives, and other prisoners are on hunger strike to protest the attack, according to the families' accounts.