Rooyesh

The Iranian judiciary confirmed that two journalists from the country’s Kurdish minority have been sentenced to death, state media reported Tuesday. The verdict is a rare for journalists in Iran, despite constant state pressure on media workers.

The two men, Adnan Hassanpour and Hiva Boutimar, were sentenced on the charge of “moharebeh,” a term Iran uses to describe a major crime against Islam and the state, judiciary spokesman Ali Reza Jamshidi told the Islamic Republic News Agency. “Moharebeh” literally means “fighting” in classical Arabic. But IRNA did not specify what precise crime the journalists were accused of, and it was unclear when or how the sentences would be carried out. The journalists were deemed activists in Sanandaj, the capital of the western Iranian province of Kurdistan, which borders Iraq. They were detained after Kurds protested in Sanandaj in 2005. Tehran has accused the United States of stoking ethnic minority tensions in northwestern Iran’s Kurdish regions. Source: The Associated Press

Emad Baghi, the head of the Society to Defend the Rights of Prisoners, has been convicted on security charges, including acting against Iran’s national security.

Radio Farda reported that Baghi’s wife and daughter have also been sentenced to prison in connection with their participation in a conference abroad. Their lawyer has said that they will appeal against the sentences. The convictions are the latest in a series of rulings against activists and scholars accused of threatening Iran’s national security. Baghi has spoken out against the detention of U.S.-Iranian scholar Haleh Esfandiari, saying that she has not been given the right to defend herself.

Source: Radio Farda

Washington’s campaign to persuade financial institutions to break ties with Tehran gained another scalp on Tuesday when Deutsche Bank confirmed it had decided to cease doing business in Iran.The bank said it had informed clients in Iran on July 20 that they would have to transfer to other institutions by September 14. It said tougher disclosure requirements introduced by the United Nations and the European Union, and moves by the German government to restrict credit guarantees, meant it was no longer worth continuing doing business with Iran.

The bank’s move, which was earlier reported in the Wall Street Journal, also comes after a vigorous lobbying campaign by the US Treasury, which has warned more than 40 banks across the world that it would follow a strict interpretation of US and United Nations restrictions on doing business with Tehran. Deutsche Bank - which said pulling out would have “more or less zero impact” on its business - will also cease to seek any new ties with corporate clients in Iran and wind down activities until it no longer had any relationships in the country.

“The end result will be the same [as for private clients],” said a person close to the bank. “We are seeing more and more financial institutions re-evaluate their relationships with Iran and dramatically scale back or cut off that business altogether,” a Treasury spokeswoman said on Tuesday.  The Treasury’s campaign to persuade banks to impose such “informal sanctions” has outpaced the US diplomatic attempt to win support for formal multilateral measures against Iran, which is unlikely to result in another round of UN sanctions against the country before September.

The campaign began when the US prohibited two Iranian banks - Sepah and Saderat - from gaining access to the US financial system for dollar transactions through third-party banks. Some diplomats and analysts say the Treasury is considering further such executive orders, on terrorism or proliferation grounds, against Iran’s Bank Melli and against Bank Markazi, the Iranian central bank.

In June, Hank Paulson, the Treasury secretary, hinted at possible grounds for such a move when he said: “The central bank of Iran was sending money through Bank Saderat to Hizbollah.” A move against the Iranian central bank, which is closely involved with the receipt of hard-currency payments for oil, could have the effect of closing the entire Iranian economy from dollar transactions. Iran has already announced it is shifting reserves into other currencies.

But the US Treasury said yesterday that it did not speculate on action it might take, and observers caution that it needs to observe due process before an executive order can be issued. In the meantime, Mr Paulson has argued that Iran’s use of front companies makes it difficult for any bank to be sure that it was not violating international or US rules on proscribed Iranian institutions.  On Tuesday, Germany’s Commerzbank said it was also debating pulling out of Iran. A spokesman for the bank said: “We are in a process to find out what business, if any, we can do [there] in the future.”