Middle East News
British embassy staffers confessed, Iran clergyman claims (Roundup)
Jul 3, 2009, 11:40 GMT
British embassy staffers detained in Tehran have admitted involvement in demonstrations against the outcome of recent elections, a senior member of Iran\'s clergy claimed Friday. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Tehran - British embassy staffers detained in Tehran have admitted involvement in demonstrations against the outcome of recent elections, a senior member of Iran's clergy claimed Friday.
'Do not take the issue easy, it is indeed more serious than believed,' Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said at a Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran.
Seven of the nine Iranian staffers arrested have been released, but two are reportedly still in jail and might face trial.
In London, a spokesman for the British Foreign Office said: 'We are very concerned by these reports and are investigating.'
'Allegations that our staff were involved in fomenting unrest are wholly without foundation. We will be seeking an urgent explanation from the Iranians.'
Ayatollah Jannati charged the protests were planned even before the June 12 election that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power and were intended to remove Iran's Islamic system.
The ayatollah is head of the Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog, and also a fierce supporter of Ahmadinejad.
'Their (Western) stupidity knows no boundaries,' the hardline cleric said. 'They think Iran is like Georgia or Ukraine where they can easily replace one system with another one. Their problem is they do not know the Iranian people at all.'
The detention of the embassy personnel has not only led to a crisis with Britain, but has also sourced relations with the rest of the European Union.
While Iran is toying with the idea of revising diplomatic ties with Britain, France and Germany, EU nations are considering visa bans on Iranian officials and recalling ambassadors from Tehran.
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Older Talkback
page: 1
In fact he was waterboarded ,it takes nothing more to confess anything ,you are obviously not well informed.
'Their (Western) stupidity knows no boundaries,' the hardline cleric said.
You too can be as intelligent as this man, by reading nothing but the koran, every single day.
..should be so lucky.
Yup it appears confessions have been extracted using the Dick Cheney method:
www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/02/abc-news-reporter-tweets_n_225237.htm l
Waterboarding would make anybody confess anything;happy now SP4 ?
Tony from Belgium is a disgusting Muslime and not who he claims to be. You should remove all the slimes from your decent countries. If you do not they will subvert your nations and make them slaves to the anti christ pedo prhophet.
To oppose the funny paranoiac ranting here are the facts:the GOP claimed that waterboarding produced useful confessions in the war against Al Quaida .Now Iran uses the same methods and claims to have obtained confessions too .In both cases torture has provided false confessions ,information that is produced because those that are tortured will invent anything to have the torture stopped.Calling it 'enhanced interrogation techniques' is just the Orwellian definition used to obfuscate the truth .
Previous poster does not even see the contradictions in his own ranting ,a honest person will oppose torture in every case,always.It brings down those that use it to the level of barbarians,both in Iran and the BUsh period USA.
None of that is complacent to any religion,just to human rights.
page: 1
SP4: just thinkJul 3rd, 2009 - 16:08:47
..of the inducements these guys use. It makes waterboarding look like musical chairs.
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