...........Khomeini wanted an Islamic republic faithful to the will of the people, albeit within the confines of Islamic law..........

REPORTS from Tehran families of receiving the bodies of relatives arrested at opposition rallies who later died from violent treatment in prison has set off a firestorm of anger at the government.

Reports yesterday said some prisoners watched fellow detainees being beaten to death by guards in overcrowded, stinking holding pens. Others said they had their fingernails ripped off or were forced to lick filthy toilet bowls.

Among the dead is Mohsen Rouhalamini, the son of a prominent conservative and adviser to presidential candidate Mohsen Rezai. His family said he died of cardiac arrest and bleeding in his lungs, and that his face had been smashed.
News of his death spurred fury across political lines, prompting even some pro-government newspapers and politicians to charge the regime with excessive use of force and violence in crushing its opposition.

Opposition leaders warned of a backlash and urged the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to reverse its actions.

"People will not forgive these acts. How could it be possible that someone goes into a prison, then his body comes out?" opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said.

Some of the families say they are speaking out despite being warned against speaking to the media and holding funerals and memorial services. On receiving the bodies, they say, they were told to sign consent forms that named the cause of death as meningitis, flu or bacterial infection.

In addition, scores of protesters who have been detained and released in the past few weeks are coming forth with details of their arrest and prison conditions. These accounts paint a disturbing picture of widespread abuse and torture by interrogators in detention facilities that are overflowing.
The opposition has called for a nationwide protest today to commemorate the deaths of those killed in violent protests on June 20. In Shia Islam, it is the custom to hold a memorial service on the 40th day after a person's death.

Iran's regime appears to be responding to the pressures, seemingly wary of an even deeper divide in an already volatile political landscape. Yesterday, it released 140 detained protesters, and Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei ordered the closure of a detention facility in south Tehran known as Kahrizak, where protesters were being held. Before this, it had been used to jail drug dealers.

Last week, families who had missing relatives were taken to a cold-storage facility for fruit and vegetables in the south of Tehran that had been turned into a morgue. Pictures posted on Iranian websites showed bodies piled on top of one another as families tried to identify loved ones.
Among the bodies released recently to relatives in Tehran, Ramin Ghahremani, 30, died in the hospital because of internal bleeding in his chest. He was beaten and hung upside down for long periods, according to his mother.

tallowood wrote on Jul 30^th, 2009, 10:14pm:

He owns a hotdog stand down 2nd avenue, NY making ones with the lot to Buddhist monks.

tallowood wrote on Jul 30^th, 2009, 10:34pm:

Not Madhi, the 12th imam of fine fast foods?

the Mahdi (مهدي Mahdī, also Mehdi; "Guided One")

tallowood wrote on Jul 30^th, 2009, 10:50pm:

whoosh.