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Iran executes a man for the alleged 2022 killing of a police officer Kambis I was so shocked to hear about the news from Ahmed Kubatlu. I was not. I prepared for this news. Plus, a group of international film organizations and filmmakers is raising the alarm about Iran’s treatment of two prominent directors whom it has barred from leaving the country. The fear is for them to have a voice for the filmmakers, and filmmakers naturally have a voice unless they work for the government. And placing into context the strikes Pakistan and Iran made last week. From the voice of America, this is flashpoint Iran. Hello, I’m Steve Miller, filling in from Michael Lippin. Iran executed on Tuesday a man charged with killing a police officer and injuring five others after running them over with a card during a nationwide protest movement in 2022. The Mizan news agency announced that the islamic republic carried out the death penalty against Mohammed Gabadlu early in the morning. Vway Persians Kabiz Tavana spoke with Clara Bunger, a member of Germany’s parliament, as well as a political sponsor of Gabadlu. Via Zoom prior to the sentence being carried out, we just received news about the possible sentence. What you heard, how you were informed. What’s your reaction? Did you reach out or plan anything right after hearing the news about the sentence? Thank you so much, Kambis I was so shocked to hear about the news from Jamet Kubatlu. I was not prepared for this news because we had another development in his case, where in July last year, the court decided to review the case and therefore we had good reasons to breathe and to work on his case. And now hearing the news that he shall be sentenced to death tomorrow, that he shall be hanged tomorrow, I was so shocked to hear about that. And I think it’s another turning point in what the government of Iran is doing at the moment, because in his case, there was a lot of unlawfulness and strange acts, even compared to their own practices of the Iran government. So that’s why I’m very worried. Have you raised your concern to any official channels to the Islamic Republic of Iran? I have so far raised my concern towards the islamic republic on social media. And now I’m talking here and I’m raising my concern, and I’m calling on the Islamic Republic to not hang Muhammad Kubatlu and to give him a fair trial and to give him medical care, because he is in medical danger as well. He has a medical issue and he has not been receiving medical treatment. Do you think it’s appropriate for a german government to act now? Call Iran to stop executions. I think it’s definitely the right thing to do, to call on islamic republic to end the executions, because they are unlawful executions. There are unlawful trials that are taking place, and those people that are political prisoners, they shall be freed and they shall receive a fair trial and a system where the rule of law is the base for decisions. And this is not the case. So, of course, Germany shall call on the Islamic Republic. Last question, if I may, Clara. If you could directly talk to anyone, islamic republic, who are making these decisions, what would be the direct message you’re going to give? I would call on the Islamic Republic to end the executions, to end the taken hostage and prison of political activists, and to go with the rule of law. And Mohammed Robadlu, if you could tell them a direct, specific been. I’m more than a year his political sponsor and his story was really touching. And so I’m really shocked and I’m very worried that he’s in danger. And I can only say that we are thinking of him and that we are with him and that we are trying to push as much as possible in order to help him and his family. That was Clara Bunger, a member of Germany’s parliament, speaking to VOA persian reporter Khabiz Tavana over Zoom now. In addition to the death sentence for the murder, Gabadlu also received a death sentence for corruption on earth. Rights group Amnesty International said Gabadlu’s right to a fair trial was violated and his mental health was not taken into consideration by Iran’s judicial system. Iran’s Mizan news agency said those claims of mental disability were not supported, as the defendant had allegedly rejected them during his trial. Pakistan said on Monday that Iran’s foreign minister will visit the country next week, signaling efforts to mend relations after the neighbors exchanged missiles last week at what they said were militant targets. Ambassadors for both countries have been asked to return to their posts by January 26. That’s according to the pakistani foreign ministry. Iran’s foreign ministry confirmed that Foreign Minister Hussein Amir Abdullaheen would visit on Monday and said its ambassador would resume duties in Islamabad on Friday. The strikes by the two countries were the highest profile cross border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm about wider instability in the region since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7. The two muslim nations have had a history of rocky relations, but the intrusions amounted to the highest level of attacks and decades. Flashpoint global crises host Steve Quresh spoke with Vway’s Pakistan bureau chief, Sarah Zaman, for a better understanding of the event. So Iran said the rit struck Jaishal, other terrorists, which are basically working against iranian interests. And Pakistan said the Rit attack BlA, which is the Balochistan Liberation army, and BLF, Balochistan Liberation Front targets. Both of these are banned militant outfits in Pakistan. The pakistani side says that anti state baloch militants have hideouts across the border in Iran. Iran has said that it has attacked anti Iran terrorists inside Pakistan’s borders. What’s very interesting is that both sides in their statements specified that they had attacked hideouts of their own nationals. So Iran said it had attacked and targeted iranian nationals. Pakistan said it targeted pakistani origin terrorists, which is a very interesting and important distinction because analysts say what they’re trying to indicate is that they did not harm each other’s interests, that they were going after elements that pose a threat to each country’s own interests. So it wasn’t necessarily a conflict between Iran and Pakistan directly. So this is how at least Pakistan’s foreign office has framed today. They tried to repeatedly make this distinction. The Pakistani Foreign office spokesperson, Mumtaz Arabaloch in her weekly presser made this distinction that this should not be seen as an attack on Iran. Iran was not being targeted. No iranian institution Institutions or the military was targeted. These attacks were targeting terrorists that are present in space, which they say practically not governed by iranian government, and that these were people who directly threatened Pakistan’s interest and that Pakistan respects iranian sovereignty. So Iran is already involved, at least tangentially, with its proxies in the conflict between Israel and Hamas. Is there a relationship between that conflict, Israel and Hamas, and what happened between Iran and Pakistan? So that’s a very important question because some analysts here say that what Iran did could be an attempt to just flex its muscle, because iranian leadership is under increasing pressure from Hamas, Hizbullah and Hussis, who expect Iran to do more in backing them in the Israel Hamas conflict, while the US is pressuring Tehran to stay out of the conflict. So some merily see Iran’s actions as a way for it to show that it still has the ability to strike wherever it sees iranian interests under threat. Which is why we also saw, they say, the attacks in Iraq and Syria this week. While analysts in Pakistan say they hope that this is not what happened between Pakistan and Iran is not going to get connected with the conflict in Ghaza and is not going to become part of the wider war. They do worry that this could also fan the flames of sectarian violence in Pakistan because Pakistan is majority Sunni Muslims and Iran is majority Shia Muslims. And Pakistan has, in the 90s, seen pretty violent proxy war between various sectarian groups. Well, historically, what has the relationship between Iran and Pakistan been like? There hasn’t been any war between them. Right? There hasn’t been any war between the two sides. They also have deep historic ties, but the ties are complex and they’re complicated by a couple of external factors. One of those factors is the tensions that have existed between Riyadh and Tehran because Iran and Saudi Arabia have had very poor relations, very tense relations, and they have funded proxy wars in parts of the region. And again, that comes from sectarian differences, that also comes from foreign policy differences. And Pakistan has paid the price of that. Pakistan has tried to balance its relations between Tehran and Riyadh, and it has at some point struggled to do that, at other points done it successfully. But this is a pressure point for Pakistan. The other thing is that there are anti state militants active along the Iran Pakistan border. Because on the iranian side you have the sustain Balochistan province, and on the pakistani side you have the Balochistan province, and there have been militants and separatist militants very active in this part of the shared border. So despite the fact that both countries do have economic ties, they have diplomatic ties. There have been factors that have put a lot of pressure. And last but not the least, the relationship that both of them have with the US is also a very important factor. Pakistan has traditionally been an ally, whereas Iran has not had diplomatic relations with the US for nearly half a century at this point. So that’s also a point that creates a conflict between the two and that brings tensions between the two. Sarah Zaman is VOA’s Pakistan bureau chief. I reached her in Islamabad. Sarah, thank you for your time. Thanks for your reporting on this. Thank you so much, Steve. Really appreciate it. And for more regional updates throughout the week, be sure to follow our other weekday podcasts, Flashpoint, global crises and international edition. You’re listening to VOA’s flashpoint Iran. I’m Steve Miller. A thwarted iranian plot to assassinate two journalists working for a persian tv network in London has renewed focus on the ways hostile governments try to target critics outside their jurisdiction. Earlier, I caught up with Vway press freedom reporter Liam Scott to discuss the case. So, Liam, what was found? What did the investigation show the british outlet ITV news uncovered in December? But essentially what happened was the iranian government had plotted for quite some time to assassinate two reporters at a persian tv network called Iran International, based in London. The plot was to assassinate them in the fall of 2022, but it was only reported last December, in 2023. But essentially the middleman that they had hired was a double agent who essentially thwarted the plot. British intelligence caught wind of the plot, notified Iran International. The outlet moved one of the presenters, who was at risk, to Washington, DC. And then actually the two reporters only learned of the plot against them to assassinate them in December when ITV news approached them with their findings. So this is what was alleged. What did the iranian government have to say in response? Yeah, the iranian government actually, I mean, they haven’t replied to my requests for comment. Actually, the only response that I’ve seen was from a spokesperson at Iran’s embassy in London, essentially rejecting all of the allegations. Now, some of the other reporting that you’ve done on this topic has been on journalist safety. As journalists around the world go into conflict zones or other at risk environments, whether it be Ukraine, the Gaza Strip, the West bank, other places in Israel, in Africa and the various war zones there, what have been some of the recommendations by journalist organizations for governments to aid in the protection of people, carrying out what some feel is an essential duty in making available what’s happening on the ground in various places around the world? Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, I think probably the primary recommendation and urge is for governments and militaries to not target journalists. But that’s first and foremost. I think a lot of times the responsibility falls on the journalists, on the outlets themselves. And I think one of the best things that reporters can do, which press freedom groups and journalist safety groups recommend, is to really just go in with a plan to do a safety assessment ahead of the trip, which might not be something that people would think about, but to do a safety assessment, to have a plan in case there’s an emergency, to know where’s the nearest hospital, who do I call if something happens? That sort of thing, I think is really important as well. Liam Scott reports for VOA’s press freedom desk. Liam, thank you very much for your time. Thank you very much. Be sure to visit voanews.com and click on the Iran tab at the top of the page for additional updates on Iran throughout the day. And a group of international film organizations and filmmakers is raising the alarm about Iran’s treatment of two prominent directors for whom it has barred from leaving the country. The 30 film organizations and filmmakers signed an open letter to the iranian government last month urging it to scrap the travel ban and all charges against the director duo of Maryam Mohadim and Batash Saniha. Iranian state media reported in October that authorities stopped them from traveling to France the previous month to complete work on their latest film and confiscated their passports. Mohadim and Saniha had won international awards for a previous film, 2020s ballad of a White cow. It tells the story of an iranian woman grappling with discovering that her husband was wrongly executed for a crime he did not commit. Ballad of a white cow has been banned in Iran. Flashpoint Iran’s Michael Lippin spoke earlier this month with another international award winning iranian filmmaker and actress, us based Mary OpEC, about the cases of Mokadim and Suniha. He asked Opek why Tehran appears to have been trying to silence them. Well, any nuances that a filmmaker makes in a film is a threat to this regime and is unfortunate that they take it in such a way. But if this is not the first time they’re doing it, it’s past 44 years after the revolution in Iran. This has been continuously repeated. So I think the fear is for them to have a voice For the filmmakers. And filmmakers naturally have a voice unless they work for the government and they follow through within the regime’s direction of how to make films. And there are filmmakers as such. Myself, I decided that I’m not going to be working and collaborating with this regime. Many, many years back, like maybe even a year before the revolution, I got out of Iran and I tried to be a voice for iranian women, for iranian people via television, theater, cinema, any which way I could. To this day, my career has been contributors and dedicated to that, to be a voice. But when you work in Iran, it’s a whole different ballgame. So you’re risking a lot by doing that. So I’m actually very proud of the filmmakers Mariam and Bertosh and just anybody who’s trying to be a voice, but naturally, when they’re trying to do that, they’re going to be detained and put to prison and tortured and with false contention and whatever it is that that government is doing to shut them down. So you mentioned that you left Iran many years ago because of the revolution, but have you been able to actually maintain any contact, any connections with your fellow artists in Iran to give them support or collaborate or have any kind of dialogue with them at all? No, I have not, unfortunately, because initially, when I came to the United States, the problem was that filmmaking basically stopped for a while in the initial stages of the revolution. And so it was a chaotic situation. I am not in touch with any of the actors. When they come abroad, we have very interesting, intense conversations because they had choices. Choices were like me and a few like me that we left Iran and we came here and we struggled. We left our career, we left what we loved with a passion, and we came to a new land, a new country, new language, new culture, and we adapted ourselves to this. And the ones who stayed there, they had two choices. Either they had to work and give their message and go to prison, or they had to just collaborate it with the government, with the nonsense movies that it was being made there to support that government. And the government used them. In essence, they sent the pictures to different festivals, they got awards, and they created some sort of a liberal, really nice face for the government of Iran to say, oh, well, such and such person’s film got an oscar or got whatever in Cannes or this and that. So the government shouldn’t be that bad. So in a way, government was using the filmmakers, which was horrible. Well, when you look as an outside observer at the iranian film industry that you used to be a very major part of earlier in your career when you lived in Iran, how do you assess the health of that film industry? How do you assess the quality of the films that are coming out these days in Iran? Well, I think that in the last ten years before the revolution of Iran, with a modern cinema and new filmmakers who were making wonderful pictures and great names, artists that were educated, they knew how to go around filmmaking and make the best of the best. Iran was developing really fast, and I was much younger, and I was a part of that group in different feature films, in the theater, on television. So, I mean, it’s not even comparable what was then and what is now, and it’s like day and night. So if it would have stayed in that shape or form today, we would have been on the top level of filmmakers and phenomenal artists and amazing stories that could have been presented on the screen. But unfortunately, all of that just went down to zero, and there are no words to describe it. What happened to the cinema? However, I have to say there are still filmmakers. There are phenomenal filmmakers in Iran. But how can you make your movies when you’re being put in prison? You don’t have a voice. Know, how can you manage that? Because filmmaking is not an easy thing to do. You need the budget. You need a great screenplay. You need a cast. So I am just in tears for what’s happening in Iran today and for the past four decades. Well, you and others have been very outspoken about this issue. What can you tell our audience about the activism, the efforts of yourself and other filmmakers in the west who want to try to help your counterparts back in Iran? What are you doing to help them? Well, as for myself, speaking for the past four decades, 40 years or so, I have been voicing this via theater plays like Beneath the Veil, which became critics choice award among the theater circle at festivals. And just to voice it in English language in particular, because initially we started with the far sea language, just serving our community, because theater became like a source that we connected, and we brought people together under the same roof in order to speak about our own issues. Then I went to another layer to make it in English so we can communicate the issues of Iran and the Middle east within the western audience and within the american audience. And at that time, I had people coming backstage to me and say, for the play beneath the veil, which I wrote and directed, produced. And they said to me, truly, are these things happening in Iran? Are these things happening in the Middle east? Do they really stone women to death? Do they do this? Do they do that? And I said, yes. So it got people’s attention. Precisely. But the point is that these were just small steps in order to create awareness, in order to create a thinking process, because they were completely oblivious to what was happening in Iran. I think they still are because it’s like we are in La La land here and not understanding the depth of tragedy that is taking place in that country and including the depth of the issues that are so important worldwide. Iran has affected the whole world politically. So we have a podium, we have a stage. And I feel that is our responsibility in order to do it as an artist, as human activism. Well, Mary OPEC, international award winning iranian actress and filmmaker and human rights activist, joining us on the line from Los Angeles. Thank you very much for speaking to flashpoint Iran. Thank you so much for having me, Michael. And that brings us to the end of this week’s program. On behalf of Michael Lippen and everyone here at VOA, we thank you for listening thing and hope you join us again next week. Until then, I’m Steve Miller.
