Ahwazi: Ahmadinejad to Visit Ahwaz
Below is an article published by the British Ahwazi Friendship Society on 02 January 2007:
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is planning to visit
According to the President's press department Ahmadinejad is scheduled to tour a number of Arab towns, including Ahwaz, Mohammara (Khorramshahr) and
However, Arabs who have attempted to demonstrate peacefully against
On Monday, three Ahwazi Arabs were sentenced to death by
Three Ahwazis were executed in Karoun Prison on 19 December, despite a worldwide campaign backed by the European Parliament which called for a halt to the execution of Arab rights activists. Iranian prisoners' rights activist Emadeddin Baghi has also called for a stop to the hangings, claiming that the charges against the men are dubious, the trial process is flawed and the executions are fuelling instability in the
According to the Tehran-based Ahwazi journalist Youssef Azizi Bani Torouf, 20 Ahwazi Arabs have been sentenced to death in the past year with many more waiting trial for political crimes that carry the death penalty.
Nasser Bani Assad, spokesman for the British Ahwazi Friendship Society (BAFS), said: "Ahmadinejad’s claim that he is listening to the poor and dispossessed is belied by the brutal methods meted out to any Ahwazi Arab campaigning for minority rights. Arab groups seeking constitutional means of advancing the rights agenda have been banned and their leaders imprisoned or executed.
"Ahmadinejad has no interest in the poor of