In an article for Foreign Policy, IWP Research Fellow Amir Abbas Fakhravar and co-author G. William Heiser discuss the Non-Aligned Summit.
Execution awaits the Non-Aligned Summit
August 29, 2012
As the Non-Aligned Movement holds its summit this week, we can expect more than the usual finger-pointing at the United States and its allies. This time, the summit is in Tehran. Iran’s ruling mullahs plan on using the summit — and the expected presence of United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon — as cover to snuff out the life of one of their most principled political opponents.
On August 31, unless the U.N. leader and others intervene, the Islamic Republic will impose a death sentence on the sickly but courageous dissident writer Arzhang Davoodi. If all goes according to standard practice, an executioner will place a cable around Arzhang’s neck, haul him off his feet by a crane, and slowly strangle him.
Arzhang and Amir Fakhravar became the closest of friends as political prisoners in the regime’s notorious Evin Prison. His crime, for which he was arrested in October 2003, was his participation in the PBS Frontline documentary, “Forbidden Iran,” about how the regime executes its political opponents. Arzhang spoke to journalist Jane Kokan about human rights violations and in support of the Iranian student movement against the mullahs. I was one of the imprisoned student leaders at the time, heading the organization Arzhang had founded. Arzhang spoke out on my behalf, only to end up joining me in prison.
Please click here for the full article.