Ahmadinejad Criticizes Khamenei's Positions on the Judiciary

In less than a week, for the second time, former Iranian president and member of the Expediency Council, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, harshly criticized senior officials with "absolute powers" who "despise" Iranian people. He implicitly criticized Ali Khamenei for "failing to respond" to questions on the judiciary. He also referred to the current political debate after "suicide" allegations of environmentalist Kavous Seyed Emami in Evin Prison, stressing that "people do not believe those claims" and criticizing "unjustified arrests".

Seyed-Emami was a defendant in a spying case and had committed suicide because of the weight of evidence against him, an Iranian news agency reported on Sunday.

Ahmadinejad headed his team of advisers to the Iranian court in Tehran on Wednesday morning to support his executive assistant Hamid Bakai during his fourth appearance in court within two months.

According to "Dolat Bahar" website, authorities prevented Ahmadinejad from attending the trial, after which he stood at the court's door to deliver a brief speech on current situations in Iran, criticizing mismanagement, especially that of the Iranian judiciary.

He said no governmental body was responding to complaints against the judiciary, including Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He wondered which official institution would be accepted and trusted by Iranian people.

Ahmadinejad promised the current situation would end for the benefit of the Iranian people, stressing that "injustice will not last anywhere in the world."

"We want to complain about the judiciary, whom should we refer to? There is no place accepted and trusted by the people, " Ahmadinejad added.

The head of the judiciary is the most prominent official chosen by the Iranian leader in accordance with his constitutional powers. Ahmadinejad's criticism of the judiciary chief has been repeatedly interpreted as criticism of Khamenei's policies.

So far, Khamenei has not addressed the dispute between Ahmadinejad and judiciary chief, Sadiq Larijani, but in December, he blamed former officials who turned into dissidents after they were heads of state in Iran.

A week ago, Ahmadinejad said in a statement posted on his website that brothers Ali and Sadiq Larijani, presiding the judiciary and the parliament, are seeking to attain the positions of supreme leader and president.

Ahmadinejad repeated in his last speech that Iranians had staged a revolution "in order to speak freely in defense of their rights, with the regime and governmental bodies defending the people's right."

He added that the 1979 revolution was for justice, and people's rights, indicating that it did not occur in order for some to have more than what they need, while others can't have the simplest necessities.

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad's aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei tweeted on his account: "On the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, the prisons are clean, safe and comfortable, to an extent that if anyone went there, they would be happy. There is no difference between being a drug addict or a spy."

Mashaei also published an article on "Dolat Bahar" criticizing the judiciary's stance on the case of Seyed-Emami.

He said: "The judiciary is accused of murder unless proven otherwise."

MP Fatemeh Zolghadr stated that Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, Tehran’s public prosecutor, ordered the arrest of Emami. She added: "Emami committed suicide after he asked to postpone an investigation session in prison."

Dolatabadi announced that Seyed-Emami had been arrested for espionage, which meant that Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was responsible for his detention in Evin prison. He added that Emami was arrested because he was linked to a CIA officer who also stayed at his home. He accused him of spying on Iran's missile program.

“These individuals have been collecting classified information about the country’s strategic areas under the guise of carrying out scientific and environmental projects,” Dolatabadi said.

The Canadian government said on Tuesday it was “seriously concerned” with the circumstances surrounding the death of Emami who is an Iranian-Canadian dual citizen.

“We are seriously concerned by the situation surrounding the detention and death of Mr. Seyed-Emami,” Canada’s foreign minister, Chrystia Freeland, said in a statement.

“We expect the Government of Iran to provide information and answers into the circumstances surrounding this tragedy. We will continue to use every means at Canada’s disposal to seek further information," she added.

Seyed-Emami was the managing director of the Persian Wildlife Heritage Foundation, an organization aimed at protecting Iran’s rare animals, and a US-trained scholar in sociology.

Iranian President's Special Assistant for Citizens' Rights Affairs Shahindokht Molaverdi announced that Rouhani had ordered a full report on recent incidents in Iranian prisons. She reiterated that all citizens have the right to a fair trial, according to ISNA.

Vietnam's capital of Hanoi evacuated thousands of people living near the swollen Red River as its waters flooded streets days after Typhoon Yagi battered the country's north, killing at least 152 people.

Asia's most powerful typhoon this year, Yagi brought gales and heavy rain as it moved westwards after landfall on Saturday, collapsing a bridge this week while scythed through provinces along the Red River, the area's largest.

"This is the worst flood I have seen in 30 years," Hanoi resident Tran Le Quyen, 42, told Reuters, adding that she had to move furniture from her flooded home to higher ground.

"It was dry yesterday morning. Now the entire street is flooded. We couldn't sleep last night."

The typhoon and subsequent landslides and floods have killed 152 people while 140 were missing, the government estimated.

Some schools in Hanoi have told students to stay home for the rest of the week, while thousands of residents of low-lying areas have been evacuated, government and state media said.

"My home is now part of the river," said Nguyen Van Hung, 56, who lives in a neighborhood on the banks of the Red River.

Nearer the city center, charity Blue Dragon Children's Foundation had to evacuate its office on Tuesday, after authorities warned of flood risks.

"People were moving frantically, moving their motorbikes, relocating items," said spokesperson Carlota Torres Lliro, expressing concern for dozens of children and families living in slum areas and makeshift houses by the river.

BLOW TO FACTORIES

Yagi wreaked havoc on many factories and flooded warehouses in coastal export-oriented industrial hubs east of Hanoi, forcing closures, with some only expected to resume full operations after weeks, executives said.

The disruptions threaten global supply chains as Vietnam hosts large operations of multinationals that ship mostly to the United States, Europe and other developed nations.

Elsewhere, in provinces north of the capital, landslides triggered by heavy floods killed dozens.

"My house's first floor is completely under the water," said Nguyen Duc Tam, a 40-year-old resident of Thai Nguyen, a city about 60 km (37 miles) from Hanoi.

"Now we have no fresh water and electricity," he added.

Among the factories housed on the outskirts of the city, which has a population of about 400,000, is a large facility for Samsung Electronics.

From Vietnam, the South Korean company ships about half of its smartphones worldwide.

There were no signs of flooding at the facility on Wednesday, a Reuters witness said.

"For more than 20 years that I've lived here, I've never seen such historic flooding," said Hoang Hai Luan, 30. "My properties and possibly those of many others are completely lost."

Ahmadinejad Criticizes Khamenei's Positions on the Judiciary