Tehran has arrested five men for beating up a leading reformist MP in an attack seen as sabre-rattling before parliamentary elections.
| Nothing like a few roving gangs of fascisti to keep those reformers from getting uppity... |
The five attacked Muhsin Mirdamadi, head of parliamentâs Foreign Affairs and National Security Commission, in the central city of Yazd on Friday. Parliament Speaker Mahdi Karrubi said on Sunday the attack was an insult to parliament. Newspapers showed a bruised Mirdamadi with a bandaged face, receiving a check-up from doctors. Februaryâs elections will test whether Iranâs voters have lost patience with the countryâs embattled reformists who, despite controlling parliament, have largely failed to overcome objections from the Islamic Republicâs powerful conservatives.
| The alternative's turning things over to the black hats... |
Conservative camp brownshirts loyalists who accuse reformists of selling out to the West, have disrupted reformist speeches in the run-up to elections.
| "Selling out to the West" is defined as not wanting to be ruled by divine-right theocrats... |
Mirdamadi was quoted by a reformist daily as saying that 40 people had attacked him while he was delivering a speech. He thought one of the assailants shot into the air. âThe closer we get to the elections, such incidents are done to inflame the political atmosphere... those who did these things have powerful supporters,â he said. The official IRNA news agency reported the governor-general of Yazd saying 17 people had been summoned in connection with the assault.
"Youse guyz ain't very subtle, are youse?"
"Sorry, boss." |
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