Karoubi (Iranian Presidential Candidate) and hardline editor clash over execution of minors

Karoubi and hardline editor clash over execution of minors

http://televisionwashington.com/floater_article1.aspx?lang=en&t=1&id=10100

News from Iran: Thanks to www.StopChildExecutions.com for bringing awareness to this problem and this news story: http://scenews.blog.com/4877954/

Karoubi News Conferance

Photographer: WashingtonTV

Updated: Thursday, April 30, 2009

14:00GMT—10:00AM/EST

Washington, 30 April (WashingtonTV)—Presidential candidate and National Trust Party chairman, Mehdi Karoubi, on Thursday blasted an opinion column published yesterday in Iran’s hardline Kayhan newspaper, which accused him of being a mouthpiece for Israel, after he called for an end to the execution of minors accused of serious crimes, Saham news website reports.

“These are the howls of the new mafia which I hear from the mouth of Kayhan,” Karoubi said in response to Kayhan’s accusation in its Goft-o-Shenoud [gossip] column, that he was repeating “gibberish” put in his mouth by the “foot soldiers of the Zionist regime [Israel].”

In a note published on Monday, Kayhan asked, which minor has been sent to the death squad in our country, causing Mr. Karoubi, “the Sheikh of reforms”, to cry “oh executions”?

In another piece in Kayhan’s opinion column, which many Iranian media analysts believe is written by the paper’s editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, Karoubi is said to be an illiterate person.

Reacting to Kayhan, Saham news – the official news website of the National Trust Party – reports that Karoubi viewed Shariatmadari’s insults as directed toward scholars of Islam and Islamic jurisprudence, who, following the innovative [Persian: ijtihadi = independent interpretation and reasoning based on sacred text scholarly] vision of the imam [Ayatollah Khomeini] and taking into account issues of time and place, have called for commuting [death] sentences] against minors.

First among these Islamic scholars is Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi, Iran’s Judiciary chief, Karroubi said, adding that Shariatmadari “says everyone is illiterate. These are the howls of the new mafia, which I hear from the mouth of Kayhan. Of course, we hope that someday the market of one and all inquisitors will be shut, but of course, according to these people, talk of pardoning convicts is gibberish,” he said.

Sources: Saham news, Kayhan newspaper

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