Petrelis Files

OutRage Slams Flaws in Blade's Iran Story

In a message dated 7/28/2005 1:54:33 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, peter@tatchell.freeserve.co.uk writes:
Hi Michael,

Many thanks for your efforts re the State Department.

Did you get our news release critiquing the Blade news story?

These flawed reports are HUGELY damaging to LGBT asylum seekers from Iran. The US and UK governments will brandish them in court to say that only rapists are executed.

Copy of my critique of the Blade story below, in case you did not get a copy.

Solidarity! Peter
- - -

Flaws in Blade report of executions in Iran
Gays are executed, Iranian exiles confirm

London - 28 July 2005

"News reports in the US Washington Blade and New York Blade newspapers
on the execution of two teens in Iran are flawed," according to the
British LGBT human rights group OutRage!, which helped break the story
to the international media and human rights groups.

"The news story by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg, 'Mixed reports on Iran
teen hangings', dated 28 July, contains a number of errors," said
Peter Tatchell of OutRage!

"OutRage!’s sources for our reportage of this story include
clandestine gay and lesbian activists inside Iran, members of the
democratic and left Iranian opposition, and the websites of
pro-government news agencies in Iran.

"Much of the Blade article disputes claims that the two teenagers were
hanged because they had gay sex. Bizarrely, it gives greater
prominence and credibility to the allegations of rape made by news
agencies linked to the dictatorial, homophobic Iranian government.

"Why should we believe the claims of a judicial and political system
that is one of the most barbaric in the world and which has a proven
record of lying to cover up its crimes against humanity?

"The Blade story does, however, conclude with a comment from a gay
Iranian exile. He is in a better position than most people to know how
the Iranian regime operates and to judge the credibility of its
claims. He questions the rapist allegation; suggesting the two youths
probably were hanged for consensual sex but the government said it was
rape to squash public outrage. This exile also confirms that
confessions are often extracted under torture. This casts serious
doubt on the rape claims. Why was this gay Iranian viewpoint not given
greater prominence in the Blade story?

"We work with many exiled gay Iranians in London. They confirm that
smears and torture against gay people are routine in Iran. Whenever
the regime wants to deflect criticism it trumps up charges of
alcoholism, adultery, rape, homosexuality and drug abuse.

"When interviewed in the back of a police van by a pro-government
journalist from the Iranian Student News Agency (ISNA), shortly before
their execution, the youths spoke candidly about having sex with boys,
protesting that they did not know homosexuality is a capital crime.
This suggests they believed they were being hanged for same-sex
relations, not rape. The ISNA report makes no mention of rape or of a
13 year old boy. It states they were hung for homosexual acts.

"Even so, OutRage! has never said the rape allegations are untrue;
only that we think they are unlikely and that we treat them with the
skepticism they deserve. We acknowledge there are conflicting reports.
It is difficult to be certain about the truth. But on balance we
believe the evidence points to the youths being hanged for same-sex
relations, rather than rape.

"The Blade says the claims of rape are confirmed by the 13 year old
boy's father. That is not proof. It is not surprising that the father
has said his 13 year old son was raped; otherwise his son would have
been hanged as well and the family would become social outcasts for
having a gay child. OutRage! is aware of several cases in the region
where a false claim of rape has been used by parents to spare a family
the shame of having a gay son and to save him from imprisonment and/or
execution.

"We must also be open to the possibility that the 13 year old was a
willing participant but that Iranian law (like the laws of many
western nations) deems that no person aged 13 is capable of sexual
consent. In these circumstances, consensual sexual contact with a 13
year old is automatically branded statutory rape.

"It is curious that the Iranian authorities say the 13 year old was
raped. Does the Iranian legal system include the offence of rape of a
male? Does it acknowledge that male rape exists and is possible? If
not, how can the youths have been hanged for the crime of rape?

"Elizabeth Weill-Greeneberg’s report says that the older youth may
have been 19, and therefore not a minor when he committed the alleged
crime. Even the state-sponsored Iranian media said he was 18. We would
like to see any reliable news source that has reported him as being 19
years old.

"The Blade report claims the allegations the boys were executed for
being gay originated with the National Council of Resistance of Iran
(NCRI). This is untrue. The NCRI did not originate the story and it
did not report the reason for their execution.

"The Blade also falsely claims that Iran Focus is the English language
website of the NCRI. Not true.

"The Blade article goes on to smear the NCRI, repeating the US State
Department's smear that it is a “terrorist organisation”. While we do
not share the politics of the NCRI, it has played a heroic role in
resisting the clerical fascist regime in Iran and campaigning for
democracy and human rights. The NCRI is no more a terrorist
organisation than the African National Congress in South Africa or the
anti-Nazi resistance in occupied Europe during World War Two. “While
there have been allegations of human rights abuses by the NCRI, these
pale into insignificance by comparison to the butchery of the Iranian
regime.

"The NCRI works with a broad coalition of European parliamentarians,
jurists, lawyers and human rights advocates. It would not enjoy this
supportive relationship if it were a terrorist organisation. NCRI
delegations have recently met with European and Australian
parliamentary representatives.

"We find it shocking that brave people who are fighting for freedom
and against tyranny are being vilified and smeared.

"Contrary to what the Blade says, the report the teens were hanged for
being gay originated with the pro-government Iranian Student News
Agency (ISNA) – not the NCRI. It stated categorically that they were
executed for sodomy. It made no mention of rape or a 13 year old boy.

"Paula Ettelbrick of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights
Commission is reported by the Blade as having condemned OutRage! for
using racially charged language to denounce the executions.

"If she said this, it is a complete fabrication. We have never
attacked anyone’s race or ethnicity.

“Ms Ettelbrick apparently objects to our description of the Iranian
regime in the following terms: ‘This is just the latest barbarity by
the Islamo-fascists in Iran.’”

"We make no apology for denouncing the Iranian dictatorship in these
terms. Its fascist-style tyranny is based on a fundamentalist version
of Islam. The phrase ‘Islamo-fascist’ is used by progressive Muslims
to denounce the fundamentalists and by democratic and left opponents
of the Iranian regime. We agree, and support their struggle.

"We have great respect and admiration for the Blade newspapers, but we
feel their reports on this issue need to be challenged and corrected,”
concluded Mr Tatchell.

Further information: Peter Tatchell +44 (0)20 7403 1790