(The Pedestrian Blog) | February 22, 2010
Javad Larijani is the head of the Human Rights Council in the judiciary and a top adviser to the supreme leader. Additionally Larijani has been the Director of Institute for Studies in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics in Tehran. His two brothers, Ali Larijani and Sadeq Larijani are heads of parliament and the judiciary, respectively.
He raised eyebrows last week in Geneva’s UN Human Rights Council gathering by saying that the dozens and dozens of journalists being held in custody in Iran, “are being held for other crimes and their arrest has nothing to do with their activities as journalists.” And, that “Iran is the only democracy in the Middle East.”
Here, Iranian artist and journalist Nikaghangh Kowsar who was once imprisoned in Iran for publishing a cartoon of a crocodile titled “Professor Crocodile” (the judiciary claimed it was ridiculing َAhmadinejad mentor, MAD, cleric Mesbah Yazdi because “Mesbah” rhymes with “temsah” the Persian word for crocodile), narrates a story of meeting Larijani, which I think captures the spirit of this administration really well.
Read the full piece in The Pedestrian Blog.
