Imprisoned Economists

In late December 2009, after the violent suppression of protests held on Ashura (December 27), a new wave of arrests took place that targeted individuals close to Mir Hossein Musavi, Mehdi Karrubi, and Mohammad Khatami, three politicians commonly acknowledged as the leaders of the Green Movement. These arrests targeted individuals from a wider spectrum of society compared to the arrests that took place in the days immediately following the tenth presidential election in June 2009. According to political observers, a large number of advisors and individuals close to Musavi and Karrubi were added to the list of existing political prisoners.

Imprisoned economic advisors and activists

Among those imprisoned after the Ashura protests on December 27, 2009, Ali Arab-Mazar and Farshad Moemeni were well known to economic observers. Although Farshad Moemeni evaded arrest after last year’s protests, the fact that he had rarely been seen in public gatherings since then gave credence to rumors of his arrest. In the heat of the election debates, his name was mentioned as Musavi’s economic advisor. He was also a university professor, an economic commentator and critic, and one of the signatories to the letter by economists to Ahmadinejad (May-June 2007).

Arab-Mazar was in charge of taxation matters in the Khatami administration. He was also a critic of the hasty implementation of the Economic Transformation Plan, the initial implementation of which was made possible during the final days of the third year of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s first term as president. After Arab-Mazar’s arrest and incarceration in solitary confinement, a group of his colleagues published a letter of protest to the Head of the Judiciary. This resulted in early retirement for most of the members of this group (Rahana, January-February 2010).

Alongside these two professors, other professors and specialists in economics were also imprisoned either with or without arrest warrants. Bahman Ahmadi Amouyi, who holds a degree in economics and who wrote for the now-banned political-economic newspaper Sarmayeh (‘Capital’), is one such individual. Of course, he and Saeed Leylaz, Editor-in-Chief of the aforementioned newspaper, were arrested in the first few days after the tumultuous 2009 presidential election, largely due to their political activities. Leylaz, a university professor, in addition to his work in journalism and publishing economic commentaries, analyses, and interpretations, was actively involved with several accredited corporations concerned with commerce and manufacturing. Issa Saharkhiz, the Managing Director of the banned newspaper Akhbar-e Eghtessadi (‘Economic News’) who was tried and is currently waiting for the verdict, and Fayzollah Arab-Sorkhi, member of the Central committee of the Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution Organization (who had previously served as Deputy Minister of Commerce), were more of political activists than economic observers or critics.

Bijan Khajehpour is an international commercial and economic advisor who was arrested after the Ashura protests and remains in prison to this day. Through the establishment of a commercial consulting corporation, Khajehpour, a former economic advisor in Hashemi Rafsanjani’s administration, was actively involved in creating a better understanding of, and offering strategies for gaining access to, the Iranian market for international corporations. According to his company’s website (Atieh Bahar), regarding the reasons for his arrest, besides the occasional differences in his views and those of the government, one can only point to his efforts toward gaining an entrée into the Iranian market for international corporations.

Differing views or settling political scores?

Majid, a Ph. D candidate in economics, has the following to say about the differences between the views of Musavi’s economic advisors and the policies of the ninth and tenth administrations (Ahmadinejad’s first 2005-9 term and his second 2009-13 term): “The main difference between them is that Moemeni and a small number of other Iranian economists can be considered institutional economists. These economists believe that economic theories are capable of being accepted and implemented only if they can be adapted to domestic and local needs.”

But can such differences in opinion and theory be considered valid reasons for arresting individuals, incarcerating them in solitary confinement, and depriving them of their individual and civil rights?

Perhaps analyzing the types of criticisms voiced by these professors can be of assistance in clarifying this matter. In reference to a meeting between a group of economists and President Ahmadinejad in 2008-9, Moemeni said: “One of the demands set forth by the economists in that meeting was that the President promised to announce official statistics in a more timely manner.” He also said, “There exist as many different versions of the statistics as there are respected responsible officials who speak on the government’s economic performance.” (Fars News Agency, May 7, 2009)

Moemeni’s above-mentioned comments refer to the same concern expressed by Musavi in his televised debates with Ahmadinejad, that is, the timely dissemination of economic statistics. Musavi considered this an important component of his desired and intended management style and criticized Ahmandinejad’s government for failing to share important economic statistics in a timely manner (Televised debate between Ahmadinejad and Musavi, June 3, 2009).

Another point mentioned by Moemeni in the interview was the violations of laws or incorrect implementation of laws during Ahmadinejad’s first presidential term (2005-9). Whether in his televised debates or in his campaign slogans, Musavi has mentioned this as the most important reason for his participation in the election. The same is true of Karrubi.

In the initial years of Ahmadinejad’s presidency and following the submission to the Majlis of the amendments to the first budget, Moemeni was considered a moderate critic.

Moemeni moderated his criticisms of the Ahmadinejad government by criticizing the previous administrations—those of Hashemi Rafsanjani and Khatami—as well. (Moemeni’s address to the Directors of the Organization for Industrial Management, 2006-7) However, in recent years, Moemeni has voiced sharp criticism of Ahmadinejad and his government for lack of proper planning, the President’s many trips to the provinces, the unrealistic raising of social expectations, as well as violations of the existing laws. (Fars News Agency, December 30, 2007)

Saeed Leylaz, another imprisoned economist, had a precise and almost scientific approach to the differences in opinions expressed compared to the economic issues of Ahmadinejad’s presidency. Laylaz had already put forth the issues that were brought up by the presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaie in his last televised election debate in 2009 regarding the Ahmadinejad government’s method of producing statistics. (Raja News, June 8, 2009)

The reason behind Arab-Mazar’s arrest, however, can only be his presence in Musavi’s circle of campaign advisors and managers. Because he was actively involved in implementing policies, Arab-Mazar rarely engaged in overt or direct criticism of the government’s economic policies. Like his colleagues, he mostly sought to put into practice what he thought was the correct course to pursue. (Letter of Mohsen Renani about Arab-Mazar, Norooz News Agency, April 20, 2010)

Arab-Mazar, who had served under Musavi during the latter’s tenure as prime minister, was named director of the planning committee of Musavi’s campaign before the start of the 2009 presidential election. (Various websites, e.g., Rooz Online, as quoted by Mard-e Rah web site, January-February 2009)

One of Arab-Mazar’s students, who did not wish to have his/her name divulged, had this to say about the latest news of his/her professor: “According to his interrogators, he has received a verbal announcement of an eight-year prison sentence. One of the charges against him was having two separate telephone lines.” This was also one of the charges against Dr. Ali Reza Beheshti, Musavi’s chief advisor in his campaign.

Prison: a cure or compounded pain?

Counting the possession of two separate telephone lines as a crime seems about as ridiculous as the issuance of an eight-year prison sentence for an economic commentator. In his writings and interviews prior to last year’s presidential election, he had criticized the government repeatedly for its unscientific and incorrect ways. (Etemad, June-July 2008)

Given his familiarity with Mo’meni, Majid Akbari considers Mo’meni’s way of thinking to be akin to that of all those who agree with Musavi’s economic thinking and considers imprisoning all such individuals to be the only way for the regime to confront such people’s systemic thinking: “Regardless of the opinions such individuals actually express, they must not be tolerated and must be either imprisoned or silenced precisely because: they do not repeat ad infinitum the government’s formulaic economic approach; they analyze, define, and describe the reasons behind the countless ills afflicting the Iranian economy; and they provide reasons, in the form of evidence and documentation, for their stance.”

In a letter, Mohsen Renani, a university professor, provides a different interpretation of Arab-Mazar’s imprisonment, an interpretation that can perhaps be applied to the cases of all the imprisoned critics, commentators, and intellectuals: “The imprisonment of Dr. Ali Arab-Mazar is the best indicator of a ‘systemic decline’ in the current regime. No regime can service without utilizing creative, innovative, and critical elements or forces. In order to grow, all regimes seek to foster and develop creative and innovative forces. Unfortunately, our regime fosters and develops creative forces but then treats them in such a way that they either emigrate, become hermits, are forced to take early retirement, are banned from teaching, or are imprisoned. This is nothing but squandering the regime’s vital energies and its very lifeline.” (Norooz News Agency, April 20, 2010)