New EU Sanctions.

The EU on April 24 set out a new set of sanctions on Iran, focusing on 15 individuals and eight companies that could also be subjected to UNSC measures in coming weeks. The move, which immediately freezes their assets in Europe, came as the EU sought to increase the pressure on Tehran.

In a break with what was EU's policy until relatively recently, it went further than the UNSC resolutions, targeting individuals and companies on whom the UNSC had not yet imposed sanctions. The companies involved are chiefly subsidiaries of the Atomic Energy Agency (AEA) of Iran and the Defence Industries Organisation (DIO). Both groups - under the control of the IRGC which is the main arm of the Shi'ite theocracy's supremacists - had already been subjected to UN sanctions, but not all their units had been affected. The individuals range from Vice President and AIA head Reza Aghazadeh, to nine IRGC-controlled people who had received awards from President Ahmadi-Nejad for their work in the nuclear programme.

At present, the UN sanctions are not broad-based economic measures but are focused on companies and individuals connected with Iran's nuclear and missile programmes, as well as its IRGC. The people and organisations targeted by the EU's April 24 measures are likely to be included in the next round of UNSC sanctions proposed by the US and the EU. The companies subjected to the new EU asset freeze include Iran Aerospace Industries Organisation (AIO), a unit of the IRGC which the EU says oversees Iran's production of missiles. The head of the AIO and two other officials have already been subjected to UN sanctions, but so far the UNSC has not agreed to impose sanctions on the group itself.

Other companies affected include Armament Industries, the Defence Technology and Science Research Centre, Marine Industries, and the Special Industries Group - all units of the IRGC-controlled Defence Industries Organisation (DIO). The list of companies is completed by Jaber ibn Hayan (JiH), a laboratory used in the nuclear programme, the Nuclear Fuel Production and Procurement Co. (NFPPC), and the Tamas company which the EU says is involved in enrichment related activities. Apart from Aghazedeh and the people given awards by President Ahmadi-Nejad, the EU sanctions are targeted against five other officials in the AEA.

New Pro-Life Lobby Challenges The Theocracy: With Iran's supremacists betting on the power of martyrdom in the Shi'ite theocracy, moderate journalist Emadeddine Baghi has set up a non-governmental organisation (NGO) - Association for the Right to Life - lobbying against the death penalty and, by implication, the use of suicide bombers for political ends.

It is hard to imagine a tougher cause in Iran than campaigning against the death penalty, which has strong popular support and which most religious authorities and politicians say is required by Islam. Baghi says: "I have to admit some people I asked to support us, including well-known reformers, refused point blank".

A report published on April 26 from Amnesty International puts Iran behind only China in the world league of capital punishment with 177 executions in 2006, up from 94 in 2005. There is no single reason why the total has increased, although observers talk broadly of a clampdown on crime. Iran's favoured method is hanging from a crane, with death resulting from choking, which can take 10 minutes.

Baghi says there are 42 people under 18 on death row and that more than a third of executions last year were for crimes other than murder, including 28 for adultery or homosexuality. But Right to Life does claim successes - stopping eight executions in two years, with one person freed, three facing life imprisonment and four awaiting news. Baghi hopes another 30 cases may be resolved without the capital punishment.

Baghi's arguments against the death penalty are based on a grounding in Islamic law gained from religious studies in Tehran and Qom which he gave up at the age of 29 when he opted not to become a cleric. He said: "The Qur'an is clear", citing verse 178 of the Baqarah Sura, explaining: "It talks of punishment as a way to guarantee social stability. I argue that a life sentence can have a better effect".

Baghi's earlier NGO, Defending the Rights of Prisoners, lobbies for human rights. He says: "All humans have rights, including prisoners and murderers". Like many reformist intellectuals, Baghi has his own prison story. Sent to Evin jail in 1999 when the judiciary closed the Khordad newspaper where he worked, he realised "ordinary" prisoners were worse treated than political ones. Baghi pressed for the enforcement of prison rules, famously organising fellow inmates to extract and weigh the meat in a large pot of stew - to find it 2.5 kg rather than the then 7 kg stipulated for 140 prisoners.

Prison gave Baghi time to think. He says: "I had always thought our problems were caused by authoritarian government, and that it should be overthrown. You might expect experience of prison to strengthen this belief but, instead, I realised the real problem was the lack of a strong civil society".

Defending the Rights of Prisoners, which has two waged staff, survives on membership fees from 65 people, donations and a decision by Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a cleric once designated as successor to Imam Khomeini as supreme leader and now strongly opposed to the supremacists, that it could accept religious dues. Baghi admits his NGO faces an uphill task, saying: "We face the general lack of an effective civil society coupled with the particular disregard of the rights of prisoners". Another difficulty, he says, flows from US "intervention" in Iranian affairs, which has fostered suspicion of independent groups.