Iranian police Sunday raided and closed the office of a watchdog group led by Iran’s Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi ahead of a celebration to mark International Human Rights Day.

Iran’s judiciary confirmed the closure of the Human Rights Defenders Center, saying it was involved in “illegal” activities.

“Tehran prosecutor ordered the closure of the office of Human Rights Defenders Center because of its illegal activities,” the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

“The center was acting as a (political) party without having legal permit. It had illegal contacts with local and foreign organizations. It had organized news conferences and seminars.”

...”The closure of the office without providing a legal warrant is illegal. We will protest against it,” Ebadi told Reuters. “It will not deprive us from our rights activities.”

This kind of suppression of dissenting free speech is off a piece with the arrest of blogger Hossein Derakhshan recently and proves yet again that there’s plenty that is odious about the Iranian regime without drumming up lies and misdirections about its nuclear program or its unsubstantiated alleged involvement in running weapons into Iran. But, alas, those Manly men who want a war won’t get it through human rights abuses alone and so continue to fabricate other excuses.