Iran starts trial of election protesters

          
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          Iran starts trial of election protesters
          Sat, 01 Aug 2009 08 :07:29 GMT
          The first court session is under way in
          Tehran to consider the charges against a
          group of political activists and a number of
          ‘rioters' allegedly involved in the recent
          post-election unrest in the Islamic
          Republic.
          The news of the start of the proceedings was
          reported to have been released by the Tehran
          Prosecutor's Office, according to the official
          IRNA news agency.
          The report does not specify the number of those
          whose cases are being heard today, but IRNA reported that a number of
          leading opposition figures were among the accused at court.
          Those named included former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh,
          former lawmakers Mohsen Mirdamadi, Behzad Nabavi and Mohsen Safaei-
          Farahani.
          Also named were Mohammad Ali Abtahi one of the deputies of the former
          two-term President Mohammad Khatami and Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, one of
          Khatami's associates.
          Earlier Iran's Judiciary announced that the trial of 30 ‘rioters' will begin today.
          There are no reports as to when those arrested in provincial cities will have
          their day in court.
          Following Iran's 10th presidential election on June 12, supporters of defeated
          candidates, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, took to the streets in
          protest against what they described as massive “ballot rigging” and the
          officially-announced results that gave the incumbent Iranian President
          Mahmoud Ahmadinejad another term in office with almost two-thirds of the
          votes.
          Over a thousand people were arrested in the aftermath of the election, some
          of whom have since been released. About 140 of them said to have been
          released in the past few days.
          Tehran's Public Prosecutor's Office declared in a statement on July 29 that a
          number of suspects were identified from their photos taken during street
          unrests, and thanked the Iranian nation for help in identifying them. “People's
          help will lead to identification of more rioters in the near future,” it promised.
          Ten charges were listed, including attacking military centers with weapons and
          fire-bombs and attacking security forces; damaging public and private
          properties, distributing pamphlets against the sacred system of the Islamic
          Republic; relations with anti-Iranian terrorist groups such as the
          Mujahedeen-e Khalq Organization (MKO); and preparing reports for the
          foreign media and the “enemies.”
          DB/ZAP/DT
          _A
          Political activists and protesters stood
          trial in Tehran on Saturday on charges
          of ‘rioting and conspiring against the
          ruling system' in first trial following the
          presidential election.
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          11/12/2009 11:49 AM