Iran should free some post-election detainees: MP

          
          Iran slrnüd free sone post-elecfion detainees: MP Reuters ,com http://www.reuters.coni/artic lePrint?aitc leld—USTRE5872N020090908
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          Iran should free some post-election
          detainees: MP
          Tue Sep 8, 2009 12:47pm EDT
          TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran should immediately release detainees who did not
          play a major part in street unrest after its disputed election in June, a
          member of a parliamentary investigative committee said on Tuesday.
          MP Farhad Tajari also expressed criticism about the conduct of mass trials
          that Iran began last month of more than 100 reformers, activists and others
          accused of fomenting huge protests against President Mahmoud
          Ahmadinejad's re-election.
          Rights groups say thousands of people, including senior pro-reform figures,
          were arrested after the presidential poll almost three months ago. Most of
          them have been released but more than 200 remain in jail, according to the
          opposition.
          Tajari said the committee, set up by parliament to look into post-election
          events, had met with new Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, the
          official I RNA news agency reported.
          “Members of this committee had some criticisms over the conduct of trials
          of detainees accused of being linked to the recent unrest,” Tajari said,
          without elaborating.
          “One of the points we stressed during the meeting was to immediately
          release those detainees who did not have big roles in the unrest,” IRNA
          quoted Tajari as saying.
          The fates of the others should be clarified soon, he said.
          “If they are convicted they should be punished, if there is no evidence
          against them their detention should end,” he said.
          Reformist former president Mohammad Khatami last month said
          confessions made by detainees at the mass trials were obtained under
          “extraordinary conditions” and were invalid. Those in the dock include
          several of his allies.
          Defeated presidential candidates Mehdi Karoubi and Mirhossein Mousavi,
          who say the June 12 election was rigged in favor of the hard-line incumbent,
          have said some detained opposition protesters were raped and abused in
          jail.
          The authorities, which say the vote was the healthiest in the Islamic
          Republic's history, have denied the rape allegation but have ordered the
          closure of one Tehran detention center.
          Ahmadinejad's allies have portrayed the street protests, which were put
          down by the elite Revolutionary Guards and a pro-government Islamic
          militia, as a foreign-backed bid to topple the Islamic Republic's clerical
          leadership.
          The opposition says more than 70 people were killed in the unrest. The
          authorities estimate the death toll at 26 people and say members of the
          Basij militia were among them.
          Mousavi's website, Kaleme.com, said security forces had raided one of his
          offices in Tehran on Monday and confiscated documents and other material
          there.
          It said it was the premises of an opposition committee looking into
          post-election events, including the number of dead and the treatment of
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          Iran slrnüd free sone post-elecfion detainees: MP Reuterscom http://wwwreuters.coni/artic lePrint?aitc leld—USTRE5872N020090908
          people held in prison.
          (Reporting by Reza Derakhshi; writing by Fredrik DahI; editing by Dominic
          Evans)
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