Iran ties 100 reforntts over eleofion unrest R.euters ,com http://www.reuters ,com'arfic lePrint?artic le ld—USTRE57001Y20090802
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Iran tries 100 reformists over election
unrest _________
Sun kig 2, 2009 5:43am EDT
By Parisa Hafezi and Zahra Hosseinian
TEHRAN (Reuters) - About 100 leading Iranian reformists went on trial on
Saturday, accused of trying to topple the clerical establishment by
orchestrating mass protests after the disputed presidential election, Iranian
media reported.
The mass trial, whose timing was not announced in advance, opened four
days before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is inaugurated for his second
term in parliament on Wednesday. The leading opposition party called it a
“laughable show.”
The defendants include former ministers, a former vice-president and
lawmakers arrested after the street protests that erupted in June after
Ahmadinejad was declared to have won an overwhelming victory over
moderate former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi.
The vote plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic
revolution and exposed deep divisions in its ruling elite. Iranian media have
reported the deaths of 20 protesters since the vote.
The authorities rejected opposition accusations of vote-rigging and Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah PJi Khamenei, has endorsed Ahmadinejad's
re-election.
After his inauguration, the president will have two weeks to introduce his
choice of ministers for approval by parliament, but there are signs of
growing opposition to Ahmadinejad even among his staunchest supporters.
PRISON UNIFORM
State television coverage of the courtroom showed many young defendants,
some handcuffed, and former vice-president Mohammad A u Abtahi, former
deputy foreign minister Mohsen Arninzadeh and former MP Mohsen
Mirdamadi, leader of the biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran
Participation Front, in prison uniform.
“The trial of some of those accused of being involved in post-election unrest
started this morning,” the official IRNA news agency said. “Some 100
people were put on trial in a Tehran Revolutionary court.”
The hardline semi-official Fars news agency said Abtahi had admitted that
the opposition allegations of election fraud had only been a pretext designed
to trigger mass protests.
Also on trial are other prominent members of Iran's leading moderate
parties, founded by former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and
Mohammad Khatami, both backers of Mousavi.
IRNA said the charges included acting against national security by planning
unrest, participating in a “velvet revolution,” attacking military and state
buildings and conspiring against the ruling system.
“Velvet Revolution” was the name given the non-violent 1989 revolution in
Czechoslovakia that overturned communist rule. Iran's leaders have
frequently accused the United States of trying to topple clerical rule in Iran
through cultural change.
Under Iran's Islamic law, acting against national security, a common charge
against dissenting voices, could be punishable by the death penalty.
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Iran ties 100 reforn'dsts over eleofion unrest R.euters.com http://www.reuterscom'arfic lePrint?artic le ld—USTRE57001Y20090802
Rights groups say hundreds of people, including senior pro-reform
politicians, journalists and lawyers, have been detained since the election.
ILLEGAL GATHERI NGS
The indictment said: “These parties planned, organized and led the illegal
gatherings and riots,” IRNA reported.
It also said the Participation Front, the main pro-reform party set up by
Khatami, had “had contacts with a British spy.”
The party rejected the charges, saying: “After 50 days of isolating and
pressuring the detainees ... such a weak indictment has been prepared ... It
is a politically motivated and illegal indictment...
It called the trial “a laughable show that even a cooked chicken would laugh
at.”
Iran accuses Western countries, particularly Britain and the United States,
of supporting and encouraging the protesters. Western countries deny this
and Mousavi on Saturday also rejected the accusation.
“The protests since the election were not linked to foreigners at all
Iranians' rights have been violated at the election,” Musavi's website
Ghalamnews quoted him as saying.
The Fars agency said at least four prominent reformers now say the vote
was not rigged.
“Former vice-presidents Mohammad PJi Abtahi and Mohsen Safai-Farahani,
former industries minister Behzad Nabavi, (Iranian-Canadian journalist)
Maziar Bahari and former deputy interior minister Mostafa Tajzadeh have
confessed that the issue of fraud in the Iran vote was baseless,” it reported.
Iran freed 140 protesters on Tuesday, while 250 others remained in jail.
(Editing by Michael Roddy and Kevin Liffey)
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