Iran: Massive protests in response to Ahmadinejad sweeping elections.

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Mousavi shows no sign of white flag

Mousavi shows no sign of white flag
Wed, 22 Jul 2009 19:06:40 GMT



Without any indication of relenting, defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi says he will not drop his challenge to the June 12 election results.

Mousavi, who has so far refused to acknowledge the re-election of Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said Wednesday that he would be sure to pursue his complaints through legal procedures.

"One must respect the constitution in all circumstances," said Mousavi in an address to a group of academics and journalists. "I believe that individuals can resort to the constitution in pursuing their political demands and complaints."

Iran's war-time prime minister said that the country's political factions are closely intertwined, to such an extent that the exclusion of one party could negatively affect the whole political system.

"Political parties in Iran have proven to be vulnerable," said Mousavi. "But when a particular faction helps create a sense of social identity in the masses, then nothing can break its resolve. If a part of is excluded, other parts will move on and continue their path," said Mousavi.

Mousavi said that the awareness of the Iranian people is decisive at such a critical juncture in the country. The Iranian nation should be kept informed through constructive dialogue, he opined.

Mousavi went on to claim that the Ahmadinejad government would cause complications for Iran both at home and on the international stage.

"The elite do not want to work with such a government," the ILNA news agency quoted Mousavi as saying.

"This non-cooperation would inflame an obvious lack of efficiency and legitimacy, which is likely to raise many domestic and foreign issues," he said.

Mousavi concluded that the only way out of "the ongoing crises" is returning to people what "they really want".

SBB/MMN
 

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In Iran, Leader wants political voices to reflect caution

In Iran, Leader wants political voices to reflect caution
Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:34:07 GMT



Days after renewed street protests in Tehran, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution requests the Iranian political elite to exercise caution when commenting on the country's political situation.

"Everyone should proceed with extreme vigilance with respect to their stance, both in what they say and what they do not say," Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei warned in a Monday meeting with state officials, broadcast by state television.

Addressing the recent political turmoil in Iran, the Leader went on to label the political situation in the country as a major challenge presented to political figures, while calling on the ruling elite to avoid any measures that could play into the hands of those deemed as enemies of the nation.

"The political elite should maintain great vigilance because they currently face a significant challenge; their failure to rise to this challenge will lead to their collapse," cautioned Ayatollah Khamenei.

The Leader cited rationalism as the sole solution to the existing political tensions in Iran and described the much-needed logic as drastically different from "the common political games" played in the country.

The remarks come several days after renewed protests emerged on Friday when influential cleric and politician Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani led prayers attended by hundreds of thousands of people at Tehran University.

During his sermon, Hashemi-Rafsanjani criticized authorities for their handling of the country's presidential election and the post-vote unrest.

Following the Friday address, opposition supporters present at the venue of the prayers took to the streets of Tehran and chanted slogans against the emergence of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the official victor of the July 12 elections.

Clashes erupted outside the Tehran University campus as security forces reacted by using tear gas to disperse the protesters.

"If the nation feels that in the remarks made by certain officials there lies an issue of enmity with the Islamic system and certain hands are at work to help a movement that seeks to deliver a blow to the establishment, they [the nation] will distance themselves [from those officials], even if such officials pursue a slogan that has arisen from the nation," said the Leader.

CS/AA
 

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Iran releases UK embassy staffer on bail

Iran releases UK embassy staffer on bail
Sun, 19 Jul 2009 16:42:43 GMT


The British Embassy in Tehran

Iran has released on bail Hossein Rassam, head of the security and political division of the British Embassy in Tehran, who was arrested over alleged involvement in post-election riots in the country.

"A bail of 100 million tomans (100,000 dollars) has been paid for the release of Hossein Rassam,” his lawyer Abdolsamad Khorramshahi told Press TV on Sunday.

Rassam was arrested on June 27, along with eight other embassy staffers who have since been released.

They were all detained on charges of instigating the post-vote violence.

Earlier reports claimed that Rassam played a key role in providing guidance to diplomats and reporters of the British media during the recent unrest that erupted after Iran's June 12 presidential election.

Senior Iranian cleric Ahmad Jannati, the chief of the Guardian Council, said on July 3 that some of the embassy staff would be tried over the unrest.

Iran blamed foreign powers, namely Britain, for 'interference' in its internal affairs and for playing a significant role in fueling the post-vote unrest, which claimed the lives of at least 20 people.

SF/MD
 

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The Associated Press: Iran begins trial of postelection 'rioters'

Iran begins trial of postelection 'rioters'

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI (AP) – 3 hours ago

TEHRAN, Iran — More than 100 opposition political activists and protesters stood trial in Tehran Saturday on charges of rioting and conspiring to topple the ruling system in the country's first trial since the disputed presidential election, Iran's state media reported.

The trial underlines the government's efforts to bring to a close anti-government demonstrations that have persisted since the disputed June 12 presidential election.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in days of street protests after the election, denouncing official results that declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner.

Iran's opposition maintains Ahmadinejad stole the vote from opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi by engaging in massive fraud, but its demonstrations have been ruthlessly suppressed, leaving hundreds in prison.

The defendants faced charges that include attacking military and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and conspiring against the ruling system, Iran's official news agency, IRNA, reported.

During the session, prosecutors read out an indictment outlining what they said was a yearslong plot by the top pro-reform political parties to carry out a "velvet revolution," a popular, non-violent uprising to overthrow the Islamic Republic similar to ones that have occurred in Eastern Europe.

The phrase comes from the peaceful 1989 Velvet Revolution that overthrew decades of communism in Czechoslovakia.

The prosecutor said three of the biggest opposition parties had taken money from foreign non-governmental organizations and had sought to use the election controversy as an opportunity to carry out their plot, according to a transcript reported by IRNA. He claimed Israeli and Western officials have spoken in recent years of fomenting revolution in Iran.

"Based on the evidence obtained and well-founded confessions of the defendants, these events had been planned in advance and stages of the velvet revolution were carried out in accordance with a time schedule," the 15-page text of the indictment said.

IRNA did not give information about how many defendants were in court, but the semiofficial Fars news agency said more than 100 defendants were present.

Among the defendants were several prominent reformist opposition activists, including former Vice President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, former Vice Speaker of parliament Behzad Nabavi, former Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and leader of the biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Mohsen Mirdamadi.

The reformist Web site http://www.mowjcamp.com denounced Saturday's trial and said defendants had no access to lawyers and there was no jury.

"Do those who organized this show trial today think that the nation will remain silent to slaughter the nation's best?

Pictures from the courtroom showed a thin-looking Abtahi and a grim Mirdamadi, both in prison uniforms, sitting in the front row. More than a hundred defendants could be seen sitting in the packed courtroom, many of them handcuffed but without prison uniforms.

A reformist lawyer, Mohammad Reza Tabesh, quoted Abtahi's wife as saying that the former vice president had lost 40 pounds, or 18 kilograms, of weight after 43 days in custody.

There was no information on when the trial would end or when a verdict could be expected.

The post-election protests have marked the biggest challenge to the cleric-led regime's power since the 1979 revolution.

Ahmadinejad on Friday sought shelter from his top supporter, the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, declaring that Khamenei is like a father to him. Ahmadinejad accused his hard-line rivals of trying to drive a wedge between him and the man who sits at the top of Iran's clerical leadership and who has final say in all state matters.

On Monday, Khamenei will lead a ceremony formally approving Ahmadinejad's second term, and two days later Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in before parliament. But recently Ahmadinejad has been beset not just by protesters attacking the election's legitimacy but also by rivals within his own hard-line camp.

Meanwhile, the anti-regime protests have continued with thousands of protesters holding a memorial at a Tehran cemetery on Thursday to commemorate those killed in the crackdown. Police fired tear gas and beat protesters with batons, but the march continued, as protesters chanted Mousavi's name.

Protesters then streamed back into central Tehran — some chanting on the subway, "Traitor Mahmoud, we want you to become homeless" — and again clashed with security forces.
 

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AFP: Top Iran reformer tells trial vote was 'clean'

Top Iran reformer tells trial vote was 'clean'

By Aresu Eqbali and Farhad Pouladi (AFP) – 5 hours ago

TEHRAN — A top Iranian reformist, accused of taking part in deadly riots after the June election, reportedly testified before a Tehran court on Saturday that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory came after a clean vote.

In a blow to the opposition movement which claims that the president's re-election was because of massive vote rigging, Mohammad Ali Abtahi said there had been no fraud in the June 12 poll, the Fars news agency reported.

Abtahi, a close aide of reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami, said the reformists and opposition leaders had also betrayed Iran's all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the agency said.

"The 10th (presidential) election was different and it took two or three years to work on it. I think reformists took action to sort of restrict the (supreme) leader," Abtahi told a revolutionary court in which he and around 100 other face charges of rioting after the disputed poll.

"I say to all my friends and all friends who hear us, that the issue of fraud in Iran was a lie and was brought up to create riots so Iran becomes like Afghanistan and Iraq and suffers damage and hardship... and if this happened, there would be no name and trace of the revolution left."

Abtahi reportedly said opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, Khatami and powerful cleric and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani had taken an "oath" not to abandon each other.

"Mousavi probably did not know the country, but Khatami, with all due respect... knew all the issues. He was aware of the capability and power of the leader, but he joined Mousavi and this was a betrayal," the cleric said, adding that Rafsanjani sought to avenge his 2005 presidential defeat to Ahmadinejad.

"It was wrong of me to take part in the rallies, but Karroubi told me that we cannot call the people onto the streets with such a meagre number of votes, so we had better go to the streets ourselves to demonstrate our protest," he was quoted as saying.

Mehdi Karroubi, a reformist ex-parliament speaker, won just 333,635 votes or 0.85 percent in the presidential ballot. Abtahi was one of his advisers before the election.

Mousavi and Karroubi are spearheading a massive anti-Ahmadinejad campaign in which their supporters have staged street protests over the hardliner's win.

Another defendant, Mohammad Atrianfa from the reformist Executives of Construction group, also testified and expressed loyalty to the regime.

The official IRNA news agency quoted Atrianfar as saying he was part of the regime, adding: "We all must submit to the absolute leadership of jurisprudence and strengthen it.

"Any radical group or movement under the name of reform... whose behaviour was aimed at weakening the regime must declare an end to such behaviour and apologise."

Around 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded in the post-poll violence, which marked the most serious political crisis in the Islamic republic's 30-year existence.

Up to 2,000 protesters, political activists, reformists and journalists were arrested as hundreds of thousands of people publicly challenged the results.

Most were later released, but around 250 remain behind bars and their continued imprisonment has become a rallying cry for the anti-Ahmadinejad movement.

Abtahi and Atrianfar were among around 100 people, including other top reformists and aides to opposition leaders, facing charges on Saturday.

Media reports say the defendants are accused of having "participated in riots, acting against national security, disturbing public order, vandalising public and government property, having ties with counter-revolutionary groups and of planning to launch a velvet revolution."

The defendants also include Mohsen Aminzadeh and Mohsen Safai-Farahani, deputy ministers under the government of Khatami, and Mohsen Mirdamadi, current head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front.

Prominent reformists Behzad Nabavi of the Islamic Republic Mujahedeen Organisation is also on trial.

Abtahi also testified that he "agreed" with the prosecution charges.

"But I want to say something, about the velvet revolution part... I think the capacity for such a thing to happen exists in the country, but I don't know if there was a real intention to do it."

Fars said the accused, if proven guilty, could face a maximum jail term of five years, unless they are charged with being a "mohareb" or enemy of God, which can carry the death penalty.
 

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AFP: Top Iran reformists on trial after post-vote riots

Top Iran reformists on trial after post-vote riots

By Farhad Pouladi and Aresu Eqbali (AFP) – 10 hours ago

TEHRAN — Iran on Saturday put on trial around 100 people, including top reformists and aides of opposition leaders, on charges of rioting after the disputed re-election in June of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.

The trial in a revolutionary court comes as Ahmadinejad, due to be sworn in on August 5 for a new four-year term, sought to ease political tensions by denying a rift with all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The Fars news agency said around 100 people went on trial in Tehran for their alleged role in anti-Ahmadinejad riots after he was declared winner of the June 12 vote.

Media said the accused are charged with having "participated in riots, acting against national security, disturbing public order, vandalising public and government property, having ties with counter-revolutionary groups and of planning to launch a velvet revolution."

Among those in the dock were Mohsen Aminzadeh and Mohsen Safai-Farahani, deputy ministers under the government of reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami, and Mohsen Mirdamadi, current head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front.

Also on trial were prominent reformists Behzad Nabavi of the Islamic Republic Mujahedeen Organisation, Mohammad Atrianfar of the Executives of Construction, and Mohammad Ali Abtahi, from the Assembly of Combatant Clerics.

All strongly supported opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who say Ahmadinejad's election victory was fraudulent and have demanded a rerun.

Fars reported Abtahi, a cleric, as saying in his testimony that he "agreed with what the prosecution said."

"But I want to say something, about the velvet revolution part... I think the capacity for such a thing to happen exists in the country, but I don't know if there was a real intention to do it," it quoted him as saying.

Fars reported the prosecution as saying some defendants had admitted that "there was no fraud in the election."

It also said the accused, if proven guilty, could face a maximum jail term of five years, unless they are charged with being a "mohareb" or enemy of God, which can mean the death penalty.

The post-election violence, mainly in Tehran, left around 30 people dead and hundreds wounded, Iranian officials said.

The official IRNA news agency quoted prosecutors as saying the defendants include people whose photographs were taken while "committing the crimes."

"Some of their accomplices are on the run but they will be surely identified by our dear people and handed over to the law," it said.

After the election up to 2,000 protesters, political activists, reformists and journalists were arrested as hundreds of thousands of people rallied to challenge the results.

Most detainees have been released but around 250 remain behind bars and their continued imprisonment has become a rallying cry for the anti-Ahmadinejad movement.

The Islamic republic is mired in the worst political crisis in its 30-year existence as the opposition led by former prime minister Mousavi refuses to acknowledge Ahmadinejad's victory.

Thousands of protesters clashed on Thursday with police in Tehran as they marked the 40th day since the June 20 death of Neda Agha-Soltan, a young woman whose killing during a protest has come to symbolise the anti-Ahmadinejad movement.

Iran has accused foreign governments of complicity in crimes and killings during the post-election unrest, and on Friday a fresh anti-West salvo was fired by Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

He said Western and European countries interfered in the election "through their television networks by telling how to instigate riots, build explosives and other tension creating activities are accomplices in all the committed crimes, murders and are held responsible."

The crisis has further deepened after a series of controversial decisions by Ahmadinejad weakened his standing among his own hardline supporters.

Hardliners lashed out at Ahmadinejad after he appointed a controversial aide Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie as his first deputy and was then tardy in firing him despite an order from Khamenei to do so.

The hardline camp was further irked when Ahmadinejad sacked intelligence minister Gholan Hossein Mohseni Ejeie following a reported "quarrel" over Rahim Mashaie.

Ahmadinejad denied on Friday there was any rift between him and Khamenei and compared his relationship with the supreme leader to "father and son."
 

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In Iran court, Abtahi 'disputes' vote fraud claims

In Iran court, Abtahi 'disputes' vote fraud claims
Sat, 01 Aug 2009 13:40:53 GMT


Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, who has been in custody since
June 16, says election fraud claims are "a lie."



Reformist figure Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, accused of provoking and taking part in deadly riots after the recent presidential election in Iran, has reportedly testified that the vote was "clean".

The first court session for opposition activists and protesters convened on Saturday in the Iranian capital Tehran with charges of rioting, threatening national security and conspiring against the ruling system being read against those in the dock.

A report by Fars News Agency claims that Abtahi, a former vice president under Mohammad Khatami, has testified before the court that allegations of fraud in the presidential election were "a lie".

The election, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected by a landslide, provoked days of unrest in the country with defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi claiming that the vote had been subject to widespread "fraud".

However, Abtahi echoed official counts that the election was healthy, the report said. The cleric, along with a number of well-known Reformist figures, has been in custody nearly since the outbreak of protests.

Guardian Council chief Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said Friday that the election was the "healthiest" in the 30-year-old history of the Islamic Revolution.

Abtahi, according to the report, said Mousavi had proclaimed victory before the ballot boxes were counted by the Interior Ministry.

"Fraud did not exist in Iran (in 2005)… when the difference between Karroubi and Ahmadinejad was less than five hundred thousands (votes)," Abtahi was quoted by Fars News Agency as saying. "I am perplexed how the issue of fraud is discussed now that there is a 11-million discrepancy in the votes."

"This is while those who did not believe 500 thousands was fraud today call 11 million discrepancies a fraud," Abtahi said, according to the report.

He added that Mousavi was delusional to think a major election fraud had taken place, Fars News Agency reported.

According to the report, Abtahi went on to say that "fraud" was used as a "code word" to mobilize the people and encourage them to take to the streets.

"The practice of keeping the people in the streets under the slogan of fraud is something that could be considered acceptable," Abtahi was quoted as saying.

Before Abtahi's alleged testimonies, the court heard an indictment against the cleric as well as the former ministers, vice presidents and lawmakers who are on trial.

Under Iranian law, acting against national security can be punishable by the death penalty.

However, Fars News Agency claimed that if proven guilty, Abtahi could face a maximum of five years in prison.

AR/MD/AA
 

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Iran tries 100 moderates over election unrest | U.S. | Reuters

Iran tries 100 moderates over election unrest
Sat Aug 1, 2009 10:01am EDT



By Parisa Hafezi and Zahra Hosseinian

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The trials began on Saturday of 100 prominent moderates arrested shortly after Iran's disputed June presidential election and charged with trying to overthrow the clerical establishment, Iranian media reported.

This is the first time since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution that dozens of senior officials, including former ministers, vice-presidents and lawmakers, have been put on trial.

The official IRNA news agency quoted the indictment as saying the charges against the defendants also included acting against national security by planning unrest, participating in the "Velvet Revolution," attacking military and state buildings and conspiring against the ruling system.

"The trial of some of those accused of being involved in post-election unrest started this morning," IRNA said. "Some 100 people were put on trial in a Tehran Revolutionary court."

Velvet Revolution was used to describe the non-violent 1989 revolution in Czechoslovakia which overturned communist rule.

Under Iran's Islamic law, acting against national security, a common charge against dissenting voices in Iran, could be punishable by the death penalty.

The June 12 vote plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and exposed deep divisions in its ruling elite.

Rights groups say hundreds of people, including senior pro-reform politicians, journalists and lawyers, have been detained since the election.

State television showed footage of the courtroom with many young defendants, some handcuffed, and vice-president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and former MP Mohsen Mirdamadi in prison uniform.

On trial are also prominent members of Iran's leading moderate parties, founded by former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. Both are backers of moderate defeated candidate Mirhossein Mousavi.

"NO FRAUD"

The indictment said: "These parties planned, organized and led the illegal gatherings and riots," IRNA reported.

"The Participation front had contacts with a British spy," the agency said, referring to Islamic Iran's Participation Front, the main pro-reform party set up by Khatami.

Iran accuses Western countries, particularly Britain and the United States, of supporting "rioters." The West denies it.

Leading moderates say the vote was rigged in favor of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The authorities deny the charge and Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has endorsed Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Hardline semi-official Fars news agency said at least four prominent reformers now said that the vote was not rigged.

"Former vice-presidents Mohammad Ali 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," Fars reported.

Bahari, who came to Iran to cover the vote for Newsweek, has said that he took cash from Britain's Channel Four television for sending footage of unrest, Fars said, adding he had told reporters that foreign media were involved in the unrest.

Fars also said detained Iranian photographers Majid Saeedi, who worked for Getty Images, and Satiar Emami had said they sold pictures of "riots" to British and French media.

IRNA said Kian Tajbakhsh, a U.S. citizen who in 2007 was accused of spying and detained for four months, was among those who were tried on Saturday for being involved in the unrest. Tajbakhsh was detained in early July in Tehran.

"The post-election developments were planned from a year ago by Americans," Tajbakhsh told IRNA after the trial.

Iran released on Tuesday 140 detained protesters with "minor charges" from Tehran's Evin prison, 250 others remained in jail.
 

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The Associated Press: Iran president: No rift with supreme leader

Iran president: No rift with supreme leader

By NASSER KARIMI and LEE KEATH (AP) – 20 hours ago

TEHRAN, Iran — President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad begins his second term next week undermined by a deepening feud with his fellow hard-liners and under assault from a pro-reform opposition movement that has shown it can bring out thousands of protesters despite a fierce seven-week-old crackdown.

Ahmadinejad on Friday sought shelter with his top supporter, declaring that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is like a father to him. Ahmadinejad accused his hard-line rivals of trying to drive a wedge between him and the man who sits at the top of Iran's clerical leadership and who has final say in all state matters.

On Monday, Khamenei leads a ceremony formally approving Ahmadinejad's second term, and two days later Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in before parliament, despite opposition claims that he won the June 12 presidential election by fraud and that his government is illegitimate.

In a sign of the growing challenge the president also faces from some in the religious establishment, an influential clerical group at the seminary in the holy city of Qom called Friday for the opposition to continue its campaign against the election results.

A statement on the Web site of the Association of Teachers and Researchers also criticized arrests of protesters and abuses in prisons.

"Reports of inhuman torture are heard every day. They don't allow funeral and memorial ceremonies for victims, and unfortunately all this is done under the name of Islam," the group said.

The supreme leader has stuck by Ahmadinejad — in part because doing otherwise would be a blow to Khamenei's prestige after he strongly declared the election clean. Still, some hard-liners have warned they'll judge the president's administration by his loyalty to Khamenei, and that if he falls short he doesn't deserve to lead.

Sensing fragility in the president, rivals within Ahmadinejad's own camp seem to be seeking a greater say in his next administration.

During Friday prayer services in Tehran, a senior ultraconservative cleric bluntly told Ahmadinejad to listen to hard-line lawmakers in the makeup of his new Cabinet. "Before naming individuals for ministries, the government and parliament must coordinate," Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said.

He criticized Ahmadinejad's attempt this month to appoint a vice president opposed by hard-liners and his firing this week of his intelligence minister, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehi.

"I say to my dear brother (Ahmadinejad) in a friendly manner so no one gets upset, the appointments and dismissals indeed caused an outcry from the people," Jannati said. "The sudden dismissal of a veteran ... and competent minister is not correct. It is not possible to defend this sort of activity."

Ahmadinejad has frequently feuded with his own conservative camp, where some complain he keeps power among a tight circle of associates. His attempt to appoint Esfandiar Rahim Mashai this month as his top vice president angered hard-liners because of past comments by Mashai seen as too pro-Israeli. The supreme leader ordered Mashai's dismissal, but Ahmadinejad stalled, trying to retain him. The president finally obeyed the dismissal order but then named Mashai as his chief of staff.

The debacle outraged hard-liners, who accused Ahmadinejad of insufficient loyalty to Khamenei.

In a speech Friday in the northeastern city of Mashhad, Ahmadinejad said his rivals were trying to create a rift between him and Khamenei.

"What they don't understand is that the relationship between us and the supreme leader goes beyond politics and administration. It is based on kindness, on ideology, it is like that of a father and son," he said in the speech, parts of which were aired on state TV.

He said the attempts by "ill-wishers" would fail and "this path with be shut in the face of devils."

The speech suggested Ahmadinejad will not yield easily to conservatives' meddling. But his rivals seem to see him as vulnerable, since the protest movement that erupted with Ahmadinejad's re-election shows no sign of flagging.

Thousands of protesters held a memorial Thursday at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on Tehran's outskirts to commemorate those killed in the crackdown since the disputed election. Police fired tear gas and beat protesters with batons, but the march continued, with protesters chanting the name of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who they say is the vote's real victor.

Protesters then streamed back into central Tehran — some chanting on the subway, "Traitor Mahmoud, we want you to become homeless" — and again clashed with security forces.

Police arrested 50 people in the marches, Tehran police commander Azizollah Rajabzadeh said Friday, according to news agencies.

A top Mousavi ally, former President Mohammad Khatami, vowed protests would continue. "Our people ... won't let go of their demands," he said. "Our nation wants freedom, independence and the advancement of Iran, and it seriously wants democracy and rule of the people with all its advantages."

Activists on the Web have called for protests during Ahmadinejad's inauguration Wednesday, though Mousavi has not backed the calls. Mousavi has said upcoming religious holidays are a chance to take to the street — particularly next Friday's birthday of the Imam Mahdi, a messianic figure in Shia Islam.

The government and Khamenei's clerical leadership have also come under fire over alleged abuses of detained protesters. Authorities say 30 people were killed in the seven-week-old crackdown, but human rights groups say the number is far higher. In recent days, several young protesters arrested in the sweeps turned up dead, apparently from abuse in prison.

Even government allies joined the criticism. On Friday, Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, seen as a conservative among the top clerics, said detainees should be released by the Imam Mahdi holiday.

Khamenei closed down one prison this week, and at least 140 detainees were freed. Also, several prominent pro-reform politicians were allowed to talk to their families for the first time in weeks. One senior reformist, Saeed Hajjarian, who uses a wheelchair after a 2000 assassination attempt, was moved from Evin prison to a detention center with better medical facilities in a nod to worries over his health, according to pro-opposition Web sites.

Still, authorities are pressing ahead with trials of around 20 protesters on Saturday, and later plan to prosecute the jailed opposition politicians on charges of fomenting the unrest.

Karimi reported from Tehran. Keath reported from Cairo.
 

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http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/02/world/middleeast/02iran.html

Conspiracy Trial for 100 Dissidents Begins in Iran


Mehr News Agency, via European Pressphoto Agency

A photo by the Fars news agency showed Muhammad Ali Abtahi, third from right, a former vice president, among the more
than 100 defendants at a trial for reformers on Saturday.


By ROBERT F. WORTH and NAZILA FATHI
Published: August 1, 2009

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Iranian authorities opened an extraordinary mass trial against more than 100 opposition figures on Saturday, accusing them of conspiring with foreign powers to stage a revolution through terrorism, subversion, and a media campaign to discredit last month’s presidential election.

The trial, coming just days before President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in for a second term, signaled an intensified government attack on the opposition movement, which maintains that the June 12 election was rigged and continues to muster widespread street protests.

The accusations read out in the courtroom were a broadside against virtually every major figure associated with reform in Iran, going well beyond those actually arrested. State television broadcast images of the defendants, who included a former vice president and a Newsweek reporter, as well as some of the reform movement’s best-known spokesmen, clad in prison uniforms and listening as prosecutors outlined their accusations in a large marble-floored courtroom. Some were shackled.

Opposition leaders angrily disputed the accusations on Saturday and protested that the defendants had had no access to lawyers or to details of the charges against them.

The leading opposition presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi, issued a call on his Web site, Ghalam News, for Iranians to resume their nightly protest chants of “God is great” more intensely than ever.

Those protests have infuriated the country’s ruling ayatollahs, and Basij militiamen roam the streets in force in an effort to snuff out the chanting wherever it crops up.

Although the trial was expected, its scale took many Iranians by surprise, coming days after the government said there would be only 20 defendants.

As the trial started, just after 9 a.m., prosecutors named a long and wide-ranging list of conspirators, including the Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi and the Stanford historian Abbas Milani, and echoed the Iranian government’s longstanding claims that its internal critics are pawns of an international plot to undermine the Islamic republic through human rights groups and even terrorists. There was no indication that the authorities intended to arrest Mr. Moussavi or any others not yet charged, but prosecutors accused him of drawing crucial support from enemies of the state in Iran and abroad.

The only media organization allowed to cover the trial was the semiofficial Fars news agency, which has links to the country’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. That, in combination with recent revelations about the Guards’ central role in holding detained protesters, bolstered a widespread view that the Guards were aggressively leading the effort to put down the opposition movement. Some have taken Mr. Ahmadinejad’s dismissal last week of his intelligence minister, who had objected to the broadcasting of confessions by detainees, as yet another sign of the Guards’ control.

On Saturday, prosecutors highlighted what they called a confession by Muhammad Ali Abtahi, a cleric who served as vice president under the reformist government of Mohammad Khatami. Mr. Abtahi, one of Iran’s most widely read bloggers, was arrested shortly after the election, and word later emerged that he had appeared in a tearful videotaped confession. Such confessions, which have frequently been used before, are almost always obtained under duress, according to human rights groups and the defendants themselves.

“I believe the reformists had prepared for two or three years for this election, in order to limit the powers of the supreme leader,” Mr. Abtahi said, according to a Fars transcript. “I want to tell all friends that there was no fraud in the election, it was just a lie to build the protests around.”

In his confession, Mr. Abtahi began by praising the high election turnout. Later in the confession, he said the three leading opposition figures — Mr. Moussavi, Mr. Khatami and former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani — “promised to always back each other up” in distorting the election results.

Mr. Rafsanjani, a powerful insider who has shown support for the opposition, harshly criticized the trial on Saturday, saying that “the obtaining of confessions from those who have recently been imprisoned,” which formed the basis of the indictment, had thrown the basis of the country’s entire government into question, according to a statement posted on the semiofficial Mehr news agency.

In photographs, Mr. Abtahi could be seen sitting in a gray prison uniform in the front row at the trial clutching a white piece of paper, his cleric’s turban gone and his face a grim mask. Seated near him was Muhammad Atrianfar, a prominent journalist who served as deputy interior minister.

There were other former high-ranking officials in the dock as well, including a former deputy Parliament speaker, Behzad Nabavi, and a former deputy economy minister, Mohsen Safai-Farahani. Also on trial was an Iranian-American scholar, Kian Tajbakhsh, who was seized last month by the police.

The deputy prosecutor in Tehran, Abdolreza Mohebati, also referred to what he called incriminating remarks by Maziar Bahari, a journalist who works for Newsweek, suggesting that there was a “policy of the Western media” to say the trial was rigged before it even took place. Later, Mr. Bahari was brought out to speak to journalists on the sidelines of the trial, where he delivered a short, chilling lecture on the media’s alleged role in fomenting a “velvet revolution.” He then asked forgiveness from the Iranian people and the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Some senior government officials touted Mr. Abtahi’s confession as proof of the opposition’s malign intent. But the confession, which was disjointed and at times almost incoherent, seemed to be a kind of compromise with what his interrogators wanted him to say. At one point, Mr. Abtahi is quoted as saying, “I think there was the capacity for what the deputy prosecutor called a ‘velvet revolution,’ but I don’t know if the intention was there or not.”

Like the prosecutors’ opening statement, the six-part indictment was wide-ranging but focused heavily on the role of the media, suggesting repeatedly that acts as simple as taking pictures of protests should be seen as criminal acts aimed at subverting the Islamic republic and its supreme leader. Its claims were based largely on the alleged confessions of Mr. Abtahi and others, and on the testimony of an unnamed alleged spy.

The indictment did not identify specific charges, but in past trials the government accused defendants of “acting against national security,” which can carry the death penalty. In earlier cases, reformists were convicted and sentenced to long prison terms, which often were significantly reduced by appeals courts.

Omid Memarian, an Iran consultant at Human Rights Watch who was jailed in 2004 on accusations of jeopardizing national security, said the government now wants to justify its use of violence in putting down the demonstrations.

“It is part of their effort to say the results were not rigged,” he said. “But it will backlash against them like other efforts.”

Robert F. Worth reported from Beirut, and Nazila Fathi from Toronto.
 

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AFP: Iran opposition says protesters 'tortured'

Iran opposition says protesters 'tortured'

By Jay Deshmukh (AFP) – 8 hours ago

TEHRAN — Iran's opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi accused the authorities on Sunday of using "medieval torture" to extract confessions from protesters on trial over the wave of post-election unrest.

Former president Mohammad Khatami also said Saturday's mass trial of 100 protesters and prominent reformists was against the constitution, putting him at loggerheads with hardliners who openly accused him and Mousavi of "treason."

Another 10 people were brought before a revolutionary court on Sunday on charges relating to the massive street protests that erupted after hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's bitterly disputed election victory in June.

And as the factional feuding escalated, the powerful hardline wing in Iran took aim at both opposition leaders, accusing them of trying to lead a "velvet revolution" and lodging a judicial complaint against Mousavi.

"The scenes that we saw were a clumsy preparation for the launch of the 10th government," Mousavi said on his website of Saturday's trial, held just days before Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in on Wednesday.

"They expect a court, which itself is fraudulent, to prove that there was no fraud committed in the election," said Mousavi, a former post-revolution premier who lost to Ahmadinejad in what he said was a rigged election.

"What are they trying to convince people of... by relying on reports from reporters nobody has heard of and relying on confessions which obviously bore the hallmarks medieval-era torture?"

His comments came after some top reformists, including a prominent Khatami aide, made a dramatic climbdown by at the trial, saying Ahmadinejad's victory was clean and that they had been pushed into demonstrating against the results.

Khatami also denounced the trial, the first since Ahmadinejad's re-election set off the worst crisis in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic and exposing deep differences among the ruling elite.

"What was done yesterday is against the constitution, regular laws and rights of the citizens," Khatami's office quoted him as telling a group of political activists and lawmakers.

Khatami, who served two terms as president before being succeeded by Ahmadinejad in 2005, said the court had relied on "confessions taken under certain circumstances which are not valid."

Those on trial face charges including rioting, vandalism, having ties with counter-revolutionary groups and plotting to launch a "velvet revolution."

They face a maximum jail term of five years if convicted, unless they are charged with being a "mohareb" or enemy of God, which can carry the death penalty.

Around 2,000 protesters, reformists, political activists and journalists were initially detained by authorities in a crackdown on the massive public protests over the vote, which Mousavi has branded a "shameful fraud."

About 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded. Most protesters have been released but around 250 still remain behind bars.

Another 10 protesters were put on trial before a revolutionary court in closed session on Sunday, the ISNA news agency reported.

And a group of Iranian MPs have filed a complaint to the judiciary against Mousavi over the post-election violence, the Fars news agency reported.

"Those who issued statements and directed recent riots should be accountable for the bloodshed and go on trial," said Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, a hardline member of parliament's judicial commission.

Rahbar said Mousavi and Khatami were the main culprits behind the unrest.

The rival declarations underscore the scale of the political infighting in Iran, which has also seen Ahmadinejad come under fire even from own hardline supporters and triggered warnings of further radicalisation.

"Evidence of Khatami and Mousavi's treason unveiled," thundered the headline in the hardline Kayhan newspaper.

"The plot leaders are corrupt people whose unforgiveable crimes include killing innocent people and cooperating with foreign enemies. But trying and punishing the mid-ranking elements cannot be the end of story," it said.

"If the main instigators of unrest who are known are not confronted, they will continue conspiring."

However, another defeated candidate, former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezai, also called for security forces who cracked down on protesters to be brought to justice, blaming the unrest on "rioters and rogue elements and officials who trampled on the law."

Conservative cleric Hojatoleslam Abolhassan Navab, a senior member of the Association of Military Clergy, said Iran was being radicalised by the internal feuding.

"Some people from both sides are taking the country towards radicalisation. It seems that nobody wants to restore calm in the country," he was quoted as saying by ISNA.
 

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AFP: Mousavi says protesters confessed after 'torture'

Mousavi says protesters confessed after 'torture'

(AFP) – 2 hours ago

TEHRAN — Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said on Sunday that confessions made by protesters at a closed-door trial were made after they were put through "medieval-era torture."

"The scenes that we saw were a clumsy preparation for the launch of the 10th government," Mousavi said on his website Ghalamnews the day after 100 people were put on trial over post-election protests.

"They expect a court, which itself is fraudulent, to prove that there was no fraud committed in the election," said Mousavi, who was defeated by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election.

"What are they trying to convince people of... by relying on reports from reporters nobody has heard of and relying on confessions which obviously bore the hallmarks medieval-era torture?"
 

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AFP: Iran's Khatami slams trial of election protesters

Iran's Khatami slams trial of election protesters

By Jay Deshmukh (AFP) – 8 hours ago

TEHRAN — Iran's reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami lashed out on Sunday at the trial of 100 people accused of rioting after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, putting him at loggerheads with hardliners who accuse him of "treason."

Khatami's strongly-worded declaration underscored the escalating feud between rival factions in the Islamic republic which is battling the worst crisis in its 30-year history over the June election.

About 100 people were put on trial before a revolutionary court in Tehran on Saturday on charges including rioting, vandalism, having ties with counter-revolutionary groups and plotting to launch a "velvet revolution."

"What was done yesterday is against the constitution, regular laws and rights of the citizens," Khatami's office quoted him as telling a group of political activists and lawmakers.

Khatami, who served two terms as president before being succeeded by Ahmadinejad in 2005, said the court had relied on "confessions taken under certain circumstances which are not valid."

"The most important problem with the trial procedure is that it was not held in an open session. The lawyers and the defendants were not informed of the contents of the cases ahead of the trial," the charismatic cleric said.

But in a major blow to the opposition, Saturday's closed-door trial saw a dramatic climbdown by some top reformists, including Khatami aides, who said Ahmadinejad's June 12 election victory was clean.

Around 2,000 protesters, reformists, political activists and journalists were initially detained by authorities in a crackdown on the massive public protests over the vote, which Mousavi has branded a "shameful fraud."

Around 30 people were killed and hundreds wounded in the unrest.

Most protesters have been released but around 250 still remain behind bars.

"Evidence of Khatami and Mousavi's treason unveiled," thundered the headline in the hardline Kayhan newspaper.

"The plot leaders are corrupt people whose unforgiveable crimes include killing innocent people and cooperating with foreign enemies. But trying and punishing the mid-ranking elements cannot be the end of story," it said.

"If the main instigators of unrest who are known are not confronted, they will continue conspiring."

Those on trial face a maximum jail term of five years if convicted, unless they are charged with being a "mohareb" or enemy of God, which can carry the death penalty.

However, another defeated candidate, former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezai also called for the prosecution of security forces who cracked down on protesters, blaming the unrest on "rioters and rogue elements and officials who trampled on the law."

Offenders including those who "attacked Tehran university dorms, beat up detainees and hit protesters calmly demonstrating in the streets" should go on trial, Rezai wrote to judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahrudi.

Several reformists testified from the dock on Saturday that there was no fraud in the election that returned Ahmadinejad to power for another four years, Iranian news agencies said.

Mohammad Ali Abtahi, a close Khatami aide, told the court he should not have taken part in protests as there was no poll rigging.

"I say to all my friends and all friends who hear us, that the issue of fraud in Iran was a lie and was brought up to create riots so Iran becomes like Afghanistan and Iraq and suffers damage and hardship," Abtahi said.

Abtahi, according to the Fars news agency, also testified that Mousavi, Khatami and powerful cleric and former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani had taken an "oath" not to abandon each other.

"Mousavi probably did not know the country, but Khatami, with all due respect... knew all the issues. He was aware of the capability and power of the leader, but he joined Mousavi and this was a betrayal," the cleric said.

Abtahi's wife was quoted on the website of Karroubi's political party Etemad Melli as saying that her husband was not in a "normal" state" when he testified.
 

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The Associated Press: Conservative calls on Iran to hold second trial

Conservative calls on Iran to hold second trial

(AP) – 4 hours ago

TEHRAN, IRAN — A conservative who ran in Iran's disputed presidential election has criticized the government for not putting people on trial who attacked opposition protesters and tortured detainees.

Mohsen Rezaei sent a letter to Iran's judiciary chief saying the post-election unrest would likely continue if those who harmed opposition supporters were not brought to justice.

Sunday's report on Rezaei's Web site comes a day after Iran began its first trial against protesters and activists following the June 12 vote.

The opposition claims President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stole the election through fraud.

Iran's parliament says at least 30 people have been killed in post-election unrest. The son of one of Rezaei's top aides died while in detention.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — An influential pro-reform ex-president criticized the country's first trial of activists and protesters following the disputed presidential election as a sham that would further erode confidence in the ruling Islamic establishment.

Mohammad Khatami said he hoped the "show" trial of more than 100 people that started Saturday would not "lead to ignorance of the real crimes" carried out by authorities following the June 12 vote, including alleged abuse and murder of detainees.

The opposition has sought to capitalize on growing criticism from both conservatives and reformists of the government's violent crack down against the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the streets following the election to protest hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed victory.

At least 20 people were killed in the unrest that followed the vote, although human rights groups believed the number is far greater and at least one person has died while in government detention.

The mass trial is part of the government's efforts to choke off the protest movement by targeting key supporters of Mir Hossein Mousavi, the opposition leader who claims he was the true election winner. The defendants include some of the most prominent reformist politicians, including Khatami's former vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi.

The government used Saturday's hearing to press its claims that the opposition was a tool of foreign countries seeking to topple the Iranian government.

State media quoted Abtahi and others as confessing to working together to foment unrest. But rights groups have said such confessions are often obtained under duress in Iran.

"Relying on claimed confessions expressed in this specific situation has no credit," said Khatami, according to a report posted on his Web site, Baran, late Saturday.

The former president, who held office from 1997 to 2005, criticized the court for not allowing defendants' lawyers access to the courtroom or the case files.

"As far as I have learned, what happened in the trial was contrary to the constitution and law, as well as citizens' rights," said Khatami.

Instead of a show trial, Khatami said the public expected the government to "confront the problems and tragedies that happened in some detention centers and apparently led to murder."

Some conservatives joined the chorus of reformists criticizing the government's violent crack down following the death of the son of a prominent member of their camp, Abdolhossein Rouhalamini. Rouhalamini is a close ally of Mohsen Rezai, the only conservative who ran against Ahmadinejad in the election.

His son, Mohsen, who was arrested during a July 9 protest, was taken to a hospital after two weeks and died. The Norooz Web site reported that Mohsen's face was beaten in when his father received the body.

The growing criticism comes only days before Ahmadinejad is to be sworn into a second term and has compounded the biggest challenge the cleric-led government has faced since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
 

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AFP: Iran hardliners accuse opposition of 'treason'

Iran hardliners accuse opposition of 'treason'

By Jay Deshmukh (AFP) – 9 hours ago

TEHRAN — Iranian hardliners accused opposition leaders of treason on Sunday as defeated presidential challenger Mir Hossein Mousavi said the authorities used "medieval torture" to force confessions from protesters on trial over the election unrest.

Former president Mohammad Khatami also said Saturday's mass trial of 100 protesters and prominent reformists was against the constitution, putting him at loggerheads with hardliners in an escalating feud between rival factions.

The powerful hardline wing took aim at both opposition leaders, accusing them of trying to lead a "velvet revolution" after the June re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and lodging a judicial complaint against Mousavi.

And another 10 people were brought before a revolutionary court on Sunday on charges relating to the massive street protests that erupted after Ahmadinejad was returned to power in what the opposition said was a rigged vote.

"Evidence of Khatami and Mousavi's treason unveiled," thundered the headline in the hardline Kayhan newspaper.

"The plot leaders are corrupt people whose unforgiveable crimes include killing innocent people and cooperating with foreign enemies," it said.

"If the main instigators of unrest who are known are not confronted, they will continue conspiring."

A group of hardline MPs stepped up the pressure on the opposition, filing a complaint against Mousavi to the judiciary, the Fars news agency said.

"Those who issued statements and directed recent riots should be accountable for the bloodshed and go on trial," said Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, a hardline member of parliament's judicial commission.

But Mousavi remained defiant and said confessions at Saturday's trial were extracted by torture.

"The scenes that we saw were a clumsy preparation for the launch of the 10th government," Mousavi said on his website about the trial, held just days before Ahmadinejad is to be sworn in on Wednesday.

"They expect a court, which itself is fraudulent, to prove that there was no fraud committed in the election," said Mousavi, a former post-revolution premier who lost to Ahmadinejad.

"What are they trying to convince people of... (by) relying on confessions which obviously bore the hallmarks of medieval-era torture?"

His comments came after some reformists, including a prominent Khatami aide, made a dramatic climbdown at the trial, saying Ahmadinejad's victory was clean and that they had been pushed into demonstrating against the results.

Khatami also denounced the trial, the first since Ahmadinejad's re-election set off the worst crisis in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic and exposing deep differences among the ruling elite.

"What was done yesterday is against the constitution, regular laws and rights of the citizens," Khatami's office quoted him as telling a group of political activists and lawmakers.

Khatami, who served two terms as president before being succeeded by Ahmadinejad in 2005, said the court had relied on "confessions taken under certain circumstances which are not valid."

The Tehran court dismissed the opposition attacks, saying that securing a "confession is one way of proving a crime and no legal expert has ever cast doubt on that."

The 100 face charges including rioting, vandalism, having ties with counter-revolutionary groups and plotting a "velvet revolution."

They face a maximum jail term of five years if convicted, unless they are charged with being a "mohareb" or enemy of God, which can carry the death penalty.

Around 2,000 people were initially detained in a post-election crackdown that saw about 30 people killed. Most protesters have been released but around 250 remain behind bars.

Another defeated candidate, former Revolutionary Guards chief Mohsen Rezai, called for security forces who cracked down on protesters and "trampled on the law" to be brought to justice.

The rival declarations underscore the scale of the political infighting in Iran, which has also seen Ahmadinejad come under fire even from own hardline supporters.

Conservative cleric Hojatoleslam Abolhassan Navab, a senior member of the Association of Military Clergy, said Iran was being radicalised by the feuding.

"Some people from both sides are taking the country towards radicalisation. It seems that nobody wants to restore calm in the country," he was quoted as saying by ISNA.
 

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The Associated Press: Ahmadinejad sworn in as Iran president amid crisis

Ahmadinejad sworn in as Iran president amid crisis

By NASSER KARIMI (AP) – 58 minutes ago

TEHRAN, Iran — Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was sworn in Wednesday for a second term as president nearly two months after a disputed election triggered massive street protests, split Iran's clerical leadership and brought attacks from within his own conservative camp over mistreatment of detained opposition activists.

In streets near parliament, security forces using batons dispersed hundreds of protesters who chanted "Death to the Dictator," witnesses said. Some wore black T-shirts in a sign of grief and others wore green — the color of the opposition movement. A middle-aged woman carried a banner warning Iran's leaders if they do not listen to people's demands, they will face the same fate as Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled in the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Key opposition leaders, moderate lawmakers and all three of Ahmadinejad's election challengers boycotted the swearing in ceremony. State-run Press TV said more than 5,000 security forces deployed around the parliament building and police with sniffer dogs patrolled the area after the opposition called for demonstrations to coincide with the inauguration.

In his inaugural address, Ahmadinejad seemed to tone down his often-bellicose rhetoric and emphasized his plans to improve the faltering economy. He demanded that Iran be on an equal footing with other world powers and denounced foreign interference. The government has accused the U.S. and the West of backing street protests.

"We must play a key role in the management of the world," Ahmadinejad said. "We will not remain silent. We will not tolerate disrespect, interference and insults," he added. "I will spare no effort to safeguard the frontiers of Iran."

Ahmadinejad noted that some Western countries — including the U.S., Britain, France, Germany and Italy — did not congratulate him on his election win.

"Some countries have not recognized the elections or extended their congratulations. They do not respect the rights of other nations, yet they recognize themselves as the yardstick for democracy," he said, without naming specific countries. "Nobody in Iran is waiting for anyone's congratulations," he added, to cheers from lawmakers.

A British Foreign Office spokesman said his country has serious concerns over the election, Iran's contentious nuclear program and human rights that must be addressed first.

"There are many people inside Iran who have serious concerns about the outcome and conduct of the election," said the spokesman, who was not authorized to speak on the record. "We have repeatedly called on the government of Iran to address these concerns," he added. "It is not business as usual with Iran, which is why we will not be sending a message of congratulations to Ahmadinejad."

Ahmadinejad did not directly address President Barack Obama's outreach for the start of a dialogue on Iran's nuclear program, which the U.S. suspects is geared toward producing weapons.

But he said: "Iran is a nation of logic, dialogue and constructive interaction. The basis of our foreign policy is wide and constructive contacts with all nations and independent governments based on justice, respect and friendship."

The U.S. administration has given Iran a vague deadline of September to respond positively to the outreach or face stiffened sanctions. But U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton acknowledged recently that the election turmoil appears to have paralyzed decision-making on the U.S. offer.

"I don't think they have any capacity to make that kind of decision right now," Clinton said.

Iran's detention last week of three Americans who strayed across the border while hiking in northern Iraq has added a new point of friction in relations with the U.S.

Ahmadinejad mentioned the election crisis only in passing, without direct reference to the opposition or the huge street protests and clashes since the June 12 vote. The opposition claims Ahmadinejad was re-elected by fraud and pro-reform leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was the true winner.

Ahmadinejad said the Iranian people were the main winners of the vote and foreign enemies stirred up "plenty of dust" that clouded the issue.

"They raised many questions on it and tried to portray a dark future," he said.

In an apparent warning to demonstrators, he said his government would "resist any violation of law and interference."

But he also urged unity.

"We should join hands as we move forward to fulfill our goals," he said.

In contrast to past inauguration ceremonies, former presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami were absent. They are two of the most powerful supporters of the opposition. Mousavi and another pro-reform defeated presidential candidate, Mahdi Karroubi, also stayed away.

The only other conservative candidate in the election, Mohsen Rezaei, also was absent. Rezaei, once commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, has been the most outspoken critic of Ahmadinejad and the election from within the president's own conservative camp. He has led demands for high-level probes into abuses after the son of his top aide died in detention. He was arrested during a protest.

Parliament speaker Ali Larijani said 273 out of total 290 Iranian lawmakers were present in the ceremony. But a Web site of opposition in parliament said 53 of its lawmakers were not there. It said some of them had walked out in protest when Ahmadinejad began speaking.

Hundreds of police deployed around parliament and two subway stations nearby were closed to the public. Witnesses said at least 10 people were detained by police. Authorities have banned foreign media from going out to cover any opposition activities, forcing them to rely on witness accounts and tightly controlled state media.

In the days leading up to the inauguration, opposition groups had called protesters into the streets to coincide with the swearing in, spreading the word through postings on reformist Web sites and blogs.

The calls showed the protesters resolve to keep confronting the government even though a harsh crackdown by security forces on any street demonstrations has killed at least 30, according to Iran's official toll. Human rights group suspect the death toll is far higher.

The opposition, and some powerful conservatives, have also been angered by a mass trial for more than 100 pro-reform figures and protesters set to resume Thursday. Among those on trial are many prominent reformist activists and political figures, accused of challenging the Islamic system.

The trial added to the rifts within Iran's leadership over its handling of the most serious domestic upheaval since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Still Ahmadinejad sought in his speech to show he was moving ahead as a strong and legitimate leader despite the election turmoil. For much of the address, he focused on bringing economic and social justice in Iran, fighting corruption and improving the economy. Those promises reflected the populist platform that has gained him broad support among the country's poor, many of whom feel that Iran's elite have made themselves rich off corruption.
 

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The Associated Press: Iran's supreme leader warns opposition in sermon

Iran's supreme leader warns opposition in sermon


By ALI AKBAR DAREINI (AP) – 2 hours ago

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned the country's reformist opposition on Friday it would face a "harsh response" for confronting the Islamic establishment.

Khamenei's tough warning, in a nationally televised Friday prayer sermon, comes as security forces have hiked up pressure on the opposition's leaders, launching a series of raids that detained several of their top aides. In separate sermons, several hard-line clerics Friday repeated calls for the top opposition chiefs themselves to be arrested.

It was the second time that Khamenei has delivered Tehran's main sermon — a powerful political platform — since the disputed June 12 presidential election that sparked Iran's worst political turmoil in decades. The opposition claims President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election by fraud and that the true winner was pro-reform candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in mass protests in support of Mousavi, until Khamenei delivered a Friday prayer sermon soon after the vote backing Ahmadinejad's victory and demanding a halt to unrest. Security forces launched a crackdown that crushed the protests, arresting hundreds. The opposition says at least 72 people were killed, though authorities have confirmed only 36 deaths.

In his sermon Friday, Khamenei said peaceful differences and criticism of officials would be tolerated. But, he said, "confronting the system and drawing a sword against the system will bring a harsh response."

He also directly warned against protests on "Quds Day" — an annual event on Sept. 18, when the government organizes rallies in support of the Palestinians and against Israel. Some opposition activists have called for new anti-government protests on Quds Day — referring to the Arabic word for Jerusalem.

"The people should be on the lookout for some who use Quds Day to create divisions," Khamenei said.

Khamenei stands at the top of Iran's hierarchy of ruling clerics, and his word is considered supreme in political matters. The opposition's continued refusal to accept Ahmadinejad and its campaign against his government has been an unprecedented challenge to Khamenei's authority.

Hard-liners have accused the opposition of aiming to overthrow the clerical system with the wave of protests, and the government is holding a mass trial of more than 100 detained political activists and protesters who it claims provoked the mass demonstrations.

Ahmadinejad, hard-line clerics and commanders in the powerful Revolutionary Guard have called for the top opposition leaders to be arrested as well — referring to Mousavi and his allies Mahdi Karroubi and former President Mohammad Khatami. Detaining them would be a major escalation, a step that Khamenei so far has appeared hesitant to take.

Several prayer leaders around the country repeated those calls. In the southern city of Isfahan, Ayatollah Yousef Tabatabai asked why the judiciary has put lower-level opposition figures on trial "but does nothing with those who caused the recent events," the state news agency IRNA reported.

He said anyone calling for protests on Quds Day should be arrested.

In the past week, security forces launched a series of raids clamping down on an opposition campaign to investigate allegations that protesters arrested in the crackdown were tortured and raped — charges that have proved deeply embarrassing to the government. The raids shut down two offices connected to Karroubi and arrested four aides of Karroubi and Mousavi.
 

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