Iran MP committee probing mass burial "rumor"

A member of a parliamentary committee looking into events after Iran's disputed election said on Tuesday the committee was investigating a rumored "mass burial" in a Tehran cemetery of protesters who had been killed.

The reformist website Norooz said last week that "tens" of people were buried in unnamed graves in the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on July 12 and 15 -- about a month after the election, which sparked widespread street protests. Norooz did not identify those who were buried or say how they died.

"Parliament is investigating a rumor about a mass burial of post-vote detainees," the official IRNA news agency quoted MP Hamidreza Katouzian as saying.

"We cannot deny or confirm the case at the current time and if it is needed we will visit Behesht-e Zahra," Katouzian added, referring to Tehran's largest cemetery south of the capital.

Parliament is investigating a rumor about a mass burial of post-vote detainees

MP Hamidreza Kato

Disagreement on death toll

The losing candidates say 69 people were killed in the unrest that erupted after the June 12 election, which they say was rigged in favor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The authorities have put the post-election death toll at 26.

Norooz, the news website of the leading reformist party Mosharekat, said in its report that "tens of unnamed and unknown people were buried in section 302 in Behesht-e Zahra."

It said 28 burial permissions were issued without names on July 12 and 16 more three days later.

The poll and its turbulent aftermath have plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution and exposed deepening divisions within the ruling elite.

Thousands of people were arrested during widespread street unrest after the vote. At least 200 people remain in jail, including senior moderate politicians, activists, lawyers and journalists.

Iran held a fourth mass trial of leading post-election detainees on Tuesday. Analysts say the trials are aimed at uprooting the opposition and putting an end to protests.

We cannot deny or confirm the case at the current time and if it is needed we will visit Behesht-e Zahra

MP Hamidreza Katouzian

Allegations of rape

Yesterday a group of Iranian MPs agreed that four post-election protesters who allege that they were raped in custody should be given protection to detail their complaints, the Mehr news agency reported.

The parliamentary commission, which included the head of the powerful national security and foreign policy committee, Alaeddin Borujerdi, took the decision after meeting Pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi, who came fourth in the vote and who has angered hardliners with his allegations that detainees were abused.

"Karoubi discussed with us the situation of four people who approached him and claimed that they were raped," Mehr quoted MP Kazem Jalali as saying after the meeting.

"We asked Mr. Karoubi if he was certain that these people were raped. He said: 'I am uncertain and, as I said before, the accuracy of the allegations can be investigated'."

Jalali said Karroubi had stressed that the four "were willing to testify but didn't feel secure about coming forward."

"It was decided that the cases be examined under conditions whereby the four feel secure," he said, adding that any wrongdoing uncovered would be punished through the courts.

was decided that the cases be examined under conditions whereby the four feel secure

MP Kazem Jalali

Claims initially dismissed

Karoubi's allegations that some of the hundreds of activists detained amid the protests had been raped were initially dismissed by parliament speaker Ali Larijani.

But MPs later agreed to set up a commission of inquiry.

Karoubi posted the testimony of one of the complainants on his party's Etemad Melli website on Monday.

"In jail they nearly beat me to death and then did something to me that is a sin even for apostates and idol-worshippers," said the complainant, who the website did not identify.

He said that Karoubi had persuaded him to lodge a formal complaint but that he had been intimidated by security agents.

Instead of investigating his allegation they had questioned him about his connections to Karoubi and accused him of "being bribed to make the claim," the man said.

The defeated presidential candidate has charged that some people arrested in the post-election protests were also tortured and that some were beaten to death in jail.

In jail they nearly beat me to death and then did something to me that is a sin even for apostates and idol-worshippers

Complainant