TEHRAN (Al Arabiya, Reuters)
Dozens of relatives of prominent reformers and other people detained after Iran's disputed election gathered outside the prosecutor's office in Tehran on Wednesday to call for their release, a witness said.
Family members, including wives of people arrested after the June vote, held pictures of detainees, among them former deputy interior minister Mostafa Tajzadeh and former government spokesman Abdullah Ramezanzadeh, the witness said.
The gathering was peaceful and there was no sign of police, the witness said. The relatives did not chant slogans, but called for the detainees to be freed in writing on placards.
"The political court should be closed down," one placard said. "Where is the judiciary's independence?" asked another. |
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Meeting with prosecutor The official IRNA news agency later said Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi met with a group of relatives of detainees who had gathered outside his office, without giving details.
Thousands of people were arrested after the June 12 presidential election, which sparked huge street protests.
The moderate opposition says the poll was rigged to secure hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. The authorities deny it.
Most of the detainees have since been released, but more than 100 senior reformers, activists, journalists and others, have been put on trial accused of fomenting post-election unrest. The opposition has denounced the court sessions as "show trials."
The authorities have portrayed the post-election street demonstrations, which were quelled by the elite Revolutionary Guards and the Basij, an allied Islamic militia, as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic Republic. |
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Casting doubt is a "crime" " Of course some people inside Iran may not be aware that they are moving in line with the enemies' threats, but this issue will not change the truth " Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Also on Wednesday Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said it was a crime to cast doubt on the presidential election results, state television reported.
Khamenei said the election was held and there was a big voter turnout but that some people had "unfairly" ignored this.
"The leader ... termed questioning the basis of the election the biggest crime," state television said in a report from Khamenei's meeting with leading scientists in Tehran.
It quoted him as saying: "The day after the election, some people called the glorious election a lie. Is this a minor crime?"
"Of course some people inside (Iran) may not be aware that they are moving in line with the enemies' threats, but this issue will not change the truth," said Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state. |
