Anti-Ahmadinejad Protesters Prosecuted

    Iran to put more anti-Ahmadinejad protesters on trial

    (AFP)

    TEHRAN -- Iran will put on trial on Tuesday seven more protesters
    arrested in the aftermath of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed
    election victory, the ISNA news agency reported.

    The Fars news agency said those facing prosecution were political
    activists and rioters arrested during the violence which erupted after
    the hardline president's re-election in June.

    Iran has already staged mass trials of around 140 people on offences
    linked to the massive demonstrations that followed Ahmadinejad's
    victory.

    At previous hearings the defendants have included top reformists,
    political activists, a young French woman lecturer and two employees
    of the French and British embassies.

    The court proceedings, which opposition leaders denounced as "show
    trials," have angered the international community and heightened
    political tensions as Iran battles its worst crisis since the 1979
    Islamic revolution.

    Ahmadinejad's re-election triggered massive street protests in Tehran
    and other cities by supporters of his closest rival, the former
    post-revolution prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, and other defeated
    candidates.

    Officials have said at least 30 people were killed in clashes with
    security forces, but the opposition puts the death toll at 69.

    About 4,000 people were initially detained over the protests and
    hundreds are still behind bars, amid opposition allegations that some
    have been killed, raped and abused in custody.

    Meanwhile, cleric Grand Ayatollah Assadollah Bayat Zanjani has said on
    his website that those who killed protesters in the unrest must also
    face trial themselves.

    "The Iranian people did not deserve what happened after the
    election... and those who intentionally or unintentionally spilled the
    blood of people of this country must be tried as soon as possible," he
    said.

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