Iran has freed a close aide to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and a prominent lawyer who belongs to Nobel prize winner Shirin Ebadi’s rights group, the ILNA news agency reported on Sunday.
Alireza Beheshti, the aide, was freed on Saturday night, ILNA said.
He was arrested last Tuesday following a raid on his office, which was set up to probe alleged post-vote prisoners’ abuse.
RIGHTS GROUP
ILNA also said that lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, was freed on Sunday after posting bail of 5 billion rials (US$500,000).
Dadkhah, who is a founder of the Human Rights Defenders Centre headed by Ebadi, was arrested in early July amid a crackdown on critics and opposition supporters.
Iran has jailed scores of reformists, journalists and rights activists in the wake of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed June 12 re-election.
The opposition charged that the poll was massively rigged, sparking week-long street protests during which thousands were arrested and dozens of other people killed.
Defeated reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi has also charged that several protesters were raped in custody, but Iranian judiciary on Saturday rejected the allegations as baseless and called for action against Karroubi.
TRIALS RESUME
A student leader and five other protesters who opposed the re-election of Ahmadinejad were in the dock yesterday as the mass trials of anti-vote demonstrators resumed.
The official IRNA news agency said six protesters went on trial, including Abdollah Momeni, a student leader.
Iran has already put about 140 protesters on trial for contesting the re-election.
Those on trial include leading reformist politicians, activists and employees of the British and French embassies.
The opposition has denounced what it has called a “show trial.”
The post-election unrest killed 36 people, Iranian officials say, but opposition groups say 72 people died — some of them in police custody.
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