Thaindian News

Tehran, July 5 (DPA) A group of Iranian religious scholars Sunday joined the ranks of those alleging fraud in the June 12 presidential election, by calling the poll invalid.
The Assembly of Seminary Scholars and Researchers, based in the religious stronghold of Qom, in a statement accused the Guardian Council of partiality in the election review process, and of ignoring the complaints of the opposition regarding irregularities.

The Guardian Council is Iran’s highest legislative body, and was responsible for investigating the conduct of the election following massive demonstrations in Tehran after the result of the June 12 poll was announced.

Last Monday, the Guardian Council approved the results of the election, in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won, and said there had been no major irregularities.

The Assembly also decried the violence that followed the vote, in which at least 20 demonstrators are thought to have died.

The Assembly is regarded as a moderate and reform-oriented group, but does not have the same political influence as other, conservative, groupings in Qom.

Meanwhile, the head of Iranian police, General Ismeil Ahmadi-Moqaddam said Sunday that the judicial processes of the individuals detained during the protests was now beginning, the Mehr news agency reported.

More than 1,000 people are believed to have been detained during the protests, in which hundreds of thousands of Iranians took part.

The general did not specify how many individuals were being prosecuted, but accused some of them of having received “training abroad” in the pursuit of a “velvet revolution” at home.

“The police have details about the activities of these people who tried to question the legitimacy of the election and expose fraud with the help of Western media and their embassies,” Ahmadi-Moqaddam said.

A number of former reformist officials, including former vice-president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, are believed to be in jail for their suspected role in the protests.

The police chief denied that anyone had died during the protests at the hands of the police.

“The police did not shoot one single bullet,” he said.

On the death of female protestor Neda Agha-Soltan, who became a symbol of the opposition, Ahmadi-Moqaddam said that an investigation was ongoing into her case, but appeared to imply that security forces were not responsible for her death.

“It is clear that the killing took place in a place which was far away from the demonstration venue,” he said.

Iranian state officials have claimed that Soltan was killed by demonstrators, not by security forces.

On Sunday, the head of Iran’s judiciary, Ayatollah Hashemi Shahroudi, appeared to promote greater censorship and media control in the country.

In a circular, he said that Iran should “seriously confront expansion of satellite networks opposing the Iranian establishment”.

The BBC’s Farsi channel, which Iranians can receive via satellite, has been accused by the government of fomenting the recent political turmoil.

The release of eighth of nine Iranian detained employees of the British embassy in Tehran was expected Sunday, Foreign Secretary David Miliband said, according to BBC reports.

Miliband said that all efforts were now being made for the release of the last employee still held by Iran, the embassy’s chief political analyst, who has been charged with threatening national security and is facing trial.

The nine local staff of the embassy were arrested a week ago amid accusations that they had helped foment the protests that gripped Tehran following the declaration of the presidential results.

“(The ambassador) was told by the deputy foreign minister that the eighth person would indeed be released today (Sunday), that the papers had been signed, that there would not be a court process or charges,” Miliband said, according to BBC reports.

Britain has denied any involvement of its embassy staff in the protests.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said that Iran Sunday released a detained Greek-British correspondent of the Washington Times.

The spokesman said on the website of state television network IRIB that despite “professional violations” by Iason Athanasiadis, the correspondent had been freed for humanitarian reasons and after mediation by the Iranian embassy in Athens and the Iranian UN office in New York.

Athanasiadis was previously declared persona non grata by the Iranian authorities but allowed to enter the country to cover the June 12 election, the spokesman said.

Athanasiadis was arrested two weeks ago, reportedly for covering the protest demonstrations over alleged election fraud, despite a ban on the Western media directly covering the unrest.