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Nine Iranian Opposition Figures Released From Jail
TEHRAN, March 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Nine of 21 Iranian dissidents detained over the weekend on suspicion of conspiring against the government were freed Tuesday, including journalist Ahmad Zeid-Abadi, the Washington Post reports.
Zeid-Abadi, his brother-in-law, father-in-law and six others, were set free overnight Monday, associates said, adding that prominent opposition figures such as Habibollah Peyman and Taghi Rahmani were still being held.
The detainees were either members, or close to members, of the Freedom Movement, a small opposition group that is technically outlawed but tolerated in Iran. The group said the 21 detainees had been meeting at the home of Mohammad Basteh-Negar, a prominent dissident, the Post mentions.
Peyman's wife, Marzieh Langharudi, as well as political activist Fatemeh Govaraie, close to liberal circles, were among those released, they said.
The official IRNA news agency, citing the head of Tehran's revolutionary court, Ali Mobasheri, reported later Tuesday that 10 people in all had been released while 11 people remained in jail.
He said they had been freed "immediately" after their arrest on Sunday and that investigations of those still held were under way.
The judiciary said Monday that 20 people in all had been arrested in a swoop on a Tehran gathering Sunday that the banned but tolerated opposition Iran Freedom Movement (IFM) said was convened to celebrate Zeid-Abadi's release from prison on bail last week.
Press reports Tuesday, citing the head of Tehran's revolutionary courts, said those arrested were suspected of plotting against the regime, a charge which can carry the death penalty.
Khatami's reformist allies have been locked in a power struggle with Iran's hard-liners, who control the judiciary and security forces. Hard-liners have closed 33 publications, all but two of them pro-reform newspapers, and jailed more than two dozen reformist journalists and political activists in the past year, MSNBC reports.
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