Iran begins trials of opposition activists after election protests

More than 100 defendants accused of violence in aftermath of disputed presidential election appear in Tehran court


The first trials of opposition political activists and protesters arrested after June's disputed Iranian presidential election began today, Iranian state media reported.

More than 100 defendants are appearing before a court in the capital, Tehran, accused of violence following the 12 June vote, which sparked days of protests.

The official IRNA news agency said the defendants were charged with rioting, attacking military and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and conspiring against the ruling system.

Several prominent reformist opposition activists – including the former vice president Mohammat Ali Abtahi, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, a former government spokesman, and Behzad Nabavi, an ex-vice Speaker of parliament – are among the defendants.

The Associated Press said the former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and Mohsen Mirdamadi, the leader of Iran's biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, were also facing trial.

Photographs from the courtroom showed a Abtahi and Mirdamadi, wearing prison uniform, sitting in the front row. Many other defendants were handcuffed but were not wearing prison clothes.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in days of street protests after the election, denouncing the official results which declared a landslide victory for the incumbent president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Iran's opposition maintains Ahmadinejad stole the vote from the opposition leader, Mir Hossein Mousavi, but demonstrations have been ruthlessly suppressed, leaving hundreds in prison.

State media did not provide further details about the trial, and there was no information on when it would end and when a verdict could be expected.

Iran's hardliners have drawn parallels between Mousavi's campaign and the "velvet revolution", an allusion to the peaceful overthrow of the communist government in the former Czechoslovakia.