Iran frees most protesters

2009-07-05 22:24

Tehran - Iran on Sunday freed a British-Greek journalist and police said they had let go most other people detained in election protests amid renewed challenges casting doubt about the outcome of the presidential vote.

Washington Times reporter Iason Athanasiadis-Fowden "who was arrested for activities contradictory to journalism and in connection with the recent street riots”,  was freed on Sunday, said foreign ministry spokesperson Hassan Ghashghavi.

Britain said it was expecting Tehran to release an eighth staffer from nine embassy employees detained for allegedly stoking post-election riots.

Street protests

Iran's chief of police Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said that of more than 1 000 people arrested in the post-election violence which rocked Tehran, "two-thirds have been freed”.

The announcement following the June 12 poll that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been re-elected with more than 60% of the vote, sparked massive street protests in Tehran and other major cities.

Police said in the ensuing violence 20 people were killed and 1 032 arrested.

Human rights groups have said as many as 2 000 were arrested.

Renewed accusations

Ahmadinejad's re-election was initially challenged by all three defeated candidates, and runner up Mir Hossein Mousavi late on Saturday renewed his accusations that the voting process was full of "irregularities."

A 25-page report prepared by the former prime minister's campaign office accused Ahmadinejad of abusing the state machinery during the campaign and distributing cash to secure the votes of working class Iranians.

The report, posted on Mousavi's campaign website Ghalamnews, asked why the interior ministry had printed 14 million more ballot papers than the total registered electorate of about 46 million.

Lost impartial image

A pro-reform clerical group also threw its weight behind challenges to the results.

Blasting official electoral watchdog the Guardians Council, the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers said the council no longer had the "right to judge in this case as some of its members have lost their impartial image in the eyes of the public”.

The reformist clerics said the council "did not pay attention" to the complaints lodged by Mousavi and another defeated candidate, Mehdi Karroubi.

The post-election unrest was the worst crisis in Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution.

However, rallies petered out after a few days as the authorities cracked down on protesters, foreign media and the British embassy in particular.

- AFP