Iran puts 30 on trial for opposition ‘conspiracy’

LONDON — Iran’s hardline rulers put 30 people arrested in the turbulent aftermath of the June 12 presidential election on trial for offences against the state on July 31.

The unidentified defendants have not had access to legal defence and the court in which they are being tried has yet to be announced. The IRNA state news agency, however, says they have been charged with threatening national security, maintaining links to terrorist groups and sabotage.

The prosecution will be orchestrated by Saeed Mortazavi, Tehran’s notoriously conservative prosecutor general who has been tipped as the new justice minister. Observers say that the penalties could range from brief imprisonment to death.

“These are going to be ... show trials,” one analyst in Tehran said. “They are trying to divert attention away from their own troubles.”

In a televised speech July 31, President Ahmadinejad denied any breach between him and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that their relationship was “like that of father and son.” He delivered his speech a week after conservatives condemned him for defying Ayatollah Khamenei over his choice of first vice president. The regime has also been denounced by both moderates and hardliners for the abuse, torture and deaths of detainees arrested in the post-election violence. On July 30, thousands of demonstrators again took to the streets of Tehran.

IRNA purported to explain how opposition demonstrations were organised. It claimed there was a “control” room that identified targets, guided thugs and divided activists into groups of stone throwers, weapon bearers and slogan chanters. It asserted that the opposition set up safe houses and used BBC Persian and the Voice of America to broadcast its messages.

It even claimed that women’s hairdressing salons had been used as storage and distribution depots for guns, knives and acid, and that the opposition had poured oil on the roads, so that motorcycle-riding security forces would slip when chasing demonstrators.

IRNA linked some of the defendants to Mujahedeen-e Khalq, a militant group of Iranian exiles, and others to the Baha’i faith, a regular target of the regime.

Other specific charges against the defendants included planting bombs, carrying weapons and grenades, attacking police and Basij militiamen, destroying public property and sending images to “enemy media.”

The rhetoric seems intent on proving guilt and punishing demonstrators, but the opposition is adamant that the accusations are false.

[Times U.K.]