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| Arabia |
| UAE implicated in Iran election trial |
| 2009-08-09 |
| [Iran Press TV Latest] As Iran resumes mass trials of opposition activists and protesters, a detainee pleads guilty to spying for the United Arab Emirates and conducting intelligence work for the US. Reza Rafiyi-Forooshani, who was arrested over the course of Iran's post-vote unrest, was put to trial in Iran's Revolutionary Court on Saturday. In a report published by Fars News Agency, Rafiyi-Forooshani admitted to having conducted espionage activities for the Intelligence Ministry of the neighboring UAE, located across the Persian Gulf from Iran. He also confessed to passing information to an Iran policy planner at the US State Department through a monitoring post, reportedly set up in Dubai in 2006. Rafiyi-Forooshani named Jillian Burns, the first director of the Dubai office, as his handler for the US State Department. "I worked for two years for the UAE's intelligence service and received an amount of 5,000 Dirhams (UAD) per month," the defendant said. "I sent the requested information through mobile calls; of course most of the data were my personal views and not specific information." He has also reportedly provided information on the effects of sanctions on Iran and the country's election-related issues for Nazi Beglari, a journalist working to US-funded VOA news channel. Iranian authorities had previously blamed foreign agents for fueling the violence which came after the June 12 presidential polls in the country. Fars News Agency quoted Rafiyi-Forooshani as saying that a representative for the CIA had contacted him through email. He, however, said he did not agree to making any contact. He also admitted to setting up a pro-opposition Facebook page where he uploaded videos from the post-vote violence in Iran. Rafiyi-Forooshani made his confessions in the second hearing that followed a mass trial that started last week. Saturday's session saw new faces, including several prominent Reformist figures as well as a 23-year old French academic arrested in July on charges of espionage. Leading opposition figure Mir-Hossein Mousavi and former President Seyyed Mohammad Khatami have denounced the trial as a "sham." Influential cleric and former President Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, who chairs two powerful bodies in the country -- one that oversees the office of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution and one that mediates disputes between government branches -- has also questioned the reliability of confessions made in the recent trials. |
| Posted by:Fred |