[Al Arabiya Latest] Iran has jailed former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi for six years on charges linked to protests over June's presidential election while opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi called on the Sunday government to stop intimidating people to try and change their political views.Abtahi, who was a close aide of reformist president Mohammad Khatami, was arrested with scores of opposition figures shortly after the publication of official results giving hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term. He has remained in custody ever since.
Mohammad Ali AbtahiOn Saturday morning, Abtahi appeared in court where "he was informed of a six-year jail term," Abtahi's daughter Fatemeh told Ayandenews.com.
He was found guilty of charges including "gathering and plotting against the country's security, propaganda against the regime, insulting the president and participating in an illegal demonstration and keeping classified documents," the website said.
The report said the court had used as evidence posts on his web log, an interview with the BBC's Persian service and participation in a protest rally on June 15, when hundreds of thousands marched across Tehran.
Abtahi, who was jailed only a few days after the June 12 vote, reportedly withdrew his accusations of electoral fraud when he appeared in court on Aug. 1 and expressed regret for taking part in the protests.
Government intimidation
" The government should not intimidate people to change their path ... this movement will continue and we are ready to pay any price "Opposition leader Mousavi |
"The government should not intimidate people to change their path ... this movement will continue and we are ready to pay any price," Mousavi was quoted as saying by his Kaleme website.
Mousavi's remarks preceded a scheduled gathering on Sunday by moderates to commemorate the killing of a dissident nationalist couple, stabbed to death by "rogue" agents in 1998.
Iran's security forces have warned the opposition not to take part in "street riots", trying to avoid a revival of street protests that erupted after Iran's June 12 presidential vote.
The killing of Dariush Forouhar and his wife, who headed the illegal but tolerated Iran Nation Party, and at least two other secularist figures around the same time in the killing of dissidents, outraged Iranian society.