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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran | ||
| Iran releases detainees amid power split in govt | ||
| 2009-07-07 | ||
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Iranian police announced Sunday the release of an Iranian employee of the British embassy even as the judiciary head called for the prosecution of people working for anti-government satellite TV channels and websites. The comment followed a statement by a pro-reform clerical group Saturday protesting the disputed presidential June 12 election and the new government as "illegitimate" and blasting the official electoral watchdog, the Guardians Council.
Esmail Ahmadi Moghaddam said of the 1,032 people arrested, "two-thirds have been freed," the official IRNA news agency reported. "Most of the detainees have been or are being either released on bail or simply freed," he said, although the information could not be independently verified because foreign media are largely banned from reporting in Iran. They were arrested during weeks of violent street protests in support of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in which at least 20 people were killed in the worst crisis to hit the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution. British embassy staff to be released Iran is also set to release Sunday the eighth of nine British embassy staff arrested on accusations stirring trouble and interfering in Iranian internal affairs. "There have been developments overnight in respect of the eighth person who had been arrested," Foreign Secretary David Miliband said Sunday adding that "the good news is that...the eighth person would indeed be released today [and] that the papers have been signed and that there would not be a court process or charges." Unofficial TV channels Meanwhile, the head of Iran's judiciary called for the prosecution of people working for increasingly influential anti-establishment satellite TV channels and websites. "The daily growth of anti-regime satellite channels and ... websites needs serious measures to confront this phenomenon," state television quoted a circular issued by Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi as saying. For the first time in Iran, foreign-based satellite TV channels and blogs played a significant role in providing news and commentary about the election, especially following a ban on foreign media. Iran has said this amounts to interference in its internal affairs. Mousavi and reformist cleric Mehdi Karoubi said the government wants to force Iranians to rely on state-run media, which they say favor Ahmadinejad. Both men issued statements on their websites saying Ahmadinejad's new government would be "illegitimate" -- even though Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's ultimate arbiter, has upheld the result and thrown his weight behind the president. Split in the ranks
The independent assembly said the unelected electoral watchdog 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," its first public stance on the disputed elections. "How can one accept the legitimacy of the election just because the Guardian Council says so? Can one say that the government born out of the infringements is a legitimate one," it said, adding that it had not paid adequate attention to the complaints filed by the defeated candidates. Former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, met with the families of detainees arrested in the aftermath of post-election protests and admitted that the unrest in the country has caused "bitterness," but denied there was a split at the top of Iran's establishment. "The election scene was a competition within the system and should not be considered by some as a power struggle or crack in the system," he was quoted as saying in ISNA news agency. Rafsanjani added that the current crises will be wisely solved and that the regime has to be kept intact on the long run. He also met with the families of the detained. | ||
| Posted by:Fred |