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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran council questions reliability of trial confessions |
| 2009-08-02 |
| After a mass trial session against detained Iranian opposition figures and protesters, influential cleric and official Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani questions the legitimacy of confessions made in the courtroom. The first court session for opposition activists and protesters convened in Tehran on Saturday to determine the fate of those charged with acting against national security and conspiring with foreign powers to stage a "Velvet Revolution". A leading Reformist, Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, who served as a deputy under former president Mohammad Khatami, accused the influential figure of having taken an "oath" with opposition leaders. Abtahi, who has been in custody since June 16, also charged that Ayatollah Rafsanjani sought to avenge his 2005 presidential defeat to the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2009 election. Ayatollah Rafsanjani, who heads both the top political arbitration body called the Expediency Council as well as the Assembly of Experts -- the top clerical body which appoints the Leader of the Islamic Revolution --, was quick to deny the charges. In a statement issued by the Expediency Council on Saturday, the two-time former president rejected Abtahi's claims as a "lie". Rafsanjani having "taken an oath with Mr. Khatami and Mousavi to protect each other is a sheer lie," the statement said, the Iranian Labor News Agency (ILNA) reported. Rafsanjani "did not endorse any presidential candidates and has not had any part in the post-election unrest," it added. The cleric, who has been under fire from the ruling elite, moved to question the reliability of the confessions. "It is unclear that under which conditions and considerations these confessions have been made," the statement added. |
| Posted by:Fred |