MPs denounce intelligence ministry
TEHRAN, July 29 (AFP) - Iranian MPs condemned the intelligence ministry
Thursday for its "unconstitutional" treatment of those arrested
over the Tehran riots amid a tough propaganda campaign against pro-democracy
activists.
"The ministry's statements about the university protests and the
events that followed are obviously unconstitutional and violate the rights
of those arrested," current and former MPs said in a letter published
Thursday.
The deputies, calling themselves the Organisation of Past and Present
Parliaments, said intelligence officials had already judged the students
guilty "without observing the proper and necessary legal procedures."
The letter appeared in several moderate papers unsigned but group officials
toldits director is Hossein Hashemian, a senior cleric with the powerful
Council of Experts, nominally charged with naming Iran 's supreme leader.
An attorney for leading dissident Mohsen Kadivar, Ayatollah Hossein
Mussavi Tabrizi, is also a member of the 300-strong group, a spokesman
said.
The intelligence ministry has launched an intimidating propaganda campaign
against those accused of staging the six days of unrest, which erupted
earlier this month after a student protest was attacked by security forces.
State television has repeatedly broadcast videotaped "confessions"
of activists whom the ministry accuses of being "counter- revolutionaries"
-- a charge which carries the death penalty.
The ministry has also issued a series of unusually detailed lists of
the most prominent activists arrested which state directly that those in
question are guilty.
More than 1,400 people were jailed in connection with the disturbances
and Iranian officials say most of those have been released.
But the ministry warned that some of those would be re-arrested once
an investigation into the incidents is complete. President Mohammad Khatami
said Tuesday that only 10 percent of those arrested were students.
The unrest was the worst in Tehran since the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic
revolution, leaving one person dead and three wounded, according to official
figures.
Moderate newspapers said five people died and dozens were injured, many
of whom they said were later abducted from Tehran hospitals by the secret
police.
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