Freedom movement condemns "illegal" arrests
of dissidents
TEHRAN, Dec 27 (AFP) - A liberal opposition movement criticised on
Sunday the "illegal" arrests of dissidents in Iran and called
for the immediate release of one of its members in the central city of
Esfahan.
Iran's Freedom Movement (IFM), an outlawed but tolerated opposition
group, demanded the release of Ali-Asqar Gharavi, who was arrested in November.
It charged in a statement faxed to AFP that Gharavi had been "summoned,
beaten and threatened" a number of times in recent months by security
forces, while "illegal arrests" of liberal dissidents "are
continuing in Esfahan."
The statement said "security forces had asked Gharavi not to work
with the IFM" and denounced "a campaign of repression against
IFM members."
The group had condemned Gharavi's arrest last November in an open letter
to Iran's President Mohammad Khatami.
Gharavi was seized during weekly Friday prayers at the home of his
father, prominent Ayatollah Mohammad Javad Gharavi.
The arrest was reportedly carried out on the orders of a special court
charged with dealing with criminal offenses carried out by members of the
Shiite clergy.
The IFM said at the time that another associate of Ayatollah Gharavi
named Ali Ghofrani had been arrested in Nain, east of Esfahan.
The IFM, officially illegal but grudgingly tolerated by the Islamic
government, was founded in the 1960s by Mehdi Bazargan who was briefly
prime minister following the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The movement is currently headed by Ibrahim Yazdi, a former foreign
minister and revolutionary firebrand turned liberal
