17:37GMT—1:37PM/EST
Washington, 11 August (WashingtonTV)—Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Iran to allow international observers to monitor the trial of those accused over the post-election protests, which it denounced as a “show trial”.
Irene Khan, the London-based group’s secretary-general, also called on Iranian authorities to ensure that all those responsible for the violent crackdown on demonstrators are held to account.
“The trial now going on in Tehran appears to be nothing but a ‘show trial’ through which the supreme leader and those around him seek to de-legitimize recent mass and largely peaceful protests and convince a very skeptical world that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected fairly,” Khan said in a statement.
“It is vital, therefore, that there is an international presence to observe the proceedings at this trial and uphold the rights of the defendants,” she added.
Iran is trying more than 100 people, including prominent reformists, journalists, a French woman lecturer and two local employees of the French and British embassies.
Footage of the trial shown on state television, in which some of the accused were seen confessing or apologizing, “has heightened fears that many of them may have been tortured or ill-treated during their arrest and have made such statements to the court under extreme duress,”… >>>
