News

TEHRAN - Five people have been sentenced to death and 81 have
received jail terms of up to 15 years in connection with unrest which
followed Iran's disputed June election, state broadcaster IRIB reported
yesterday.

Citing a statement by the public relations office of
Tehran's provincial court, it said those sentenced to death were
affiliated to or were members of "counter-revolutionary groups". It
said the verdicts can be appealed.

It was not immediately clear
whether the five condemned were the same persons as those reported by
an Iranian rights group earlier this week to have been sentenced to
death. The IRIB report did not give names.

The presidential poll
held more than five months ago triggered mass demonstrations by
supporters of defeated pro-reform candidates, who say it was rigged to
secure hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

Iranian
authorities have rejected the election fraud charges and portrayed the
street demonstrations as foreign-backed efforts to undermine the
Islamic Republic.