|
Iran Arrests Two Former Ministers And Others
TEHRAN, April 8 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Iran's revolutionary tribunal says it has arrested more members of the country's liberal opposition, arresting around 30 more liberal opposition members, sources said Sunday, just two months before voters go to the polls for one of the most closely watched presidential elections in the nation's history.
A court statement read on state radio late Saturday said those arrested were people working against the regime both in Tehran and the provinces, without giving further details.
The move comes weeks after authorities effectively closed down the main opposition party, the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM), in the run-up to the June 8th polls, for which President Mohammad Khatami has yet to declare his candidacy.
The court did not identify or say how many people were arrested. But sources close to the opposition said more than 30 people had been rounded up in all, including a former Tehran mayor and two former ministers who served in the provisional government after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
They said among those arrested were Hashemi Sabaghian and 84-year-old Ahmad Sadr, who served respectively as interior and justice ministers in the post-revolutionary government of Mehdi Bazargan, the IFM's founder.
Longtime opposition activist Fazlollah Salavati, who headed a now-banned newspaper in the city of Isfahan, was also taken in, sources said.
The Freedom Movement, which advocates freedom and democracy, is Iran's leading dissident movement and is popular among students.
The movement, which until last month had been largely tolerated despite being formally outlawed, led an interim government after the 1979 Islamic revolution, but was toppled by the Shi'ite Muslim clergy.
In March, more than a dozen opposition figures were arrested as the conservative-controlled courts outlawed all activities of the IFM.
Reformists around Khatami charge the courts, which have also closed more than 30 newspapers and journals in the past year and jailed a number of the president's allies, are trying to undermine the reform movement.
Khatami has kept the nation in suspense with his silence over whether he will seek a second term, the maximum allowed under the Iranian constitution.
The moderate cleric in October blasted what he called the "sick" campaign against his program of liberalizing reforms, a program which helped propel him to office in 1997 with some 70% of the popular vote.
Khatami enjoyed widespread public support as the press began to flourish under his tenure and social restrictions, particularly on women and youth, were somewhat relaxed.
However, conservatives struck back after losing their majority in parliament last year to pro-reform backers of the president, with the courts shuttering every major pro-Khatami daily newspaper.
Ten reformists were slapped with stiff jail terms in January over their participation in a political conference in Germany last year, which the courts said was also aimed at overthrowing the ruling clergy.
Iran's largest pro-reform party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), headed by Khatami's brother, condemned the latest arrests Sunday, the student ISNA news agency reported.
"These unprecedented arrests are an attempt to influence political participation and the will of the people," it said, urging the people to turn out en masse for the presidential election.
The IIPF urged the voters to say "no" to those fighting the wishes of the people and called for a heavy turnout at the polls.
|
