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Iranian Dissidents Released
TEHRAN, Sept 4 (IslamOnline & New Agencies) - Three more liberal dissidents, members of the Freedom Movement of Iran (IFM), were released from jail, the
Persian-language daily Iran reported Tuesday.
Mostafa Meskin and Hamed Alavi were freed Monday after posting bail, while Nargues Mohammadi, the wife of another detained opposition member, who was herself arrested last week on orders of the revolutionary court trying her husband's case, was released Sunday on a 200-million-rial bail, the paper said.
Mohammadi, wife of Taqi Rahmani, who has been in temporary detention along with 60 other nationalist-religious dissidents since March, was arrested last Tuesday after she appeared in Tehran's revolutionary court to testify on matters not disclosed.
Ali Mobasheri, president of Iran's revolutionary courts, was quoted by the press Saturday as saying Mohammadi had been arrested "because of specific accusations that have been raised against her."
The daily Iran said that the court has indicted her for "acting against national security, instigating public opinion and libel against the judiciary and other officials [of the Islamic Republic]," IRNA reported.
The releases on Sunday and Monday bring to 10 the number of nationalist dissidents freed in recent weeks. The first releases came a few days after the public relations department of the revolutionary court announced that a number of jailed opposition members would soon be freed.
The families of the detainees recently stopped reformist President Mohammad Khatami as he was leaving parliament after delivering a speech in defense of his Cabinet nominees to ask him to personally intervene to obtain the release of their relatives.
Last month, the same families sent a petition to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei asking him to obtain the release of their jailed relatives.
Tehran's revolutionary court earlier released several national opposition figures, including Mohammad Omrani, Hossein Rafii, Ali Reza Rajaei and Masoud Pedram, detained among around 60 nationalists, many of them members of the banned main opposition pro-democracy IFM, since a crackdown in March in the run-up to June's presidential elections.
The four nationalists were all released on bail after the public relations department said a number of jailed opposition members could soon be freed.
The four released were among many IFM sympathizers detained since March accused of plotting to overthrow the regime.
The revolutionary court has issued an arrest warrant for IFM leader, Ibrahim Yazdi, currently in the United States.
The IFM had been outlawed for years, but was generally tolerated until the arrests. It is opposed to the regime, but supports reformist President Khatami.
The detention of Iranian liberals has caused friction between the reformist-dominated parliament and conservative judicial officials.
Khatami has notably criticized the campaign against liberals, some of whom are former government officials.
Khatami, who has seen many of his supporters jailed and pro-reform newspapers closed since reformists gained a majority in parliament in February 2000, won re-election in June by a landslide 77% majority.
"The people have the right to pose questions, to know, to criticize and to protest," Khatami had said while addressing Iran's top political, religious and military personalities in his inaugural address.
"Control, criticism and protests constitute an undeniable right of the people," the 57-year-old moderate leader said.
"Our regime is compatible with Islamic and republican values," he said. "That is called religious democracy."
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