Three arrested after Iran vote condemned to death

Three people arrested after Iran’s disputed presidential election have been condemned to death despite a global outcry over trials of people who claimed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election was rigged.

“Three people who were accused (for their role) in the post-election incidents have been sentenced to death,” said Zahed Bashiri Rad, media officer at the justice ministry, quoted by ISNA news agency yesterday.

Bashiri Rad, giving only the initials of the convicts said that “MZ and AP were convicted for ties with the Kingdom Assembly of Iran and NA for ties with the Monafeghin (exiled opposition group commonly known as the People’s Mujahedeen).”

Massive street protests broke out in Iran following Ahmadinejad’s re-election. About 4,000 people were arrested, and 140 of them, including senior reformers and journalists, have been put on trial for seeking a ‘soft’ overthrow of the regime and for inciting protests.

Last Thursday, a reformist website reported that a member of a group seeking to restore Iran’s monarchy has been sentenced to death for his involvement in the unrest, identifying him as Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani.

Judiciary officials were not available to confirm if he was the “MZ” mentioned by ISNA yesterday.

On Friday, Amnesty International urged Tehran to lift the death sentence on Zamani. A member of the Kingdom Assembly of Iran, he was among scores of arrested people in the post-vote mass demonstrations, it said.

Amnesty condemned such “show trials” as a “mockery of justice”.

The London-based group said it “fears that Zamani’s death sentence will pave the way for more death sentences against those being tried on similar offences.

“Amnesty International is calling on the Iranian authorities to immediately halt all scheduled executions and to commute all death sentences,” it added.