Iranian authorities have tightened pressure on their opponents by staging what former president Mohammad Khatami condemned on Sunday as a "show trial" of 100 reformists accused of trying to instigate a "velvet revolution".
Source: The Star Online
- The trial was the latest shot in an official campaign to snuff out defiance by those who say Iran's June 12 election was rigged to ensure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, due to be sworn in by parliament on Wednesday.
- Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has endorsed the election result and demanded an end to protests, will formally approve the hardline incumbent for a second term on Monday.
- Khatami, several of whose close associates were in the dock on Saturday, said the trial violated Iran's constitution.
- "Such show trials will directly harm the system and further damage public trust," he said on his website (www.khatami.ir). Another court session is scheduled for Thursday.
- Defeated election candidate Mirhossein Mousavi dismissed what he said were confessions made under duress.
- "The torturers and interrogators have gone to such lengths that their victims are among those who gave great services to Iran in the past," he said on his website Ghalamnews.
- "Soon we will see the trials of those who committed these crimes, the torturers and interrogators."
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