Iran begins trial of postelection 'rioters'

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Opposition political activists and protesters stood trial in Tehran Saturday on charges of rioting and conspiring against the ruling system in the country's first trial following the disputed presidential election, Iran's state media reported.

The official IRNA news agency said the charges against the defendants included attacking military and government buildings, having links with armed opposition groups and conspiring against the ruling system.

The semiofficial Fars news agency said there are more than 100 defendants at the court.

Among the defendants are several prominent reformist opposition activists including former vice president Mohammat Ali Abtahi, former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, former vice speaker of parliament Behzad Nabavi, former deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and leader of the biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Mohsen Mirdamadi.

Pictures from the courtroom showed a thin-looking Abtahi and a grim Mirdamadi in prison uniform sitting in the front row. More than a hundred defendants could be seen sitting in the packed courtroom, many of them handcuffed but without prison uniforms.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in days of street protests after the June 12 election, denouncing official results that declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner.

Iran's opposition maintains that Ahmadinejad stole the vote from opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi by engaging in massive fraud, but its demonstrations have been ruthlessly suppressed leaving hundreds, possibly more, in prison.

State media didn't provide further details about the trial, and there was no information on when it would end or when a verdict would be expected.

Iran's hard-liners have drawn parallels between Mousavi's campaign and the "velvet revolution" — an allusion to the peaceful overthrow of the communist government in the former Czechoslovakia.