The daily Hayat-e Now quoted him as saying that he has appealed the case upon the insistence of the Interior Minister Abdulvahed Moussavi Lari.

Reformist MP Mohsen Armin, however, had said that Tajzadeh would not appeal the case since the court is not competent to handle an appeal.

Had Tajzadeh not appealed before the 20-day deadline expired on March 25, he would be jailed and barred from overseeing the June presidential elections. Tajzadeh was tapped to supervise the June elections.

Tajzadeh said he had objected to the proceedings held in a Tehran administrative court after he was accused of tampering with the votes in the parliamentary elections which gave reformers for the first time since the 1979-Islamic Revolution a majority in the parliament (Majlis).

He said that he has written a letter to the Judiciary Head Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, lodging complaints against the court proceedings.

Earlier this month, an administrative court sentenced Tajzadeh to a year in prison and six years suspension from overseeing elections on charges of vote-rigging in last year's parliamentary polls which gave reformers a sweeping victory in the parliament.

Following the parliamentary vote, the oversight Guardian Council accused the Interior Ministry of tampering with the votes. The 12-member GC and the interior ministry were in charge of the elections.

But, Tajzadeh said the ballot had been the "cleanest ever".

In a first reaction to a court ruling for Tajzadeh, a key ally of President Mohammad Khatami, Lari stressed that his deputy Mostafa Tajzadeh is innocent and must be acquitted.

"We do not find him guilty and under an expert probe, he will certainly be acquitted," Lari told reporters.

He said that no one has yet been named to replace Tajzadeh, who has been barred from supervising elections for six year. "There is no question of a substitute at this stage," he stressed. Tajzadeh has been tapped to oversee the June presidential elections.

Lari also noted that the court ruling issued in reform-minded Tajzadeh's case will further contribute to a higher turnout in June presidential elections in which the incumbent President Mohammad Khatami is expected to seek a second mandate.

Reformists have slammed the court ruling. Iran's biggest pro-reform party condemned the imprisonment of Mostafa Tajzadeh as "regretful and detrimental to the state judicial system."

A reformsit MP Behzad Nabavi said that the reformist Second Khordad movement, a watershed advocate of President Khatami's reform programs and named after his victory in May 23, 1997, has been the main target of conservative attacks, with Mostafa Tajzadeh, being the latest victim.

... Payvand News - 3/27/01 ... --