By VOA News
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei |
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says he
does not believe that groups protesting the presidential election results had
foreign backing.
Iranian authorities have repeatedly alleged that defeated presidential candidate
Mir Hossein Mousavi and other candidates were encouraged to cause political
turmoil by nations plotting to destabilize Iran.
Wednesday evening, state television quoted Ayatollah Khamenei as saying he did
not believe outside powers supported the protests. However, he said he thought
the protests had been planned in advance of the election.
Opposition Leaders Mousavi (top), Karrubi (right) and Khatami
(left) |
Iran has been holding political trials for protest organizers, in which they
publicly confess committing crimes against the state.
In Washington, the U.S. State Department called on Iran to release the only
American citizen among the defendants - an Iranian-American academic.
A State Department spokesman said Kian Tajbakhsh, a social scientist and urban
planner, still does not have a lawyer and poses no threat to the Iranian
government.
Earlier Wednesday, former President Mohammad
Khatami said the public confessions of protest leaders are invalid because they
are lies.
During Tuesday's trial, a key member of Iran's pro-democracy movement apologized
for making what he called "major mistakes" during the election.
The defendant, Saeed Hajjarian, is one of several reformists being tried on
charges of masterminding unrest following the highly contested re-election of
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June.
At the trial, Iran's prosecution asked the judge to ban two reform parties, the
Islamic Iran Participation Front and the Mujahedin of the Islamic Revolution
Organization.
Also Tuesday, a parliamentary committee said it would investigate reports that
people killed in the post-election violence were secretly buried in a mass grave
in Tehran.
Iranian lawmakers have said at least 30 people were killed in the deadly
crackdown on election protests.
Thousands of people were arrested. Many have been released, but rights groups
says the trials of the remaining detainees are a sham.
Some information for
this report was provided by AFP and Reuters.
... Payvand News - 08/26/09 ... --
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