TEHRAN, 14 May 2005 — Iran has freed a leading reformist political prisoner jailed for publishing a survey suggesting Iranians favored resuming dialogue with their supposed archfoe the United States, his lawyer said yesterday. Iran’s hard-line judiciary in 2003 sentenced Abbas Abdi to four-and-a-half years in prison for “selling intelligence to the enemy”, referring to a poll that suggested three-quarters of Iranians wanted dialogue with the United States.
But the Supreme Court last week ruled the United States was not officially defined as an enemy. Following this verdict, Abdi walked free after 30 months in prison. “This is an unprecedented ruling, because five senior judges including a cleric suggest the United States is not an enemy,” Abdi’s lawyer Saleh Nikbakht told Reuters by telephone.
Abdi was one of the student leaders who took dozens of US diplomats hostage at their Tehran embassy in 1979 and held them for 444 days. But like many of the former hostage-takers, Abdi became a reformist advocating warmer ties with the West and was an ally to moderate President Mohammad Khatami. Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is favorite to succeed Khatami in elections next month and also favors improving ties with the West. Analysts said they expected leniency toward political dissidents by the Islamic Republic ahead of the elections in order to encourage a higher turnout.
But lawyer Nikbakht dismissed any link between the court ruling and the presidential race, saying the court had favored quashing the sentence for months, pending one judge’s approval. “The political deadlock in the country will abate only after banned newspapers resume publication and judges who sentenced dissidents are removed from senior positions,” Nikbakht said.
Popular former chief of police registered to stand for president yesterday, probably the strongest challenger to Rafsanjani. Moderate conservative Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, 43, is expected to win support from young voters in the Islamic Republic when they go to the polls on June 17. “Qalibaf draws his popularity from the youth, his popularity shows that young Iranians do not want interference in their private lives,” said Hashem Karimzadeh, a 23-year-old student.
