TEHRAN: A reformist former vice president accused of fomenting street unrest after Iran’s June election was released on bail of about $700,000 on Sunday, the judiciary said, after reports he had been sentenced to six years in jail.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying Mohammad Ali Abtahi was freed “temporarily.” Under Iranian law, people sentenced to jail can post bail and be out of prison while they are appealing.
Abtahi “was temporarily released after the completion of the trial, issuing of the verdict and collection of bail amounting to 7 billion rials (about $700,000),” Dolatabadi said.
IRNA did not give details of the verdict but some Iranian newspapers and the pro-reform Kaleme website earlier said a court had jailed Abtahi for six years. Kaleme said his lawyer would seek his release on bail.
Abtahi, one of dozens of leading moderates detained after the disputed election, would be the most senior reformer to be jailed so far after the election.
Abtahi, a cleric who was vice president for Parliament and legal affairs during Mohammad Khatami’s 1997-2005 presidency, was officially informed about his sentence on Saturday, Jahan-e Eqtesad daily said.
Other newspapers also carried the report. They cited his daughter Fatemeh Abtahi as saying security agents searched Abtahi’s Tehran home in his presence, after which he was taken to a court where he was told about the verdict and then returned to jail.
