TEHRAN: Iran will soon try 16 people arrested in connection with anti-government protests that turned violent last month, an Iranian news agency reported on Friday.
The semi-official Fars News Agency, which did not identify the detainees who are to be put on trial, said one was accused of “moharebeh” — a crime that carries death sentence.
The others were accused of gathering with the intention of disrupting national security and propaganda activities against the government, Fars said.
Tehran also stepped up pressure on the opposition, arresting a dissident cleric and warning against using SMS and e-mail messages to organize anti-government protests.
Cleric Mohammad Taghi Khalaji, who was close to late dissident Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, was arrested at his home in the city of Qom on Tuesday, reformist website Norooznews said.
“The reason for his arrest is not known yet but he had on several occasions backed protests against election results” which saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad returned for a second term, the report said.
The detained cleric’s son, Mehdi Khalaji, is a senior research fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and two members of the US House of Representatives condemned the arrest.
“The regime’s intimidation and imprisonment of leaders critical of the current government must cease at once,” Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Howard Berman said in a joint statement.
“We are deeply concerned by reports that the Iranian government has arrested Khalaji and confiscated both his and his family’s personal possessions and passports, thereby preventing them from leaving Iran,” they added. Norooznews did not say whether passports and possession had been seized.
Iranian clerics backing the opposition have faced mounting pressure by hard-liners since the death of Montazeri, whose December funeral was attended by thousands of opposition supporters.
