Iranian dissidents to be released soon, says legislator

Iranian dissidents to be released soon, says legislator Tehran - An Iranian legislator said Friday that some of the dissidents jailed following the unrest over alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election would be soon released.

Farhad Tajari told the ILNA news agency that some of the dissidents, especially former reformist officials, would be released soon.

"The country's energy should be used for progress and development and not for continuing internal confrontations and tensions," said Tajari, who is member of a special parliamentary committee following up the fate of the more than hundred detained dissidents.

Tajari said that negotiations were underway with the judiciary to enable the release of the former officials.

The legislator did not refer to a report that an Iranian monarchist involved in the unrest has been sentenced to death.

The opposition website Mowj Camp reported that 37-year-old Mohammad-Reza Ali-Zamani was sentenced to death by a revolutionary court.

Neither local media nor judicial officials have yet confirmed the death sentence against the monarchist.

Following the mass protests against alleged fraud which led to the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, over 4,000 demonstrators, dissidents and former reformist officials were arrested. More than 100 are still in jail and charged with having planned to topple the Islamic establishment.

The unrest following the June 12 presidential election led to an unprecedented political crisis in Iran, with Ahmadinejad even calling on the judiciary to arrest the opposition leaders for having incited the protests.

The opposition is currently led by former prime minister Mir-Hossein Moussavi, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and the two ex-presidents, Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani.

ILNA reported that Rafsanjani has a plan to end the crisis and enable a political reconciliation.

The plan is to be reviewed next week in the parliament and a group of legislators is to visit leading clerics in the religious city of Qom to try to settle the political differences.  (dpa)