Iran yesterday put on trial around 100 people, including top reformists and aides of opposition leaders, on charges of rioting after the disputed re-election in June of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.
The trial in a revolutionary court comes as Ahmadinejad, due to be sworn in on August 5 for a new four-year term, sought to ease political tensions by denying a rift with all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The Fars news agency said around 100 people went on trial in Tehran for their alleged role in anti-Ahmadinejad riots after he was declared winner of the June 12 vote.
Iranian media said the accused are charged with having "participated in riots, acting against national security, disturbing public order, vandalising public and government property and having ties with counter-revolutionary groups."
Among those in the dock were Mohsen Aminzadeh and Mohsen Safai-Farahani, deputy ministers under the government of ex-president Mohammad Khatami, and Mohsen Mirdamadi, current head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front.
Also on trial were prominent reformists Behzad Nabavi of the Islamic Republic Mujahedeen Organisation, Mohammad Atrianfar of the Executives of Construction, and Mohammad Ali Abtahi, from the Assembly of Combatant Clerics.
All strongly supported opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who have refused to acknowledge Ahmadinejad's victory and demanded a rerun of the June poll.
Meanwhile, a top Iranian reformist, accused of taking part in deadly riots after the June election, reportedly testified before a Tehran court on Saturday that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's victory came after a clean vote.
In a blow to the opposition movement, which claims that his re-election as president was because of massive vote rigging, Mohammad Ali Abtahi said there had been no fraud in the June 12 poll, the Fars news agency reported.
Abtahi, a close aide of reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami, said the reformists and opposition leaders had also betrayed Iran's all-powerful supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the agency said.