Prominent reform figures on trial in Iran

from left Saeed Shariati and Saeed Hajjarian

Prominent politicians and reformist figures expressing remorse and confessing to making mistakes in supporting opposition leaders and questioning the veracity of the June presidential elections were the order of the day in the fourth mass trial of Iranian protesters to the outcome of the elections.

The spotlight fell on Saeed Hajjarian, who is widely considered as the architect of the pro-reform movement. Hajjarian who was shot in the head in an assassination attempt in 2000, is partially paralyzed and has difficulty speaking. His testimony was in the form of a letter read by another fellow prisoner and member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front. In it, he confesses to making erroneous political analyses of the country’s situation and for that he apologizes to the people and resigns his membership in the IIPF. Hajjarian’s long list of charges include acting against national security, forgery and fraud in the elections, ties to foreign elements, sabotaging the legitimate government, collaboration with anti-revolutionary and English networks and insulting the supreme leader. Meeting with foreign scholars is also amongst his offenses. The prosecution asked for maximum sentencing for him.

Saeed Shariati, who read Hajjarian’s letter of defense, also announced his resignation from the Participation Front. While insisting that he was treated well in prison, he declared that he was mistaken in all his belief about fraud in the elections and criticized MirHosien Mousavi for challenging Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s presidential victory.

Hedaytat Aghai

Hedayat Aghai, senior member of the Executives of Construction Party and former deputy minister also apologized for his mistakes in fomenting the post-election unrest.

Mehdi Rafsanjani, son of the influential cleric, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was accused by Hamzeh Karami from Jomhouriat Website of turning the site into an extremist media outlet for false reports regarding Mousavi’s campaign and the services of the government. Masoud Bastani, a prominent journalist, confessed to falsely creating doubt concerning the election results through the media.

Opposition leaders and reformist social and political groups deny any truth in the testimonies and insist that the defendants are pressured into making these claims under severe torture.