Iranian opposition leader sentenced six-year jail

TEHRAN - Former Iranian deputy foreign minister Mohsen Aminzadeh has been given a six-year jail term for his involvement in the post-election protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, opposition websites reported Monday.

Aminzadeh, who served under the reformist president Mohammad Khatami, was a supporter of Green Movement leader Mir-Hossein Moussavi in last June’s presidential election.

Aminzadeh was one of Ahmadinejad’s fiercest critics before the election and, along with the opposition, accused the president of election fraud and refused to acknowledge his re-election.

Numerous reformist officials, students, journalists and dissidents were arrested after the election on charges of having planned to topple the Islamic establishment and sentenced to long jail terms.

Nine have been sentenced to death and two have already been executed due to their links to radical monarchist groups abroad.

Opposition websites also reported that nine journalists, belonging mainly to opposition groups, have been arrested within the last 48 hours, bringing the number of detained journalists since the June election to 55.

Reports and statistics posted by opposition websites cannot be independently verified as the Iranian government banned foreign media from directly covering the protests and related news last July.

Iranian opposition groups plan to use the February 11 mass rallies marking the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution to renew their protests against President Ahmadinejad.

Police and security forces have warned that all protest gatherings during the annual state-run rallies will be treated harshly.