Sixth Trial Session for Berlin Conference Participants Begins
November 15, 2000 - 0:0
TEHRAN The sixth trial session of persons indicted for participation in an "anti-Islamic" conference held in the German city of Berlin opened in Branch 3 of the Islamic Revolutionary Court. The trial is presided over by Judge Hassan Ahmadi-Moqaddassi.
Seventeen have been formally indicted for participating in the conference held on April 7-8. Two of the defendants, Ezzatollah Sahabi and Monireh Ravanipour, accused of acting against the national security are to present evidence (oral or documentary) in this session.
The first open hearing in the case against the two was scheduled on November 2 but was postponed on defendants' motion asking for leave to present their defenses.
On the case of dissident journalist Akbar Ganji, also a participant in the conference, Judge Moqaddassi confirmed that he had been held in solitary confinement for 17 days.
On Sunday Ganji wrote a letter to President Mohammad Khatami asking the latter to look into his status in Evin Prison.
Ganji refused to attend a scheduled trial, claiming he had been tortured by guards and forced to wear the "zebra stripes," the customary uniform of inmates.
He has reportedly begun a hunger strike to protest against his prison conditions.
Ganji faces charges arising from articles which he wrote and published in several dailies, now defunct, in which he implicated certain officials in the 1998 serial murders of intellectuals and political dissidents.
He is further charged with gathering of classified documents and insulting the Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini during the April 7-8 Conference on the Future of Iran's Reform Movement.
Penitentiary officials on Monday denied Ganji's claims that he has been tortured by guards in Evin Prison.
"The allegations by Akbar Ganji are shear lies and aimed at creating an atmosphere of blackmail," the prisons authority said.
The April 7-8 conference in Berlin was organized by the Heinrich Boell Foundation to discuss the impact of the Sixth Parliament elections in Iran which gave pro-reform legislators majority power in the legislature.
The conference, marked by chaotic and unruly conduct on the part of certain members of the Iraqi-based terrorist opposition group Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), was also characterized as obscene and non-Islamic.
(IRNA)
Seventeen have been formally indicted for participating in the conference held on April 7-8. Two of the defendants, Ezzatollah Sahabi and Monireh Ravanipour, accused of acting against the national security are to present evidence (oral or documentary) in this session.
The first open hearing in the case against the two was scheduled on November 2 but was postponed on defendants' motion asking for leave to present their defenses.
On the case of dissident journalist Akbar Ganji, also a participant in the conference, Judge Moqaddassi confirmed that he had been held in solitary confinement for 17 days.
On Sunday Ganji wrote a letter to President Mohammad Khatami asking the latter to look into his status in Evin Prison.
Ganji refused to attend a scheduled trial, claiming he had been tortured by guards and forced to wear the "zebra stripes," the customary uniform of inmates.
He has reportedly begun a hunger strike to protest against his prison conditions.
Ganji faces charges arising from articles which he wrote and published in several dailies, now defunct, in which he implicated certain officials in the 1998 serial murders of intellectuals and political dissidents.
He is further charged with gathering of classified documents and insulting the Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini during the April 7-8 Conference on the Future of Iran's Reform Movement.
Penitentiary officials on Monday denied Ganji's claims that he has been tortured by guards in Evin Prison.
"The allegations by Akbar Ganji are shear lies and aimed at creating an atmosphere of blackmail," the prisons authority said.
The April 7-8 conference in Berlin was organized by the Heinrich Boell Foundation to discuss the impact of the Sixth Parliament elections in Iran which gave pro-reform legislators majority power in the legislature.
The conference, marked by chaotic and unruly conduct on the part of certain members of the Iraqi-based terrorist opposition group Mojahedin Khalq Organization (MKO), was also characterized as obscene and non-Islamic.
(IRNA)