TEHRAN -- The Information Minister Ali Younessi said that the ministry has arrested a number of distributors of an 80-page outlet which implicates some of authorities in the 1998 serial murders of intellectuals.

Younessi, quoted by the Persian daily Entekhab, added that complementary reports in this connection would be released later.

He said that the arrests have been made in cities other than the capital, the paper said. Several people, charged with distribution of the night letter', have been already detained in the central Qom city which is host to important theology schools and seminaries in Iran.

Political activist Dariush Forouhar and his wife Parvaneh as well as several intellectuals and university professors were killed in 1998 in a gruesome manner. Fingers were pointed to rogue Information Ministry agents and the main mastermind of the murders Saeid Emami was said committed suicide in prison by using depilatory substance.

It was recently announced that Information Ministry had arrested all those behind the killings and they would be put on trial in the near future.

Younessi on Wednesday declined to specify whether the court would be held in public or in camera.