Lawyer of Murdered Iran Dissidents' Families Out on Bail
He was jailed last December for comments implying that the 1998 shocking serial killings of intellectuals and political dissidents were part of a campaign by death squads aimed at silencing the opposition. Before that, the Judiciary had warned that every person "unauthorized" comments on the topic in the media would be prosecuted.
His arrest came days before the trial of the secret police hitmen by a Military Court.
Zarafshan represents the families of two writers, Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Pouyandeh, who were murdered in late 1998 along with another writer, Majid Sharif, and two secular opposition figures, Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar.
Last Tuesday, Information Minister Ali Younessi said those all-18 defendants on trial for the serial murders are intelligence agents.
Only two of the suspects pleaded not guilty before the Tehran Military Court, which is holding the trial behind closed doors because of what it has called national security concerns.
The others all confessed to some role in the murders of nationalist leader Dariush Forouhar and his wife as well as outspoken writers Mohammad Ja'far Pouyandeh and Mohammad-Ali Mokhtari.
A fifth writer killed around the same time, Majid Sharif, has not figured in the trial according to the official information that has emerged from the court about the hearings.
The families of the victims have been boycotting the trial in protest at the secrecy surrounding the controversial case.
Two pro-reform journalists, both of whom are now in jail, have alleged that more senior figures were responsible for the killings.
The intelligence agent named as the mastermind behind the killings, Saeid Emami, was reported to have committed suicide in prison by clandestinely swallowing a bottle of domestically-made depilatory.
(IRNA)