TEHRAN Some 100 pro-reform parliamentary deputies have signed a petition asking for more clarification on the circumstances surrounding the murder of several political activists and progressive intellectuals initially blamed on rogue information agents, the Head of the Article 90 Commission of Majlis, Hossein Ansari-Rad, was quoted as saying by the Iran Students News Agency (ISNA).

"Some of the deputies' demands are for a full disclosure of the facts surrounding the murders and find out about their number, nature and roots. I think the Majlis will get to know about these facts through legal channels," he was cited as saying.

"It is of utmost importance for Majlis to carry out more research and investigation on the sensitive circumstances surrounding the serial murders in order to shed light on their root cause," he added, according to ISNA.

Meanwhile, the Head of the Court for the Armed Forces, Mohammad Niazi, said on Wednesday in southern Ahwaz city that the lawyer of 15 of those sentenced in the serial murders case had appealed to the Supreme Court. The families of the victims, however, did not personally sanction the appeals, issued some 20 days ago.

He said that two of those convicted in the murders, as well as three accomplices, are now serving their sentences in prison.

Last month a Military Court announced it had sentenced three information agents to death and five others to life terms found guilty of murdering nationalists Dariush and Parvaneh Forouhar and writers Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Ja'far Pouyandeh.

Seven of the 18 defendants, all Information Ministry personnel, received lesser jail terms and three were acquitted.

Victims' families boycotted the trial in protest to the closed door trial ordered by the Judiciary and what they said was the removal of key evidence from the court's files.

They also voiced out disapproval over the death sentences later imposed, saying they were not seeking a "vendetta".

(IRNA)