TEHRAN -- Iran's Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari may appear before the Special Court for Clergy (SCC) in connection with a controversial polling which claimed most Iranians favored ties with the United States, the judge presiding the polling case said on Monday.

The judge, Saeed Mortazavi, said the interior minister would be tried for publishing the results of a "confidential polling".

"Judge Mortazavi announced that the interior minister has committed a violation in this case, which will be dealt with", adding that Lari's indictment file will be sent to the SCC.

He said the results of the polls had been sent to the interior minister, who is a member of the Supreme National Security Council, for his own information, but the Interior Ministry had published them.

Interior Ministry spokesman, Jahanbakhsh Khanjani, was quoted as saying that the ministry had not been officially informed of the charges. He also rejected the charges, saying the publication of such material was a procedure in the Interior Ministry.

Three people, including former student leader who participated at the takeover of U.S. Embassy here in 1979, Abbas Abdi, have been arrested in connection with the polling.

Abdi stood the second trial, barred to the public, last Sunday. In the earlier court hearing, he was charged with "selling information and tampering with the polling".

Others detained in the case, are Hossein Qazian, the head of the Ayandeh Research Institute and Behrouz Geranpayeh, the head of the National Institute for Research and Opinion Polls, which published results of the controversial polling on Iran-U.S. ties.

Two other people, being tried in the case, are Ahmad Bourghani, an MP from Tehran, and the head of the Political Desk of Irna, Mahdi Abbasi-Rad.

The court has indicted Bourghani with charges of "illegally spending state funds" by paying 200 million rials to Geranpayeh's institute and "complicity in misusing the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance's logo" during his tenure as deputy culture minister four years ago.

Abdi is also a member of the Islamic Iran Participation Party, whose arrest this year came on the 23rd anniversary of the embassy takeover, IRNA reported.

Tehran and Washington have held no diplomatic ties after the U.S. severed its relations with the Islamic Republic after 'Students Following the Line of Imam' stormed the U.S. Embassy in 1979, known as the Den of Espionage, and took its staff hostage.