TEHRAN Bench 5 of Tehran's Military Court, presided over by Judge Mohammadreza Aqiqi started Monday the second closed-door trial for 17 culprits who are accused of carrying out the 1998 serial murders of intellectuals and political dissidents.

Like the previous one, the families of the victims have boycotted the hearing and the lawyers have not attended after the Judiciary said the families of the victims had dismissed their lawyers.

On Saturday, the court jailed three more suspects accused of assassinating dissidents, in the first hearing of a trial behind closed doors.

Rogue agents with the Information Ministry were among the 18 culprits implicated in the killings. Among them was Saeed Emami, believed to have been the mastermind of the murders, who reportedly committed suicide by clandestinely swallowing a common domestically-made depilatory in the prison bath.

Fariborz Raisdana, a member of the committee to defend victims of the serial murders told the Iran Student News Agency (ISNA) that the dismissal of lawyers is completely explicable. "The families of the victims have realized that the deficiencies within the dossiers have not been removed."

He noted that the court intends to restrict the trial to only four victims and three defendants.

"The families of the victims call for justice, ensuring national security and true freedom," he added

Nationalist political activist Dariush Forouhar and his wife Parvaneh were assassinated at their residence in late 1998, shortly followed by the same fate to another three writers -- Majid Sharif, Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Pouyandeh.

The Head of the Military Justice Department, Mohammad Niazi, has warned against any unauthorized revelations about the hearings.

Niazi had warned that "anyone making speculations or revelations about the serial killings, or people will be prosecuted."

Two weeks ago, Nasser Zarafshan, a lawyer for the families of Mohammad Mokhtari and Mohammad Pouyandeh, two of the victims, was arrested and released on bail three days later.

Dissident Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji, who is on trial for threatening national security, implicated former information minister Ali Fallahian and a senior Judge Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei in the serial murders.

(IRNA)