Iran has arrested a prominent woman reformist as part of its continuing crackdown on those challenging the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a reformist website said on Wednesday.
The reformist, Azar Mansouri of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), was arrested on Tuesday evening, website Norooznews said.
Mansouri is a deputy to Mohsen Mirdamadi, who himself has been arrested and is on trial on charges of being involved in unrest which rocked Tehran after the June 12 election.
The IIPF said that Iran’s intelligence authorities have so far arrested at least 20 of its members.
”The IIPF expresses resentment towards the new wave of arrests … by coup people,” it said on the website.
”More than others, the judiciary which is submitted to the will of some military and security bodies, will be harmed by a fire that will burn … the Islamic republic and the revolution.”
In the initial post-election crackdown, security forces arrested about 4 000 people. Most have now been released, but about 140 including top reformists and political activists have been put on trial at mass hearings.
Other top activists currently on trial and who are members of IIPF are Saeed Hajjarian, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh and Mostafa Tajzadeh. — AFP
