THE GUARDIAN: Amnesty reports apparent attempt to implicate defeated presidential candidate in conspiracy to overthrow regime
Jailed Iranian reformists are believed to have been tortured in an attempt to force them into TV "confessions" of a foreign-led plot against the Islamic regime.
According to Iranian websites, the "confessions" are aimed at implicating Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the defeated reformist candidates in this month's presidential poll, in an alleged conspiracy.
Mostafa Tajzadeh, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh, all Mousavi supporters, are reported to have undergone "intensive interrogation" sessions in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since being arrested in a mass round-up of opposition figures following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.
The three, who all served in the government of the former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, are among several hundred activists, academics, journalists and students detained in a crackdown coinciding with the brutal suppression of street protesters who believe the election was stolen.
Fellow prisoners are reported to have heard screams of pain from Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister, and Ramezanzadeh, who was Khatami's government spokesman, during interrogations at Evin's section 209, which is reserved for political prisoners and run by the hardline intelligence ministry. >>> Robert Tait | Friday, June 26, 2009
