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Top reformist confesses in Iran political trial

TEHRAN, Iran – One of Iran's most prominent pro-reform figures admitted fomenting unrest and asked for the country's forgiveness Tuesday during the mass trial of activists detained in the postelection crackdown in a confession that the opposition said was coerced.

The courtroom statement by Saeed Hajjarian — who is considered one of the reform movement's top architects and who was shot in the head in a 2000 assassination attempt — was the latest dramatic confession in the month-old trial that the opposition has compared to Josef Stalin's "show trials" of opponents in the Soviet Union.

More than 100 defendants are on trial, accused of trying to overthrow Iran's clerical leadership in a "velvet revolution" by fomenting huge protests over the disputed June 12 presidential election, which the opposition says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by fraud.

Also among the defendants who appeared Tuesday was Kian Tajbakhsh, an Iranian-American academic. The prosecutor read out charges against him including espionage, contact with foreign elements and acting against national security.

Speaking before the court, Tajbakhsh appeared to try to speak broadly about foreign interference in Iran, saying "undeniably this was a goal of the U.S. and European countries to bring change inside Iran" and that "the root cause of the riots are found outside the borders."

But he added that "since I've had no contacts with any headquarters inside and outside the country, I have no evidence to prove foreign interference," according to the state news agency IRNA.

Another defendant showed a rare degree of defiance of the court. Abdollah Ramezanzadeh said he opposed Ahmadinejad's government and rejects the court's indictment. "As a reformer, my position is clear," said Ramezanzadeh, a prominent figure in the same reform party as Hajjarian. "I've put forward my views in my speeches and I won't change my views."

Dozens of relatives of some of the defendants protested outside the court building during the session until they were forcefully dispersed by police and plainclothes pro-government vigilantes, the pro-opposition Web site Norooz reported.

Hajjarian's political party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, dismissed his confession as forced and vowed their support for him. "What is uttered from their tongue today is not their will," it said in a statement, referring to Hajjarian and other party leaders who confessed Tuesday. It called the trial "another page in a disgraceful show that falsifies the realities of the election."

Tuesday's was the fourth session of the trial. Previous sessions have seen a procession of top reform politicians brought forward — all wearing pale blue pyjama-like prison uniforms and slippers, many of them looking thin and exhausted — to confess before the court.

The star defendant Tuesday was Hajjarian, who is considered the engineer of the pro-democracy reform program under former President Mohammad Khatami. Hajjarian was one of the students who seized the U.S. Embassy during the 1979 Islamic Revolution, and over the next decade served as a top intelligence official — he is often described as the "walking memory" of recent Iranian history because of his access to classified information and the Islamic establishment's secrets.

Hajjarian, a leftist thinker, renounced his own writings from the past 10 years and said his ideas "contradict the path of the Imam" — referring to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic Republic.

He admitted that his ideas had led the Islamic Iran Participation Front, Iran's largest reformist party, "astray, particularly during the election." He and Shariati both announced their resignation from the party.

Hajjarian was a top aide to Khatami, who was president from 1997-2005 and attempted to bring about social and political reforms in Iran — though ultimately the attempt was stymied by hard-liners who now dominate the government under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Many of those on trial held key positions during the administration of Khatami. Among the defendants in the courtroom on Tuesday were top reformists including former Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh, former Deputy Foreign Minister Mohsen Aminzadeh and former government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh. Also there were Behzad Nabavi, a veteran politician known, as well as Saeed Leilaz, a prominent political analyst. All of them wore prison uniform and slippers.

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians marched in mass demonstrations for days after the election, claiming the official results were rigged in Ahmadinejad's favor and Mousavi was the true winner. Security forces, including the Revolutionary Guard and Basij militia, crushed the protests in a heavy crackdown in which hundreds were arrested. The opposition says at least 69 were killed and that many detainees were tortured or abused in prison.

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