http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=128731&d=23&m=11&y=2009
Monday 23 November 2009 (06 Dhul Hijjah 1430)
Iran's ex-veep given 6 years, freed on bail
Reuters
TEHRAN: A reformist former vice president accused of fomenting street
unrest after Iran's June election was released on bail of about $700,000 on
Sunday, the judiciary said, after reports he had been sentenced to six years in
jail.
The official IRNA news agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari
Dolatabadi as saying Mohammad Ali Abtahi was freed "temporarily." Under Iranian
law, people sentenced to jail can post bail and be out of prison while they are
appealing.
Abtahi "was temporarily released after the completion of the trial,
issuing of the verdict and collection of bail amounting to 7 billion rials
(about $700,000)," Dolatabadi said.
IRNA did not give details of the verdict but some Iranian newspapers and
the pro-reform Kaleme website earlier said a court had jailed Abtahi for six
years. Kaleme said his lawyer would seek his release on bail.
Abtahi, one of dozens of leading moderates detained after the disputed
election, would be the most senior reformer to be jailed so far after the
election.
Abtahi, a cleric who was vice president for Parliament and legal affairs
during Mohammad Khatami's 1997-2005 presidency, was officially informed about
his sentence on Saturday, Jahan-e Eqtesad daily said.
Other newspapers also carried the report. They cited his daughter Fatemeh
Abtahi as saying security agents searched Abtahi's Tehran home in his presence,
after which he was taken to a court where he was told about the verdict and
then returned to jail.
