Iran's Judiciary Sends Moderate Member of Parliament to Prison

[Reza <davood@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times
December 27, 2001
Iran's Judiciary Sends Moderate Member of Parliament to Prison
By NAZILA FATHI

     TEHRAN, Dec. 26 ? Iran's hard- line judiciary today sent to prison
a pro-reform member of Parliament who had been convicted of insulting
the judiciary. The Parliament member, Hossein Loqmanian, is the first
lawmaker sent to prison by the judiciary.

The 13-month sentence for Mr. Loqmanian was affirmed last week by an
appeals court.

Sixty reformist members of the 280-member Parliament have been summoned
to court over the last year on a variety of charges. Appeals courts last
week affirmed prison terms for four of them, including Mr. Loqmanian,
but the other three have not yet been ordered to prison.

The fight between reformers close to President Mohammad Khatami and
hard-liners close to the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, has clearly reached a peak with the arrest.
FULL TEXT:
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/12/27/international/middleeast/27IRAN.html