CIA link alleged in Iran poll riots
Source: Agencies |
February 8, 2010, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
IRAN said yesterday it had arrested seven people accused of stoking unrest after last year's disputed election, including some who it said were employed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency.
The arrests were reported by the official IRNA news agency before possible new anti-government protests on Thursday when Iran marks the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.
Opposition supporters have used such official occasions to try to revive their protests over the poll last June, which they say was rigged to secure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Authorities have rejected the vote-fraud charges and claimed that the huge demonstrations that erupted after the vote were foreign-backed attempts to undermine the Islamic Republic.
In the most serious violence since the aftermath of the election, eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and opposition backers during demonstrations on Ashura, the ritual Shiite day of mourning that fell on December 27.
'Outside' link
Opposition Websites have invited people to take to the streets on Thursday, raising the prospect of new clashes.
The revolution anniversary "belongs to all 70 million Iranians and we will not let anyone confiscate it for the sake of a certain group," ISNA news agency quoted Hossein Hamedani, a Revolutionary Guards commander, as saying.
IRNA quoted an Intelligence Ministry statement as saying seven people "linked to the counter-revolutionaries, the Zionist media and elements of sedition" had been arrested.
It did not name them or say when they were held.
It said the detainees were also linked to a US-backed, Farsi-language radio station and had received training outside Iran in disrupting public order, spreading rumors and conducting sabotage.
"A number of them were officially hired by the US intelligence agency, the CIA," the statement said.
It said they played a vital role in "post-election riots," particularly those on Ashura.
Thousands of people were arrested after the June election.
And more than 80 people have received jail terms of up to 15 years.
Last month, Iran hanged two people over the riots.
The arrests were reported by the official IRNA news agency before possible new anti-government protests on Thursday when Iran marks the 31st anniversary of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the US-backed shah.
Opposition supporters have used such official occasions to try to revive their protests over the poll last June, which they say was rigged to secure the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Authorities have rejected the vote-fraud charges and claimed that the huge demonstrations that erupted after the vote were foreign-backed attempts to undermine the Islamic Republic.
In the most serious violence since the aftermath of the election, eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and opposition backers during demonstrations on Ashura, the ritual Shiite day of mourning that fell on December 27.
'Outside' link
Opposition Websites have invited people to take to the streets on Thursday, raising the prospect of new clashes.
The revolution anniversary "belongs to all 70 million Iranians and we will not let anyone confiscate it for the sake of a certain group," ISNA news agency quoted Hossein Hamedani, a Revolutionary Guards commander, as saying.
IRNA quoted an Intelligence Ministry statement as saying seven people "linked to the counter-revolutionaries, the Zionist media and elements of sedition" had been arrested.
It did not name them or say when they were held.
It said the detainees were also linked to a US-backed, Farsi-language radio station and had received training outside Iran in disrupting public order, spreading rumors and conducting sabotage.
"A number of them were officially hired by the US intelligence agency, the CIA," the statement said.
It said they played a vital role in "post-election riots," particularly those on Ashura.
Thousands of people were arrested after the June election.
And more than 80 people have received jail terms of up to 15 years.
Last month, Iran hanged two people over the riots.
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