Police chief: Iran courts taking up cases of detained protestors

Jul 1, 2009, 11:25 GMT

   Tehran - Iranian courts have started to deal with people detained in connection with demonstrations against alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election, the country's police chief said Wednesday.

   According to the ISNA news agency, Ismaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam said more than 1,000 people had been arrested within the past two weeks, but many of them have been released.

   'Those still detained have been referred to public and revolutionary courts,' the police chief said without specifying their number.

   The revolutionary courts in Iran are in charge for major offences against the country's national security, and the sentences they issue are usually heavy.

   The police chief added that 20 demonstrators were killed during the protests but denied earlier reports of deaths among police and security forces.

   More than 500 of the security personnel were, however, reported by the media to have been wounded in the clashes with what he called rioters.

   Ahmadi-Moqadam rejected claims that the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan on June 20 was in connection with the protests and said her killing was a 'pre-planned scenario' to tarnish Iran's image abroad.

   Agha-Soltan's shooting, caught on camera and viewed by millions on the internet, turned the 27-year-old music student into a resistance icon and attracted international attention.

   Arash Hejazi, the physician who tried to help Agha-Soltan after she was shot, claimed in an interview with British media in England that she was killed by militant supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

   The police chief categorically denied Hejazi's claims and said Iran has asked Interpol to arrest the physician on charges of baseless accusations against the Iranian government.