TEHRAN, June 30 (Reuters) - Five reformist activists will go on trial next
week in Iran for their role in "un-Islamic" celebrations which followed President Mohammad Khatami's re-election earlier this month, a judge said
on Saturday.
Iran's student news agency ISNA said on Friday that 55 people were arrested over spontaneous celebrations in the northeastern town of Torbat
Heidarieh, including five members of Khatami's campaign team there.
But the judge presiding over the case told ISNA on Saturday that only 15
people had been arrested in Torbat Heidarieh, 10 of whom were later released.
The five reformists will stand trial next week. "Unfortunately some are trying to give this case a political dimension.
This is an entirely criminal case and we are pursuing it with determination," the judge said.
After learning of Khatami's win in the June 8 polls, crowds of young men
and women took to the streets singing and dancing, even in the austere holy cities of Qom and Mashhad which have stricter social rules.
Dancing in mixed company is banned under Iran's Islamic law. Some chanted slogans against the hardline establishment opposed to
Khatami's liberal reforms, including the Revolutionary Guards and its feared Basij militia.
Scores of young people and reformist activists were arrested in several cities and reformers suggested the militia was behind some of the arrests.
Ali Abedinpour, a parliamentarian from Torbat Heidarieh, accused the conservative-run judiciary of using the arrests to "settle a political
score" with reformers. "Many of those arrested were not even present when political slogans were
chanted, but some here are trying to blame it on the reformist camp," he
told ISNA. "They have provided no evidence and I feel this is politically
motivated."
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