Iran shuts a prison, frees 140 detainees

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran yesterday released 140 people detained in Iran's postelection turmoil, and the supreme leader ordered the closure of a prison where human-rights groups say jailed protesters were killed, in a nod by authorities to allegations of abuses in the crackdown on protests.

The pro-reform opposition has contended for weeks that jailed protesters and activists were being held in secret facilities and could be undergoing torture. Authorities appear to be paying greater attention to the complaints after the son of a prominent conservative died in prison, reportedly the same prison ordered closed Monday.

Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi condemned the wave of arrests and deaths, saying the Iranian people "will never forgive" the authorities.

The official number of people in prison from the crackdown was given at about 500, announced several weeks ago, and arrests have continued since then. The heavy crackdown was launched by police, the elite Revolutionary Guards, and the pro-government Basij militia to put down protests that erupted after the June 12 presidential election, in which hard-line incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner. The opposition says the vote was fraudulent.

Among those detained are young protesters, as well as prominent pro-reform politicians, rights activists, and lawyers. At least 20 people were killed, according to police, though rights groups say the number is likely far higher.

A parliament committee investigating prisoners' conditions visited Tehran's Evin prison yesterday and realeased the 140 detainees connected to the protests, said Kazem Jalili, a spokesman for the committee, according to the official IRNA news agency. An additional 150 remain in prisons throughout Iran and could be released soon, he said.

Also detained are 50 "political figures and members of counterrevolutionary or foreign groups who meddled in the riots," he said.

Among those freed was Shadi Sadr, a prominent women's-rights activist who was detained during a July 17 protest, her relatives told pro-opposition news Web sites. The names of others who were released were not immediately known.

The opposition Web site Mowjcamp reported yesterday that four prominent detained reformist politicians were moved from Evin to a special prison of the elite Revolutionary Guards for further interrogation. The report could not be independently confirmed.

The opposition has called for supporters to attend a "silent memorial" tomorrow for those killed in the crackdown, raising the possibility of a new street confrontation with security forces.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly also called for detainees' release, saying the United States was "deeply concerned about all these arbitrary arrests, detentions, and harassments that have taken place in Iran, as well as the persistent lack of due process."

He also expressed concern over three detained foreign citizens - Iranian American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, Newsweek reporter Maziar Bahari, who holds Iranian and Canadian citizenship, and a French scholar, Clotilde Reiss.

The head of Iran's judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, promised that the public prosecutor would review the situation within a week and decide whether to release or bring detainees to trial, the state news agency IRNA reported. State television said yesterday that Ahmadinejad had urged Shahroudi to accelerate making decisions on the fate of detainees.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, meanwhile, ordered the closure of Kahrizak prison, on Tehran's southern outskirts, Jalali said. "It did not possess the required standards to ensure the rights of the detainees," he said.