Iran releases activists, filmmaker for Iranian New Year holiday

Iran frees activists for Iranian New Year holiday

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran released a prominent opposition politician as well as two reformist activists and a filmmaker detained for suspected involvement in the country’s postelection turmoil, a relative and state media said Thursday.

Mohsen Mirdamadi, the leader of the country’s biggest reformist party, the Islamic Iran Participation Front, was temporarily freed late Wednesday on $450,000 bail, his son Ali told The Associated Press.

Iran traditionally releases some prisoners before the New Year holiday, which begins March 21 and normally ends April 4.

Iranian security forces arrested Mirdamadi on June 13, a day after the country’s disputed election that won President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second four-year term.

Mirdamadi was among more than 100 prominent political figures and activists who were put on a mass trial following the crackdown on opposition supporters who claim Ahmadinejad won the election by fraud.

The official IRNA news agency also reported Thursday that authorities released filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, journalist Ali Akbar Montajabi and female activist Farzaneh Qassemi, all of whom were detained in recent weeks.

The report said Rasoulof was freed on bail, but IRNA did not provide details on the release of Montajabi and Qassemi.

Iran has already handed down verdicts on more than 80 of the people on trial, sentencing nine of them to death and the rest to prison terms ranging from six months to 15 years. Most of the cases, including the death sentences, are now in appeals court.

In January, Iran executed two members of a monarchist group who were arrested before the election but put on the same postelection mass trial in August.