Report: Iran’s pro-reform ex-vice president returns to prison after new year holiday leave

Report: Iranian ex-vice president returns to jail

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s state television says a former vice president and prominent pro-reform activist convicted of spreading propaganda against the ruling clerical establishment has returned to prison to serve his one-year sentence.

State TV reported Sunday that Hossein Marashi was taken back into custody two weeks after being temporarily released for the Iranian new year holiday, which ended April 2.

Marashi was among the hundreds of activists and opposition figures who were rounded up in the turmoil following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in June’s election.

Marashi is a spokesman for the liberal Kargozaran political party and supported opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in June’s vote. He served as vice president from 1997 to 2005.