Iran Releases on Bail Last of Nine British Embassy Employees - Bloomberg.com: Via Bloomberg.com .

July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iran released on bail the last of nine local employees of the British embassy in Tehran, who were arrested following disturbances in the wake of the June 12 presidential election.

“The detention of embassy staff was completely unjustified,” Foreign Secretary David Miliband said yesterday in an e-mailed statement. “I am confident that none of them were involved in any improper behavior.”

Hossein Rassam, the embassy’s senior political analyst, was freed after posting bail of 1 billion rials ($100,000), his lawyer Abdolsamad Khoramshahi said, according to Agence France- Presse.
( Read more ... )

Lawyer for British Embassy worker jailed in Iran is optimistic: Via Los Angeles Times.

Reporting from Beirut — The lawyer for a British Embassy employee in Tehran arrested and under investigation for subterfuge today refuted reports that his client had been formally charged, saying he was optimistic the Iranian national would be released in the coming days.

Authorities today also blocked access to the website of a pro-reform group of seminary scholars in the holy city of Qom that has joined other reformist clergy in sharply criticizing last month's vote as authorities continued a crackdown against supporters of failed presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who has alleged massive fraud.

And the head of the judiciary Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi today has issued a directive to Iranian courts allowing them to sentence anyone working with satellite television channels or Internet networking websites to up to 10 years in jail, according to several news agencies.
( Read more ... )

Iran Cleric Says British Embassy Staff to Stand Trial: Via NYTimes.com.

PARIS — Brushing aside British and European efforts to seek the release of local British Embassy staff members held in Tehran, the Iranian authorities indicated Friday that they planned to put some of them on trial — a move that deepened a diplomatic crisis and could provoke the withdrawal of ambassadors.

In London, the Foreign Office said it was urgently checking reports that the Iranian authorities planned to put two of its local employees on trial. Nine staff members were seized after the unrest sparked by Iran’s disputed presidential elections on June 12.

Hours after the Iranian threat, the European Union seemed to hold back from an out-and-out showdown, resolving to summon Iranian ambassadors in all 27 countries to send “a strong message of protest against the detention of British Embassy local staff and to demand their immediate release,” said a European diplomat who, following European Union rules, spoke on condition of anonymity.
( Read more ... )

Iran Extends Deadline for Election Inquiry: Via NYTimes.com .

The Iranian government offered a few small concessions to the opposition on Monday, extending by five days its deadline to investigate opposition claims of vote rigging in this month’s disputed presidential election, beginning a new limited recount, and releasing five of nine British Embassy employees detained in Tehran over the weekend.

But the government’s underlying stance on the electoral dispute remained unchanged, and there were reports that protesters were gathering in Tehran again on Monday evening as they have for more than two weeks, drawing a broad and violent crackdown. On Sunday, security forces aggressively dispersed several thousand protesters, beating and firing tear gas as they gathered at a mosque in support of the defeated presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Moussavi.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also called for a judicial inquiry into the “suspicious” death of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman who was shot and killed on the sidelines of a protest on June 20. Her death, captured on film, has become a symbol of the crackdown.
( Read more ... )

Iran: Some Members of British Embassy Staff Released: Via Voice of America.

Iranian state media is reporting that authorities have released some members of the British Embassy staff in Tehran, one day after eight Iranian staffers there were detained for alleged links to the nation's post-election unrest.

A report quotes the nation's intelligence minister, Qolam Hosein Mohseni-Ejei as saying Sunday it has proof that some British embassy employees collected news about the recent protests.

It is unclear how many staffers remain in custody. 

Earlier in the day, British Foreign Secretary David Miliband demanded their release, calling their detention an unacceptable form of harassment and intimidation. 

European Union foreign ministers Sunday vowed the EU will respond in a "strong and collective" manner to any harassment or intimidation of staff members at embassies in Iran.
( Read more ... )