Iran Official's Wife: Confession Forced

The wife of a former Iranian vice-president on trial for postelection violence says his televised "confessions" were made under pressure.

Fahimeh Mousavi-nejad tells The Associated Press that the forcing of confessions shows the clerical rulers' weakness, saying, "they are completely disarmed."

Her husband, former Vice-President Mohammad Ali Abtahi, is one of the top figures in a trial that began Saturday for around 100 people detained in the postelection crackdown. State TV aired footage of Abtahi admitting he fueled protests as part of a foreign plot to topple the government. The opposition says he and other detainees were coerced during weeks in prison.

Mousavi-nejad says, "I personally believe what he has gone through has made him speak the way he has."

The trials of political activists began Saturday in the Revolutionary Court system, first used to sentence officials of the Western-backed monarchy that was toppled by the 1979 Islamic Revolutionary.

The more than 100 defendants spanned nearly a dozen years of efforts to challenge Iran's Islamic systems: from supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi to several top allies of former President Mohammad Khatami, who began the openings for greater political and social freedoms with his election in 1997.

The blanket trial - on broad charges of trying to bring down the nation's political order - appeared part of an attempt by authorities to rattle and discredit the core of the reform movement in one blow.

Officials claim the opposition was a tool of foreign countries aiming to topple the Islamic state. State media quoted Abtahi, who served as Khatami's vice president, as "confessing" to working to foment unrest.

But rights groups have said such confessions are often obtained under duress in Iran. The trial was closed to all but state media.

Khatami called it a show trial to deflect attention from the "real crimes" carried out by authorities following the election.

The former president, who held office from 1997 to 2005 and is Mousavi's close ally, criticized the court for not allowing defense lawyers access to the courtroom or the case files.

"As far as I have learned, what happened in the trial was contrary to the constitution and law, as well as citizens' rights," said Khatami, according to a report posted on his Web site late Saturday.

Mousavi, in a statement on a pro-reform Web site, also called the proceedings a "theater" and demanded trials against "inquisitor and tortures ... who have played with the life of the reputation" of the country.

"What do they expect to convince people with?" the Web site reported Sunday. "A weak indictment based on confessions that share the tones of medieval torture."

The state Islamic Republic News Agency said a second session of the trial would be Thursday. Earlier, the semiofficial ISNA news agency said 10 suspects were in court Sunday. The reason for the discrepancy was not immediately clear.

State TV announced Sunday that it would broadcast the trial live if the judge agreed. The comments came in response to calls by hard-liners for such a move.