British aides face trial, says Iranian cleric
Denounces protests over election results
BEIRUT - A senior Iranian cleric said yesterday that employees of the British Embassy in Tehran who have been arrested in recent days would be put on trial for unspecified charges of acting against Iran’s national security, a move denounced by members of the European Union.
Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the conservative Guardian Council, said in a Friday prayer sermon that the employees, all of them Iranian nationals, “will definitely be tried.’’ They are accused of taking part in or promoting unrest after the June 12 presidential election, which was marred by opposition allegations of vote-rigging.
“The enemy made an effort to poison the people,’’ Jannati, who is politically close to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, told worshipers gathered in Tehran. “They had planned a velvet revolution before the election. . . . A number of people at the British Embassy were arrested for involvement in the unrests, and they will definitely be tried.’’
Eight or nine employees of the embassy’s political section were arrested last weekend. All but two have been released, according to the British Foreign Ministry. Jannati did not say how many would be put on trial or on what specific charges.
Sweden, which recently took on the rotating leadership of the EU, immediately criticized Jannati’s threat.
“It’s not acceptable to file charges against the ones released or to the ones still in custody,’’ Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said in a prepared statement.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said his nation was “urgently seeking clarification’’ of Jannati’s remarks.
“We are confident that our staff have not engaged in any improper or illegal behavior,’’ he said. “We remain deeply concerned about the two members of our staff who remain in detention in Iran.’’
EU nations began summoning Iranian ambassadors to complain about the arrests in a coordinated response. They are also weighing the possibility of pulling all 27 member nations’ ambassadors from Tehran, as well as imposing a travel ban on Iranian officials to protest the arrests. But they want to wait for Iran’s next move regarding the embassy employees, European news media reported.
The comments by Jannati, a hard-line cleric, are in line with an official effort to paint days of protests and political divisions over Ahmadinejad’s reelection as the work of Iran’s enemies. Iranian officials have cited Britain, which has a long history of entanglement in their nation’s affairs that includes backing a 1953 coup against a democratically elected government.
But Jannati’s very presence at the pulpit surprised Iran watchers. Moderate cleric Ayatollah Mohammad Emami-Kashani was officially scheduled to address worshipers. Ayatollah Ali-Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, presidential opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi’s most powerful backer, last stood at the pulpit May 22, although he usually delivers the important sermon once a month.
The absence of moderate clerics at the Friday pulpit strongly suggests a continuing rift at the highest levels of the Iranian establishment over the election and more confrontation between the rival camps in coming days.
Jannati’s Guardian Council recently reaffirmed Ahmadinejad’s reelection after a partial recount of ballots in a vote many critics said was flawed. The council ignored Mousavi’s charge that ballot boxes were taken to military bases after they left polling stations, contending tht most election violations were minor.
