Iran Releases Leading Figure in Opposition
Iran’s leading opposition figure was released Thursday, two weeks after he was arrested on charges of “desecrating religious sanctities.”
Ebrahim Yazdi was freed by the Islamic Revolutionary Court following an investigation and after he posted bail, the Islamic Republic News Agency said.
Yazdi, the 66-year-old head of the token legal opposition group Iran Freedom Movement, was questioned by the court Dec. 14 and then incarcerated, his group said.
He was arrested a day after joining more than 50 Iranians in condemning the government’s treatment of a dissident cleric, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.
After Montazeri questioned the legitimacy of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, last month, his home was attacked by Muslim militants and he was forced to seek police protection.
Yazdi’s group favors improving relations with foreign governments and has criticized official corruption. He is a U.S.-trained doctor and served less than a year as foreign minister in Iran’s first government after the 1979 revolution that overthrew the pro-Western shah.
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