Iran court cuts reformists' sentences

The six originally received up to five years in jail

An Iranian court has reduced the sentences of six people jailed for between four and five years for attending a reformist conference in Berlin last year.

Veteran opposition politician Ezatollah Sahabi and student leader Ali Afshari will now only have to serve respectively six months and a year in jail, time they had both already served waiting for the verdict.

In addition, prominent Iranian feminists Mehangiz Kar and Shahla Lahiji, and lawyer Shahla Sherkat, had their jail terms replaced with fines of around $500.

And economist Fariborz Raisdana was cleared of charges of undermining national security and insulting Islamic values.

Originally Kar and Lahiji were given four year jail terms, while Sahabi received four and a half years and Afshari received five years.

Controversial conference

The Berlin conference, sponsored by the German Green Party, was organised last April to discuss the future of Iran following elections in Iran in which reformists scored a sweeping victory.

The conference collapsed amid brawls and heckling from delegates

However the conference soon collapsed in acrimony when radicals disrupted the meeting by heckling speakers and brawls erupted among delegates.

Iran later arrested 17 academics, journalists and translators and handed down tough jail sentences for seven, while the rest were given suspended sentences and harsh fines.

Iran's actions led to tough criticism from abroad from both Iranian opposition groups and international human rights organisations.