Row deepens over jailed Iranian MP

Iranians are divided over the issue of political immunity

		By Roger Hardy BBC Middle East analyst

There is mounting political tension in Iran after a member of parliament was jailed for insulting the country's conservative judiciary.

Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has refused to intervene to stop the prosecution of reformist deputies, an issue which has sharply divided reformists and conservatives alike.

Iran's supreme leader has refused to intervene

Having already closed down most of the country's reformist newspapers and jailed dozens of liberal writers and intellectuals, Iran's hardline judiciary is now directing its fire at reformists in parliament.

Some 60 deputies are currently being prosecuted for expressing their opinions.

On Sunday, hundreds of people took to the streets in the western town of Hamedan to protest against the imprisonment of their MP, Hossein Loghmanian.

Eleven people were arrested after clashes with police.

Ayatollah Khamenei has called on parliament and the judiciary to treat one another with respect - but he has refused to come down on one side or the other.

President Khatami is at odds with a hardline judiciary

To the reformists that suggests he is giving the judiciary a free hand.

However, the head of the judiciary, the Iraqi-born Ayatollah Shahrudi, in a statement Monday suggested the heads of the three branches of government - the judiciary, the legislature and the executive - should get together to try to resolve the issue.

This may represent an olive branch to the reformist deputies.

But whatever the outcome of this latest confrontation, six months after the re-election of the country's reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, the mood among the reformists is one of despondency and frustration over the constant erosion of their power.