Popular Iranian reformer on trial

Anti-reformist sentiments are strong in Iran

By Jim Muir in Tehran

One of Iran's leading female politicians, Jamileh Kadivar, has gone on trial in Tehran, accused of acting against national security and insulting Islam.

The charges relate to a controversial conference that she attended in Berlin in April on the subject of political reform in Iran.

Mrs Kadivar, who is married to one of President Khatami's key ministers - embattled culture minister Ataollah Mohajarani - denies the accusations.

The conference was interrupted by anti-regime elements

Sixteen other reformists, including several close allies of the moderate President Mohammad Khatami, are being tried for their part in the event, which conservatives condemned as anti-Islamic.

Four others face charges but are currently abroad.

Anti-regime

If the polls are anything to go by, Mrs Kadivar is the most popular woman in Iran. In the February general elections, she won more votes than any other candidate except for Mohammed Rezar Khatami, the president's younger brother.

Like most of the others, she is accused of acting against Iran's national security by taking part in the conference, which was disrupted by hardcore anti-regime opposition elements in exile who heckled, danced and even stripped.

President Khatami has vowed to continue his reformist agenda

Mrs Kadivar angrily rejected the charges, saying she said she had left the conference when it was disrupted.

She insisted that she believed in the Islamic republic and its leadership system and that the conference could in no way be construed as undermining Iran's national security.

Apostasy

She argued that the conference had been held with the knowledge and acquiescence of the Iranian authorities, who had not prevented anyone from attending it.

The judge, who also acts as jury, dismissed her arguments as 'irrelevant'.

A cleric who was also in Berlin, Hassan Jousefi-Eshkevari, has already been tried behind closed doors by a special clerical court.

There are unconfirmed reports that he may have been sentenced for death for apostasy.

The case has been widely condemned as medieval by Iranian reformist groups and criticised by international human rights organisations.