Iranian dissident jailed for royal links

Reports from Iran say an opposition journalist has been sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for having contacts with the former royal family.

A state-owned newspaper said Siamak Pourzand had admitted having had direct links with people close to Reza Pahlavi, the son of the late Shah.

Mr Pourzand, aged 70, is the husband of Mehrangiz Kar, a reformist lawyer who was among the people arrested two years ago for having participated in a conference in Berlin that the conservative authorities said was anti-Islamic.

Mr Pourzand is the latest in a series of liberal intellectuals to be imprisoned by conservative-dominated revolutionary courts.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service