A leading reformist and the editor of a banned Iranian newspaper, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, has been arrested in the capital, Tehran.

It was not immediately clear what the charges were.

Last month, the managing editor of the same newspaper, Neshat, was imprisoned for thirty months for insulting Islam. The newspaper had published an article calling for the death penalty to be abolished.

Several Iranian newspapers have been banned in recent months in the ongoing power struggle between the conservatives, who dominate the judiciary, and and reformist government of President Mohammed Khatami.