BBC News Online: World: Middle East

Iranian journalist freed on bail

An Iranian journalist has been released from jail after being arrested and charged with insulting the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini.

The journalist, Taghi Rahmani, was freed on bail after spending twenty-four hours in custody.

A revolutionary court in the central city of Shahr-e Kord had ordered his detention on Monday and accused him of insulting Ayatollah Khameini in a speech at a university.

Mr Rahmani's case will return to court at the end of September.

He was a writer with a liberal monthly publication Iran-e Farda which was closed in April as part of a conservative campaign against the press.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service