IRAN TO EXECUTE NINE PROTESTERS 'SOON': JUDICIARY OFFICIAL

February 2, 2010: Iran will "soon execute" nine people arrested during anti-government protests for seeking to topple the Islamic regime, Fars news agency quoted a senior judiciary official as saying.
"The two people executed and another nine who will soon be executed were definitely arrested in recent riots and each was linked with counter-revolutionary movements," deputy judiciary head Ebrahim Raisi told a meeting in the holy city of Qom.
"They had participated in riots with the aim of creating disunity and toppling the system," he added.
Iran executed Mohammad Reza Ali Zamani, 37, and Arash Rahmani Pour, 20, January 28 on charges of seeking to topple the regime.
The two dissidents belonged to the monarchist group Tondar (the Kingdom Assembly of Iran), according to Iranian media reports.
Their hangings were the first reported executions of people tried since the wave of protests that broke out following the re-election of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a highly disputed June 12 poll.
Opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi condemned the hangings and alleged the pair appeared to have been arrested months before the presidential election and had nothing to do with the post-poll violence. (Sources: Afp, 02/02/2010)