Iran's judiciary chief urges early decision on detained protesters

TEHRAN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Iran's judiciary spokesman said Monday that the judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi has urged for an early decision on the fate of the protesters, detained in the post-election unrest.

"In today's meeting session, the judiciary chief ordered the fate of the detained (protestors) of the recent events (following the June election) to be decided in a week," spokesman Ali-Reza Jamshidi was quoted as saying by semi-official Fars news agency.

Shahroudi also ordered that those imprisoned protestors, whose crimes are not serious enough to be kept in jail, should be freed, the spokesman said.

On Saturday, Iran's reformist opposition leaders urged the country's senior clerics to help release the protestors, arrested following the disputed June presidential election.

The opposition leaders, including defeated presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and former reformist president Mohammad Khatami, made the request in a joint statement.

The only way to solve the situation is to release the pro-reform detainees immediately and not to link them with foreign countries, said the statement posted on Mousavi's Ghalamnews website.

Protests gripped Tehran and other Iran cities after the presidential elections, amid claims that the vote had been rigged in favor of the incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Iran's state media said around 20 people had been killed in relevant clashes.

More than 1,000 protestors and dozens of reformist activists were reportedly arrested in the wake of the disputed election. The authorities said that most of them have been released.