Tehran - Iranian courts have started to deal with people
detained in connection with demonstrations against alleged fraud in
the June 12 presidential election, the country's police chief said
Wednesday.
According to the ISNA news agency, Ismaeil Ahmadi-Moqadam said
more than 1,000 people had been arrested within the past two weeks,
but many of them have been released.
'Those still detained have been referred to public and
revolutionary courts,' the police chief said without specifying their
number.
The revolutionary courts in Iran are in charge for major offences
against the country's national security, and the sentences they issue
are usually heavy.
The police chief added that 20 demonstrators were killed during
the protests but denied earlier reports of deaths among police and
security forces.
More than 500 of the security personnel were, however, reported by
the media to have been wounded in the clashes with what he called
rioters.
Ahmadi-Moqadam rejected claims that the killing of Neda
Agha-Soltan on June 20 was in connection with the protests and said
her killing was a 'pre-planned scenario' to tarnish Iran's image
abroad.
Agha-Soltan's shooting, caught on camera and viewed by millions on
the internet, turned the 27-year-old music student into a resistance
icon and attracted international attention.
Arash Hejazi, the physician who tried to help Agha-Soltan after
she was shot, claimed in an interview with British media in England
that she was killed by militant supporters of President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
The police chief categorically denied Hejazi's claims and said
Iran has asked Interpol to arrest the physician on charges of
baseless accusations against the Iranian government.
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