Iran Releases 4 Family Members of Former Prez

By Drew Nelles,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 21, 2009 2:07 PM CDT
Iran Releases 4 Family Members of Former Prez
In this file photo, former Iranian President and reformist cleric Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani speaks during a campaign rally in Tehran. Five of his relatives were arrested yesterday.   (AP Photo/Hasan Sarbakhshian, file)

Iran is calm but tense today as police freed four family members of a former president and important Iranian cleric, the Los Angeles Times reports. But the oldest daughter of Hashemi Rafsanjani, a key backer of challenger Mir-Hossein Mousavi, was not released by authorities in Tehran. Five members of Rafsanjani's family were arrested yesterday, illustrating a clerical divide between reformers like Rafsanjani and conservatives like Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

No injuries were reported on the day after clashes with police killed at least 13 people. "The government of Iran should be ashamed of itself," a human-rights campaigner said. "Right now, in front of the whole world, it is showing its violent actions." Meanwhile, opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi officially complained to a government agency yesterday about the alleged electoral fraud that saw President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected.
(More Iran stories.)

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