ایرن‏آن

Official Stresses Role of Foreign Media in Iran's Post-Election Unrests

Deputy prosecutor general of Tehran's public and revolutionary courts said on Saturday that the foreign media contributed a major role in the post-election frenzy in Iran. 
  

Addressing a court session held to try the detainees of the recent unrests in Iran, Mohebbati said that the foreign media aimed to provoke people to hold illegal gatherings and riots in a bid to intensify unrests.

"It should be noted that foreign media, including BBC Persian, VOA, Al-Arabia, Radio Farda and Radio Zamaneh, have played a salient role in training (rioters) and provoking illegal gatherings and unrests," he said.

Mohebbati also underlined that the detainees have had considerable cooperation and coordination with the said foreign media.

After official announcement of the election results on June 13, supporters of Ahmadinejad's main rival Mir Hossein Mousavi - who rejected the results - took to the streets of Tehran and other cities in daily rallies.

But later, millions of Iranian people as well as the Iranian police, IRGC and Basij (mobilized volunteers) forces staged a strong presence and ended weeklong demonstrations and unrests in the capital.

Trial of the detainees of the post-election unrests started today.

Mohabbati quoted Newsweek reporter Mazyar Bahari as saying that the policy of the western media was based on inculcating fraud in Iran's 10th presidential election even before voting started.

"I asked the issue from Mr. (Mohammad) Khatami (former Iranian president) in an interview and after the interview I witnessed a movement in the country which accorded with the classic paradigms of velvet revolution," he quoted Bahari as saying.