Three jail officials in Iran have been charged by a military court with the murder of three political prisoners detained during post-election street protests, the news agency ISNA reported on Saturday.

"Some 12 officials at Kahrizak detention center have been charged. Three of them have been charged with murder," ISNA quoted a judiciary statement as saying. "The date of their trial will be announced later," the statement added.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected on June 12th amid accusations of vote fraud, which led to the worst unrest in the country since the Islamic revolution three decades ago.

Thousands of people were arrested and some were beaten following the government's crackdown on street protestors. The majority of them were brought to Evin prison in northern Tehran, but some 200 were reportedly taken to Kahrizak in the south of the city.

Kahrizak closes

In July, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei instructed officials to shut down Kahrizak detention center for failing to meet hygiene and other standards required to uphold detainees' rights.

Initially authorities had blamed the detainee deaths on meningitis; however, the coroner's office came to a different conclusion.

"The coroner's office rejected the claim that these people died of meningitis and confirmed there were bruises on their bodies from beatings and that the cause of their death was a series of beatings," ISNA quoted the statement as saying.

Most have been released, but more than 80 have been slapped with 15-year jail terms, and five with the death penalty.

According to the reformist opposition, more than 70 people were killed in post-election violence. The official toll puts the number of demonstrator deaths at 30.


vj/dpa/Reuters/AFP
Editor: Andreas Illmer