Reformists Win Majority in Iran

By Ali Akbar Dareini Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran -Iran's reformers won 52 of the 66 seats contested in run-off legislative elections, the nation's largest pro-democracy party said Saturday – another setback for Islamic hard-liners fighting change. The run-off was held three months after allies of Iran's reformist president won 70 percent of the seats decided in the first round of voting for the Majlis, or parliament. If the run-off results stand, the reformers will have enough seats to easily control the 290-member parliament for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution. The reformers would also be in a position to grant greater social freedoms and weaken hard-liners' grip on key institutions. But the hard-liners have shown they won't give up willingly: Since their first-round defeat on Feb. 18, they have unleashed a crackdown, shutting down 16 reform newspapers and arresting top liberal activists. The hard-line Guardians Council, which oversees elections, annulled a dozen reformist victories from the first round. The Council also is yet to endorse the results in Tehran, where reformers won 29 of the 30 seats. Saturday's results are certain to put more pressure on the hard-liners. Mohammad-Reza Khatami, head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front and the president's brother, called the results "a clear message" to those who have been resorting "to illegal means and seemingly legal pretexts to defeat this promising movement." State-run Tehran radio announced the names of the winners without giving their affiliations. Elections in Iran are not contested on party lines, and the leanings of the candidates are known only unofficially. Besides the 52 seats won by reformers, hard-liners took 10 seats and four seats went to independents, said Mhos Pirzadeh, an official at the headquarters of the Islamic Iran Participation Front. He said 43 winners were from his party. Other reformist parties reported similar figures with small discrepancies. The state-run Islamic Republic News Agency also confirmed that 10 hard-liners had won, but it reported 40 reformist wins and said it did not know the affiliations of 16 others. Run-offs were held for races where no candidate received the minimum 25 percent of votes in the first round. Only the two front-runners from the last round were eligible to contest each seat. President Mohammad Khatami's 1997 election ignited a huge movement for change, fueled largely by Iran's predominantly young population. Islamic hard-liners, out of step with the nation's mood, are unpopular but have shown that they won't fold, using their grip on the military, the state media and the judiciary to stall democratic and social reforms. Iranians are now watching to see whether the electoral victory will boost the reformers' power or open the way to more confrontation. "The more the hard-liners try to dictate to the people, the more defeats they will suffer," said Karim Arqandehpour, editor of the reformist Mosharekat daily, among the newspapers that were shut down. "The hard-liners have no option but to respect the vote of the people, but unfortunately experience has shown that they are unwilling to reconsider their own policies." Reformers fear that the hard-line crackdown could be an attempt to provoke riots that would bring troops into the streets and create a state of national emergency. Such a situation would give hard-liners more time to maneuver. It could even give them an excuse to delay the May 27 opening of the Majlis, which constitutionally must be inaugurated on time except in a national emergency.

Iran's Reformers Build on Gains in Polls

By Reuters TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's reform movement won two-thirds of the 66 seats up for grabs in runoff parliamentary polls, but the voting seems unlikely to quell lingering unease over the future of the new legislature. Reformers backing moderate President Mohammad Khatami won more than 100 seats in the first vote in February, but were subsequently caught up in result cancellations and a row with conservatives over the final tally in Tehran. Controversy over press freedom and the arrest of leading reformist journalists also cast a shadow over Friday's second-round vote. Preliminary results from election headquarters showed 43 candidates affiliated with the broad coalition that supports Khatami had captured seats in the 290-member parliament. Candidates clearly identified with the conservative establishment claimed 10 seats, while independents made up another 13. The results must be certified by the watchdog Guardian Council, which is dominated by conservative clerics. However, the reform movement remains wary over the fate of the new parliament, officially scheduled to convene on May 27. To date the Guardian Council has refused to certify the tally in Tehran -- where many of the country's leading politicians contested the 30 seats -- amid hints they may declare the results void. First results showed reformers winning 29 of the 30. Mohammad Reza Khatami, younger brother of the president and the top vote-getter in Tehran, said such talk betrays the conservatives' fear that they are losing their grip on power. ``Statements made by the right-wingers show they understand they must say goodbye to their monopoly on the pillars of power,'' he told the daily Bayan, the last of the reformist dailies still publishing after a press crackdown in April. Reformist allies have publicly warned their rivals not to hinder the meeting of the parliament or to play upon fears of the clerical establishment in a bid to undermine the popular will. One prominent conservative on the Guardian Council, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, used the Friday prayer sermon in Tehran to reassure voters the capital's final results would be released next week. In the biggest prize in Friday's polling, the four seats in the major urban center of Tabriz, reformist candidates won three seats, with the final place taken by an independent. A reformer also won handily in the big southern city of Shiraz. In the oil-producing province of Khuzestan, where resentment runs high over a lack of local investment from oil proceeds, reformers took eight of nine seats at stake. Friday's vote for 66 undecided places went smoothly, although turnout was lower than for the first round, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, secretary of the Guardian Council, told state radio after polls closed.

Runoff Voting in Iran Tests Majority Hope of Reforms

By SUSAN SACHS TEHRAN, Iran -- Iranians voted today in runoff elections for a new Parliament, in an atmosphere of heightened suspense after the conservative crackdown on the politically ascendant reform movement. Voting stations were kept open an extra two hours, for a total of 12 hours, to accommodate a high turnout in a number of cities, according to the Interior Ministry. There were no runoffs here in the capital, but 66 seats were to be decided in rural areas and a few large cities. Election officials said they expected to announce preliminary results in a few days. Reformers backing President Mohammad Khatami hoped to clinch a clear majority in the 290-seat Parliament. Pro-Khatami candidates won an estimated 70 percent of the 185 races that were decided outright in the first round of voting, on Feb. 18. To secure a seat then, a candidate had to win at least 25 percent of the votes. The reformers said they were assured of at least 15 more seats in the second round from races where both candidates were associated with reform parties. But the final count is in the hands of the conservative-dominated Council of Guardians, which must certify elections. The council has changed the results in 11 first-round races, in some cases elevating the runner-up to winner and in others voiding the election outright. Reform leaders have said the casualties have all been their allies. The runoffs capped several weeks of high drama in Iran, as conservative judges arrested a number of leading reformers and closed 16 reform newspapers and magazines. The national daily newspaper associated with the main reform party, which is headed by President Khatami's brother, was among those closed by the hard-line courts. In addition, results from the Tehran vote, in which reformers and independents won 29 of 30 seats, have yet to be certified two months after the first round of voting. The council, which includes some of the most outspoken opponents of the reform movement, has been recounting ballots for more than a month. Reform leaders have speculated that the prolonged audit in Tehran is an attempt by conservatives to manipulate the results and reduce the pro-Khatami majority in Parliament, which is scheduled to begin work on May 27. But in a highly unusual public explanation of the secretive workings of the Council of Guardians, one of its most prominent members today defended its handling of the Tehran ballots. In a sermon before the weekly public prayers at Tehran University, Ayatollah Mohammad Mesbah-Yazdi, one of 12 council members, said the recount in Tehran was not the conservatives' idea, but had been prompted by challenges from two losing candidates and a political party. It has taken so long to complete, he said, because election officials did not want to work during the two-week holiday around the Iranian new year in March. The first few recounts, he added, showed such large discrepancies between the reported and actual results that the council decided to re-examine votes from a large number of randomly chosen ballot boxes. Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi has described the reform movement as more dangerous to the system than a military coup because it promotes greater freedom for Iranians to write, read and behave as they wish.

Iranian Courts Hear 'Confessions' in Shooting and Spy Cases

New York Times TEHRAN, Iran, -- In a packed courtroom covered with flowery oriental carpets, two smiling young men told a judge today that they had decided to shoot one of the country's leading reformers because they believed that he was corrupt and an enemy of Islam. The trial, in which eight men are charged in the attempted assassination of the reformer, Saeed Hajjarian, an editor and political strategist close to President Mohammad Khatami, has mesmerized this city. Mr. Hajjarian's plight is the most vivid illustration of the setbacks suffered by Iran's reformers. The bearded young men who say they attacked him out of religious zeal are seen as an ominous reminder of the violence that lurks under the surface of Iran's political turmoil. At the same time, in a courtroom in the southern city of Shiraz, 2 of the 13 Jewish men charged with spying for Israel confessed today to charges of espionage, according to their lawyers. The admissions do not prove the government's case, the lawyers said, because no evidence has been presented to show that the men disclosed classified information. In all, three of the accused men -- all of those brought to trial so far in two days of closed hearings -- have now said they spied for Israel. They and most of their co-defendants have been in prison for 15 months but were able to consult with lawyers only three weeks ago. Both trials are being heard in Revolutionary Courts, the branch of Iran's legal system that deals with political and moral crimes, drug trafficking and crimes involving national security. In those courts, the judge investigates, brings charges, prosecutes and renders a verdict. The Hajjarian trial is being held in open court attended by several hundred people, with a large yellow banner reading "The Judiciary Is the Axis of the Islamic System" stretched across one corner. The spy case is taking place with only the defendants and their lawyers present, despite the protests of family members and human rights groups. But both proceedings have focused unusual attention, in Iran and outside, on the quality of justice that victims and defendants receive. Mr. Hajjarian was shot once in the face on March 12 by a man who fled on the type of high-powered motorcycle reserved for members of Iran's security forces. Last year, security officials said that "rogue elements" within their ranks had assassinated democracy advocates. No one has yet gone on trial for those killings. One security official who was arrested died in prison while awaiting trial. The authorities said he had committed suicide. The two defendants who have testified so far in the Hajjarian case maintained that they were not part of any official group and knew each other only through a neighborhood vigilante squad that had assigned itself the job of attacking those they believed to be un-Islamic. They said they had been encouraged to shoot Mr. Hajjarian by an associate who had convinced them that the reformer was an enemy of religion. Mr. Hajjarian was released from the hospital late Tuesday, in a wheelchair and with a bullet still in his neck. The shooting raised alarms in Iran about the effect of recent statements of several leading conservative clerics and members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is controlled by the clergy. In speeches and communiqués, the hard-liners have justified violence against anyone who opposes the Islamic system of government, and they have labeled many reformers as anti-Islam. In the present charged atmosphere -- in which reformers, whose candidates won a sweeping victory in first-round voting for Parliament in February, have been arrested and jailed for insulting Islam -- such talk is dangerous, reform leaders say. In a statement quoted today by the official Iranian press agency, Mohammad Reza Khatami, the president's brother and leader of the reform coalition that swept the polls, said those advocating violence in the name of religion harm Islam. "Advocates of violence under the current situation present a tarnished image of Islam," he said, adding that "Islam, with such friends, needs no other foes." Support for that view was not on display when two of the eight men charged in the Hajjarian shooting took the stand today. Saeed Asgar, 20, the confessed gunman, said in the first session of the trial last week that he believed he was performing his "religious duties" by shooting Mr. Hajjarian. In the second session today, he said he had not even known what Mr. Hajjarian looked like and had needed a signal from one of his friends to point him out on a crowded street outside the Tehran city hall. On that signal, Mr. Asgar told the court, he walked up to his victim and fired once, then rode away on a waiting motorcycle driven by an accomplice. Some distance away, he removed the extra pair of pants he was wearing -- so as not to be recognized by witnesses, he explained. He then went to the movies and paid his water bill at a local bank before heading home. "We didn't really want to kill him," Mr. Asgar said. "The agreement between us was to beat him up." He added that he did not know why the plan had changed. A second man, Mohsen Majidi, said he had provided the motorcycle and the gun for the shooting. He said a friend, who has not yet testified, had urged the attack on Mr. Hajjarian. "He came to my place and criticized him as a symbol of vice and said he was doing stuff against the Islamic system," Mr. Majidi told the court. The casual attitude of the defendants appeared to puzzle even the Revolutionary Court judge, who ordered psychiatric evaluations of the eight defendants earlier this week. The examinations, a doctor told the court, found them all sane and responsible for their actions. The attitude of the defendants in the espionage trial in Shiraz has also puzzled many observers, including their lawyers, say human rights activists and foreign diplomats monitoring the intensely watched trial. On Monday, after the first closed hearing, Hamid Tefileen, a shoe store clerk who is accused of being the ringleader of a spy network, confessed to spying. He made the confession first in Revolutionary Court and then in an interview on the state television. He said he had visited Israel, where his mother and two of his siblings live, and in 1994 received training from Israel's secret service, an assertion that Israel has denied. Mr. Tefileen was taken from the courtroom to meet with reporters today and again proclaimed his guilt, saying he had been motivated by money and a misplaced enthusiasm for the Promised Land. Two other men, Ramin Nematizadeh and Shahrokh Paknahad, joined him in admitting to espionage. But the lead defense lawyer in the case expressed skepticism at the confessions, which he said were not admissible under Iranian law because they had come from suspects who had spent a year or more in prison. "The accused may have been sick and tired of his condition and may be willing to say anything to get his ordeal over with one way or another," said the lawyer, Esmail Nosari. Lawyers also rebutted the Revolutionary Court judge's charge that the Jews had committed espionage under the law, saying the defendants had no access to classified information.

latest round of newspaper closings

NewYorK Times TEHRAN, Iran, -- Iran's Islamic hard-liners intensified their attack on reformers today, summarily closing a daily newspaper run by the brother of President Mohammad Khatami and another newspaper run by a Khatami adviser who was the target of an assassination attempt last month. The court orders accused the two papers, Moshareket and Sobh-e Emruz, of the all-encompassing crimes of insulting Islam and spreading corruption. Between them, the two newspapers had a daily circulation of about 400,000. The latest actions brought the escalating political conflict between the reformers, who hold the presidency and recently made strong gains in parliamentary elections, and the conservative Islamic clerics, who still wield the highest state powers, directly to the president's doorstep. Moshareket is run by Mohammad Reza Khatami, the president's younger brother and the top vote-getter in parliamentary elections in Tehran two months ago. Sobh-e Emruz is run by Saeed Hajjarian, the main political strategist for the reformers, who barely survived a bullet wound to his face a few weeks after pro-Khatami candidates swept to victory in the first round of parliamentary elections. A third publication, the weekly Ava, based in the city of Esphehan, was also ordered to close today. Ava is closely tied to a prominent dissident, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who has been under house arrest since 1997 because of his acerbic criticism of Iran's system of clerical rule. In all, 16 reformist newspapers have been closed in the past 5 days by the conservative-dominated courts, all without a hearing. In addition, three journalists have been jailed over the past week, and two more, both leading voices of the movement for social and political change, are scheduled for trial next week on charges of offending religious sensibilities. The remaining seven national daily newspapers in operation are all associated with hard-line religious factions or with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the still-powerful former president who was humiliated in the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections and got barely enough votes in Tehran to win a seat. Reform leaders have said that the closing of their newspapers violates provisions of Iran's Constitution and its press law. "It's not only a violation of Iranian law, but a violation of Iran's obligation to uphold freedom of expression," said Elahe Hicks, a representative of Human Rights Watch in New York who is on a research mission in Iran. "This increasing intimidation and the closings are clearly politically motivated." On the streets of Tehran, the news of the latest closings left many people anxious and angry, with some saying they feared this was a prelude to an attempt to oust Mr. Khatami. But reformers have urged the public, especially university students who have boycotted classes and held on-campus protests since the crackdown, to avoid confrontations that could get out of control. "They want to do something to make people excited and come out on the streets," Mohammad Ali Bakhtiari, a 25-year-old civil engineer, said of the hard-liners. "Then they can aggravate the situation and say the government of Mr. Khatami is not capable of running the country." But Iranians will heed the call of reformers to remain calm, he added. "We can do nothing but wait," Mr. Bakhtiari said. "We know we should control ourselves and not give the hard-liners what they want." Editors at the closed newspapers would not comment today. But one of the pro-reform journalists who is facing trial next week said that even if leaders advocate calm, there could be a dangerous public backlash against the hard-liners. "We've experienced this repression for years, so we are used to bitterness," said Emadeddin Baghi, one of the editors of Fath, a national pro-reform daily that was opened five months ago after conservatives closed an earlier incarnation. "But it's going to cost the country a lot." Fath was one of 12 newspapers that the conservative courts ordered closed on Sunday. Another of its editors was sent to prison a few days before the closing. President Khatami, whose landslide victory in 1997 has been seen by the religious establishment as a threat to its powers, has maintained a stoical silence on the issue of the banned newspapers. But in a speech to city council members in Tehran this morning, before the public announcement of the new press bans, he repeated his constant theme, appealing to Iranians to settle their political differences peacefully and according to the rule of law. Mr. Khatami's powers are limited. Ultimate authority rests with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who owes his position to the clerical hierarchy. Even legislation endorsed by the president must often pass first through a committee headed by Mr. Rafsanjani and a conservative-dominated council appointed by the supreme leader. On Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei condemned "elements" in the pro-Khatami press, but lavishly praised the president. Despite his circumscribed powers, Mr. Khatami has managed to convey symbolic authority as a promoter of greater freedom of expression, political pluralism and democracy. Under his rule, a lively independent press has expanded and taken up long-taboo subjects, like the security services and the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps. His popularity among Iran's young people, a majority in the population, was demonstrated in the parliamentary elections two months ago, when his supporters triumphed in the first round of voting on the strength of their allegiance to him. But as the hard-liners' vise has tightened around the reform movement in the past few weeks, Mr. Khatami has watched the conservatives and their demands for Islamic purity in the press undermine one of his few concrete achievements of the past three years. The shutout of the reform press effectively denies Mr. Khatami's supporters any outlet to promote their candidates in the parliamentary runoff elections next week. It also ensures that they will not report to the public on the defense arguments of the accused journalists and on several sensitive trials. Several of the closed newspapers have reported extensively on the killings two years ago of several pro-democracy activists and have accused security forces of carrying out the assassinations. Suspects in that case are expected to go on trial soon. Akbar Ganji, a journalist who has written many of the articles on the case, was sent to jail last week after a court accused him of defaming Iran. This week, the trial of eight men accused in the murder attempt on Mr. Hajjarian, the managing director of Sobh-e Emruz, opened in Tehran. One man has confessed in court to the shooting, saying it was justified according to Islamic law because he believed the newspaper editor was against Islam. Mr. Hajjarian is still hospitalized. The court said it shut his newspaper today in part because the job of director has been kept open for Mr. Hajjarian, leaving no one to answer for dozens of complaints from conservatives that Sobh-e Emruz was spreading corruption. In another trial in Tehran, several police officers stand accused of participating in a bloody raid on a student dormitory last year. The raid followed student protests at the closing of a national pro-reform paper in July and touched off violent protests.

Iran TV Shows Jew Confessing As Spy

By Afshin Valinejad Associated Press Writer SHIRAZ, Iran - In a case that has raised Western concerns, one of 13 Iranian Jews on trial for espionage appeared on state television Monday and confessed to spying for Israel. "I have been accused of espionage for Israel. I do accept this charge. I have been spying for Israel. In my trip to Israel in 1994, I was trained for my activity in Iran," Dani Tefilin said. An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman promptly dismissed his statement as "ludicrous." The confession was the latest development in a case that has heightened an intense power struggle between the hard-line clergy and reformers who want nothing to come in the way of improving ties with the outside world. Convictions and heavy sentences in the spy case could provoke an international backlash and set back the reforms Iran's judiciary and other bodies have staunchly opposed. The judiciary, which is controlled by hard-liners, has closed 16 pro-democracy newspapers and arrested six reformist activists in the past two weeks in its confrontation with President Mohammad Khatami's more liberal wing. Wearing a prison uniform and appearing to be in good health, Tefilin, 30, spoke to a television reporter in a room in the court building where his trial resumed Monday. The reporter asked him if he was working alone. "No," replied Tefilin, who was the first of the suspects to be arrested more than a year ago. "We were working in a network and trying to collect information to be sent to Israel." The interview was broadcast as part of the first item on the state television's main 9 p.m. newscast. Tefilin was heard later on state-run Tehran radio saying that Israel had paid him in installments of $500 that were deposited in a bank account under his name in the Jewish state. He also told the radio that his mother, two sisters and a brother lived in Israel. He also has a brother in Iran, Omid Tefilin, who is one of the three defendants in the case who have been let out of custody on bail. Earlier Monday, the provincial judiciary chief, Hossein Ali Amiri, emerged from the closed-door trial to say that Tefilin had confessed to passing "sensitive information, including military secrets," to Mossad, Israel's external intelligence agency. "His case is finished," Amiri said, adding that Tefilin had asked for clemency. He did not know when a verdict was expected. But Tefilin's court-appointed lawyer, Shirzad Rahmani, said the state must still prove its case with evidence. "There may been have confessions, there may have been an intention to spy, there may have been several trips to Israel, and there may even have been payments. But if information damaging to Iran and beneficial to Israel was not actually exchanged, there can be no charge of espionage," Rahmani told The Associated Press. Israel has long said the charges against the 13 suspects are baseless. "The attempt to present the Jews arrested in Iran as spies is ludicrous and pathetic," Foreign Ministry spokesman Aviv Shiron said in response to Tefilin's televised confession. "Israel emphasizes that all the arrestees are innocent." Israeli officials have been cautious about speaking publicly about the trial out of concern that protests from the Jewish state, Iran's sworn enemy, could adversely affect the Jews accused. The trial is being closely watched in the West amid concerns about its fairness. Several countries, the United Nations and human rights groups have either condemned the arrests or called on Iran to ensure proceedings are fair. U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has said the case was "of strong concern" to her. In a meeting with French officials last year, Khatami promised a fair trial. So far, no other reformers have commented on the case. The Jews are being tried in a revolutionary court with no jury. The judge serves as prosecutor. The defendants' families and other members of Iran's Jewish community, Western diplomats and foreign journalists milled outside the courthouse in Shiraz, 550 miles south of the capital, Tehran, as Monday's hearing began. "The charges of espionage against me are completely false," said defendant Navid Balazadeh, standing outside the courthouse as he waited to be called in. "We have been treated well, and I trust the judge to be fair." Balazadeh was one of the three defendants released on bail in February. At the time, an Iranian judiciary spokesman said they were freed because the charges against them were less serious than those of the 10 other Jews. Elahe Sharifpour-Hicks, a New York-based representative of Human Rights Watch, said she had asked Judge Sadeq Nourani earlier Monday to allow an international observer or a member of the Jewish community to attend the trial. He refused for "reasons of national security," she said. Iranian officials first accused the suspects of spying for the United States and Israel. But when the trial opened, the judge said they were charged only with spying for Israel. Iranians convicted of spying usually receive long prison terms, but they can be executed. Iran maintains religion has no bearing on the case and notes that eight Muslims also have been arrested. Haroun Yashayaii, head of Iran's Jewish Society, said the foreign media "have magnified the trial," saying the suspects weren't arrested because of religion and no actions were taken against their relatives, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Iranian Jews numbered 80,000 before the 1979 Islamic revolution; 25,000 remain today. Jews in Iran are generally allowed to practice their religion freely, but they cannot travel to or have any contact with Israel.

Iranian Journalists Vows to Protect Press Freedom

TEHRAN - XINHUA - Iran's Association of Journalists on Tuesday vowed to protect the freedom of press, which is "best defined and guaranteed" in the Constitution. In a communique marking the World Press Freedom Day, the association said it will do its best to protect the freedom of press, professional independence and job security of journalists as defined by the Constitution. It added that it would make efforts to improve the environment for free press based on the laws of the state, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The association expressed regret over the banning of 17 reformist publications by the conservative judiciary last week, which was considered as part of the stepped-up effort of the powerful conservatives to curb the country's reformist campaign. The conservative move of banning 13 dailies and 4 periodicals within a week left the reformist camp without a voice for the second round of the parliamentary elections on May 5. About 225 seats were decided in the first round of the sixth parliamentary election on February 18, with reformers allied to President Mohammed Khatami bagging more than 75 percent of the total. !! The new Majlis (parliament) has a total of 290 seats. As stipulated by the election law, those candidates who did not get the minimum 25 percent of votes went to the second round. The freedom-seeking press played an important role in the reformists' overwhelming victory in the February parliamentary elections, which humiliated the powerful conservatives, who still dominate most of the sensitive state organs including the judiciary and the armed forces.

Top Iranian Cleric Defends Closing of Reformist Publications

By SUSAN SACHS NewYork Times EHRAN, Iran- Using the platform of a nationally televised sermon, a leading cleric today defended the recent closing of 16 pro-reform publications and accused them of trying to destroy the religious underpinnings of the country. In an hourlong speech, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former Iranian president and still a significant behind-the-scenes power in the country, drew explicit parallels between the current political tension and the civil strife between secular nationalists and Islamic militants following the Iranian revolution in 1979. "What's being attacked is the Islamic content of the revolution," he said, adding that then and now, those who criticize the clerical leadership are "agents" of foreign powers hostile to Islam. "Now they're putting freedom before Islam, freedom before faith," he said of the reform movement. His address, which followed a brief but violent overnight demonstration at a northern Tehran university in support of the reformers, extended the verbal and judicial attacks of the last few weeks on supporters of President Mohammad Khatami, a reformer. But Mr. Rafsanjani, like other religious leaders, steered clear of directly criticizing Mr. Khatami, who is also a Muslim cleric but has openly encouraged the independent press and political pluralism. The conservatives' reticence is widely seen as a recognition of the widespread popularity of the president, whose supporters ousted most hard-line incumbents in the first round of parliamentary elections two months ago and are expected to cement their majority in runoff elections next week. Reform leaders, who represent a variety of political factions with a variety of goals for political and social change, have been brought together by their support for President Khatami and, more recently, by the blanket assault by hard-line judges on all their publications and writers. Their ranks also include some high-ranking clerics who support the president's call for rule of law in Iran. Hours before Mr. Rafsanjani spoke at a prayer service at Tehran University, some 200 students at Shahid Beheshti University battled the police after a demonstration on campus against the closing of the publications turned violent. The students hurled stones at college buildings and burned tires. The police broke up the protest after about an hour, Iranian state television said. Some witnesses said the police were accompanied by extremist vigilantes, The Associated Press reported. Vigilante squads tied to the elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, a militia that answers to the country's top clerics, beat student protesters last summer. Reform leaders have repeatedly appealed for calm and patience despite the latest arrests of reformers, the shutdown of their publications and the persistent attempt by hard-line judges and clerics to brand them as anti-Islamic. One of the country's main student organizations, the Student Solidarity Bureau, issued a statement today calling for an end to the scattered demonstrations on several campuses, saying it feared that any protest could be infiltrated by hard-line "saboteurs." The group urged students to put their hopes in the new Parliament that is to open on May 28. Students and young people -- a majority of the population in Iran -- have been the mainstay of support for President Khatami, who has made a concerted effort to meet with them and engage them in politics. Mr. Rafsanjani's sermon, to about 15,000 people gathered for the traditional Friday prayer, was interrupted several times by chants of "Death to America." That slogan is a standard feature of the weekly sermon, no matter who leads the prayer. Before the service began, a group of about 150 women cloaked in black cape-like chadors demonstrated briefly on the street in front of the university. Holding pictures of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who started the Islamic revolution in Iran, they chanted slogans supporting the closings and opposing "enemies of the revolution." Mr. Rafsanjani, who has been a target of corruption accusations in the same reform press that is now shuttered, went further than he has before in linking his critics to a shadowy Western-inspired conspiracy that aims not to reform but to topple the Islamic government. "Now we have writers who, perhaps unwittingly or perhaps intentionally, question all our accomplishments," he said. "By doing this, these people pave the way for those who want to come in and take over the country."

hard-liners intensified their attack on reformers

NewYorK Times TEHRAN, Iran, -- Iran's Islamic hard-liners intensified their attack on reformers today, summarily closing a daily newspaper run by the brother of President Mohammad Khatami and another newspaper run by a Khatami adviser who was the target of an assassination attempt last month. The court orders accused the two papers, Moshareket and Sobh-e Emruz, of the all-encompassing crimes of insulting Islam and spreading corruption. Between them, the two newspapers had a daily circulation of about 400,000. The latest actions brought the escalating political conflict between the reformers, who hold the presidency and recently made strong gains in parliamentary elections, and the conservative Islamic clerics, who still wield the highest state powers, directly to the president's doorstep. Moshareket is run by Mohammad Reza Khatami, the president's younger brother and the top vote-getter in parliamentary elections in Tehran two months ago. Sobh-e Emruz is run by Saeed Hajjarian, the main political strategist for the reformers, who barely survived a bullet wound to his face a few weeks after pro-Khatami candidates swept to victory in the first round of parliamentary elections. A third publication, the weekly Ava, based in the city of Esphehan, was also ordered to close today. Ava is closely tied to a prominent dissident, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, who has been under house arrest since 1997 because of his acerbic criticism of Iran's system of clerical rule. In all, 16 reformist newspapers have been closed in the past 5 days by the conservative-dominated courts, all without a hearing. In addition, three journalists have been jailed over the past week, and two more, both leading voices of the movement for social and political change, are scheduled for trial next week on charges of offending religious sensibilities. The remaining seven national daily newspapers in operation are all associated with hard-line religious factions or with Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the still-powerful former president who was humiliated in the Feb. 18 parliamentary elections and got barely enough votes in Tehran to win a seat. Reform leaders have said that the closing of their newspapers violates provisions of Iran's Constitution and its press law. "It's not only a violation of Iranian law, but a violation of Iran's obligation to uphold freedom of expression," said Elahe Hicks, a representative of Human Rights Watch in New York who is on a research mission in Iran. "This increasing intimidation and the closings are clearly politically motivated." On the streets of Tehran, the news of the latest closings left many people anxious and angry, with some saying they feared this was a prelude to an attempt to oust Mr. Khatami. But reformers have urged the public, especially university students who have boycotted classes and held on-campus protests since the crackdown, to avoid confrontations that could get out of control. "They want to do something to make people excited and come out on the streets," Mohammad Ali Bakhtiari, a 25-year-old civil engineer, said of the hard-liners. "Then they can aggravate the situation and say the government of Mr. Khatami is not capable of running the country." But Iranians will heed the call of reformers to remain calm, he added. "We can do nothing but wait," Mr. Bakhtiari said. "We know we should control ourselves and not give the hard-liners what they want." Editors at the closed newspapers would not comment today. But one of the pro-reform journalists who is facing trial next week said that even if leaders advocate calm, there could be a dangerous public backlash against the hard-liners. "We've experienced this repression for years, so we are used to bitterness," said Emadeddin Baghi, one of the editors of Fath, a national pro-reform daily that was opened five months ago after conservatives closed an earlier incarnation. "But it's going to cost the country a lot." Fath was one of 12 newspapers that the conservative courts ordered closed on Sunday. Another of its editors was sent to prison a few days before the closing. President Khatami, whose landslide victory in 1997 has been seen by the religious establishment as a threat to its powers, has maintained a stoical silence on the issue of the banned newspapers. But in a speech to city council members in Tehran this morning, before the public announcement of the new press bans, he repeated his constant theme, appealing to Iranians to settle their political differences peacefully and according to the rule of law. Mr. Khatami's powers are limited. Ultimate authority rests with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who owes his position to the clerical hierarchy. Even legislation endorsed by the president must often pass first through a committee headed by Mr. Rafsanjani and a conservative-dominated council appointed by the supreme leader. On Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei condemned "elements" in the pro-Khatami press, but lavishly praised the president. Despite his circumscribed powers, Mr. Khatami has managed to convey symbolic authority as a promoter of greater freedom of expression, political pluralism and democracy. Under his rule, a lively independent press has expanded and taken up long-taboo subjects, like the security services and the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps. His popularity among Iran's young people, a majority in the population, was demonstrated in the parliamentary elections two months ago, when his supporters triumphed in the first round of voting on the strength of their allegiance to him. But as the hard-liners' vise has tightened around the reform movement in the past few weeks, Mr. Khatami has watched the conservatives and their demands for Islamic purity in the press undermine one of his few concrete achievements of the past three years. The shutout of the reform press effectively denies Mr. Khatami's supporters any outlet to promote their candidates in the parliamentary runoff elections next week. It also ensures that they will not report to the public on the defense arguments of the accused journalists and on several sensitive trials. Several of the closed newspapers have reported extensively on the killings two years ago of several pro-democracy activists and have accused security forces of carrying out the assassinations. Suspects in that case are expected to go on trial soon. Akbar Ganji, a journalist who has written many of the articles on the case, was sent to jail last week after a court accused him of defaming Iran. This week, the trial of eight men accused in the murder attempt on Mr. Hajjarian, the managing director of Sobh-e Emruz, opened in Tehran. One man has confessed in court to the shooting, saying it was justified according to Islamic law because he believed the newspaper editor was against Islam. Mr. Hajjarian is still hospitalized. The court said it shut his newspaper today in part because the job of director has been kept open for Mr. Hajjarian, leaving no one to answer for dozens of complaints from conservatives that Sobh-e Emruz was spreading corruption. In another trial in Tehran, several police officers stand accused of participating in a bloody raid on a student dormitory last year. The raid followed student protests at the closing of a national pro-reform paper in July and touched off violent protests.