| President Hojatoleslam Mohammad Khatami admitted on 27 April that "we certainly have political prisoners [in Iran] and...people who are in prison for their ideas," ISNA reported the same day. "I have pursued these people’s problems...and protested," he said in a meeting with a youth group in Tehran. "I have clearly stated that I do not accept the conviction of any political or press activist unless tried in a free and fair tribunal." Some in the audience objected to the fact that he had remained silent during "sensitive political moments" and turned the "enthusiasm [of early reform days] into despair," ISNA reported. But he urged young people to be realistic. "We are in the East," he said, and Iran’s internal conditions should not be compared to countries "that have experienced democracy for hundreds of years." |