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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Iran frees reformist jailed over pro-US opinion poll
2005-05-13
TEHRAN - A top Iranian reformist jailed for publishing an opinion poll stating most people wished to see dialogue resume with the United States has been freed after Iran's Supreme Court ruled he was not guilty of spying, his lawyer told AFP on Friday.

Abbas Abdi, a prominent member of the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), the main pro-reform party, was sentenced to four and half years behind bars in 2003 on charges including "providing information to the enemies of the Islamic regime."

Abdi's lawyer, Saleh Nikbakht, said "the Supreme Court, in an unprecedented decision, declared that Iran and the United States were not in a state of hostilities and the differences between Iran and the United States were political differences.
Though it's hard to tell, this being Iran.
"Abbas Abdi has been cleared and freed after 30 months in prison," he added.

He said the court had ruled that the charges of "cooperating with an enemy goverment were not fair" and that "the sale of information from an opinion poll ... is not covered by laws of the Islamic republic."

Contacted at his home by AFP, Abdi politely declined to make any comment. "I prefer to say nothing, because if I do say something it would stir things up, so therefore I will shut up for the time being," he said.
"Please don't kill me!"
In late 2002, Abdi sparked uproar among hardliners and a judicial backlash by releasing an opinion poll stating that 74 percent of Iranians want their clerical regime to talk with Washington. The subject of US-Iran relations is something of a taboo here, where the United States is often labelled as the "Great Satan" and crowds are encouraged to chant "Death to America".

Ironically, Abdi was also one of the leading players in the seizing of the US embassy in Tehran in 1980 and the holding of its diplomats for 444 days, an event that prompted the severing of ties between Tehran and Washington.
Posted by:Steve White

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