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Iran Condemns US Interference in Rulings on Pro-Reform Activists
Iran castigated Thursday US criticism of its sentencing of pro-reform activists for attending a meeting in Berlin last year, describing the US move as interference in its internal affairs.
"Iran's judiciary handles the conviction of Iranian nationals independently and any interferential statements on the issue are by no means acceptable," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamidreza Assefi said.
"How does the US, the main supporter of the Zionist (Israeli) regime and the biggest violator of human rights in the world, allow itself to issue statements on the status of human rights in Iran," Assefi was quoted by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) as saying.
He urged the US administration to stop interfering in Iran's internal affairs.
US State Department spokesman Richard Boucher issued Wednesday a statement sharply criticizing the Iranian step, and urging Iran to "remedy these unjust convictions and to carefully review other cases of unjust imprisonment."
"The United States is deeply concerned about the conviction of 10 leading Iranian writers, intellectuals, and political figures earlier this week, for their participation in a meeting in Berlin sponsored by the Heinrich Boell Foundation entitled 'Post-Elections Iran'," Boucher said.
Germany and the European Union have also issued statements expressing concern over the verdict imposed by Iran's Islamic revolution court on a group of reform activists.
The court sentenced a newspaper editor to 10 years in jail and five years of internal exile last weekend and gave other activists jail terms of four to 10 years for their part in the Berlin conference last April.
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