TEHRAN - Iran's supreme leader warned today against "political bickering" as government media announced a partial recount from recent legislative elections.

"Those engaged in political bickering that raises tensions should stop right now and get on with the basic work at hand," Khamenei said in a speech broadcast by state radio. "These were all election rows, and the election is over."

"These divisions, these differences, these (verbal) attacks, these false accusations should stop, especially among parliament deputies and officials," said Khamenei, who sides with the hard-liners.

Authorities ordered the recounting of a large number of votes cast in Tehran in the Feb. 18 polls to "dispel anxiety" about possible counting errors, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

State television quoted Gholamreza Rezvani, the head of the Election Supervisory Board of the Guardians Council, as saying that "numerous complaints" and "a big number of violations" were reported from the elections. He did not give details.

[In a report from Tehran, Reuters, quoted the Guardians Council as saying "There are reports of unhealthy elections in some constituencies… In Tehran, we have evidence of certain mistakes and violations in counting." Reports said conservative-run election supervisory boards have annulled results in two provincial regions for alleged cheating.]
 

Student on Death Row Says He Was Tortured, Agence France Presse, March 1

TEHRAN - An Iranian student facing execution for his part in the violent unrest of last July claimed Wednesday he had been tortured and ill-treated in prison since his arrest.

"I was hit with an electric cable, hung up by a rope and violently beaten," Akbar Mohammadi said in a letter to judiciary chief Mahmud Hashemi-Shahrudi published in a number of newspapers.

Mohammadi also said he had gone deaf in his right ear, lost two nails on his left foot and suffered from kidney pain.

"The prison doctor ordered me to hospital but up until now I have not been taken there and I continue to suffer," he said.

The press reports said the undated letter was written from cell 93 of block 209 in Tehran's notorious Evin jail and sent to Mohammadi's family at Amol in northern Iran, who decided to make it public.

Mohammadi's brother Manucher, who was portrayed as a ringleader of the disturbances, was jailed for ten years. The two other students sentenced to death had their sentences commuted to ten years and two-and-a-half years.

["My friend Ataollah Moradi arrested with me...was whipped in my presence...to confess," Reuters quoted Mohammadi as saying.]
 

Teenagers Sentenced to Lashing, Agence France Presse, March 1

TEHRAN - Forty two young men and women arrested at a "depraved dance night" were each sentenced to 35 lashes by an Iranian court, the evening paper Kayhan reported Wednesday.

Police broke up the dance event, at the town of Shiraz in southern Iran, and jailed the organizer, the paper reported.

When arrested the youngsters were "dressed in a depraved fashion and were dancing together," the paper said.

Last Thursday, police arrested about 40 young people celebrating a birthday at a restaurant in northern Tehran.

Both in public and in private homes where they might meet a man other than their husband, Iranian women are meant to dress either in a black chador that completely covers them, or in an overcoat and veil that covers their hair.
 

News Bites

Agence France Presse, March 1: Iran's armed forces announced Wednesday they had successfully test-fired a sea-to-air missile partly made in Iran, the official IRNA agency reported. The missile was tested as part of the Vahdat-78 (Unity-78) exercises that started in the Gulf last Friday and are scheduled to last 10 days.

Associated Press, March 1: Congress passed an Iran sanctions bill Wednesday that specifically focuses on Russia's aid to Iran's weapons programs and links U.S. aid for Russia's space program to better non-proliferation efforts. The House voted 420-0 to accept the Senate version of the bill, which also passed by a unanimous 98-0 vote last week.

Reuters, March 1: Thirteen Iranian Jews accused of spying for Israel will stand trial next month in the southern city of Shiraz, Iran's judiciary said on Wednesday. State television quoted judiciary spokesman Hossein Mir-Mohammad Sadeqi saying the trial would begin on April 13.

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