Iran's judiciary chief refuses to speed executions

(AP) — Iran's judiciary chief said Monday he will not give in to political pressure to speed up the execution of opposition activists.

Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani said some in Iran's ruling hard-line establishment are pushing the judiciary to step beyond the law in the crackdown on Iran's defiant opposition. Authorities have been unable to crush the opposition movement, which began by protesting President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June and has since gone on to challenge the Islamic establishment backing him.

On Thursday, Iran carried out the first executions to result from a mass trial that began in August of more than 100 opposition activists, former government leaders and others accused of playing a role in the postelection turmoil or plotting to topple Iran's system of clerical leaders.

Authorities hanged two men convicted of belonging to outlawed monarchist groups and plotting to overthrow the Islamic establishment that has ruled Iran since the Shah's ouster in 1979.

Larijani said political motives should not influence the investigations.

"Some people ... expect the judiciary to do more than implement the law," Larijani said in comments posted on the judiciary's Web site. "This is a political expectation that goes against the Sharia (Islamic law) and the law.

"Political assumptions should not influence judicial investigations because we won't have a response before God should an innocent person be punished due to hasty action."

A powerful extremist cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, on Friday called for the execution of more opposition activists, saying street protests would not have lasted until now if protesters had been executed early on.

The opposition has accused authorities of using last week's two executions to frighten its supporters from turning out for rallies planned to coincide with the Feb. 11 anniversary of the 1979 revolution.

The judiciary has defended those executions, saying in a separate statement Monday that all legal processes had been exhausted.

The statement said the two men confessed to their crimes and were allowed to appeal the death sentences.

The two men were arrested before the turmoil set off by claims that Ahmadinejad's re-election was fraudulent. But Iran brought them to court in the same mass trial in an attempt to show that the political opposition is in league with violent armed groups in a foreign-backed plot to overthrow the Islamic system.

Two of Iran's top opposition leaders, including Mir Hossein Mousavi, who claims he was the rightful winner of the June election, asserted the hangings were "hasty" and carried out without proper judicial procedures.

One of his allies, former reformist President Mohammad Khatami also spoke out against the executions.

"The response to civil protest and criticism is not suppression, jail and execution. That will only expand the crisis," Khatami told a group of pro-reform political activists Monday.

Khatami said the opposition was facing "strict restrictions for speaking" while government supporters had "absolute freedom in spreading lies and bringing charges (against the opposition) and pushing the country towards violence."

Nine other people accused of involvement in the unrest since June have been sentenced to death, authorities have said.