Iranian reformer faces death penalty

AN IRANIAN prosecutor has called for “maximum punishment” of a senior reformer for acting against national security, a crime punishable by death.

Saeed Hajjarian, who was disabled after an assassination attempt in 2000, was among several prominent opposition figures charged with fomenting the huge street protests that followed the June poll, in the fourth mass trial to have taken place.

The vote plunged Iran into its most serious internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, exposing deep divisions in its ruling elite and further straining ties with the West.