A hardline Iranian press court has indicted the publisher of the reformist Hambastegi newspaper on multiple charges, the official IRNA news agency said yesterday.

Details of the charges against MP Gholamheydar Ebrahim-bay Salami, an influential member of the reformist Hambastegi (Solidarity) party, were not made public. Salami was released on bail pending further investigation after being interrogated, INRA said.

Those who lodged complaints against Salami included the state broadcast monopoly, the police, the Revolutionary Guards and Kayhan newspaper, all led by hardliners allied to Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Tehran's justice department chief has also filed a 120-page complaint against the newspaper, IRNA said. Hambastegi supports moderate President Mohammad Khatami's re-election bid in polls scheduled for June 8. The judiciary has arrested and jailed dozens of intellectuals and writers backing Khatami's attempts to reform the 22-year-old Islamic Republic.

Khatami remains popular despite these setbacks and is expected to easily beat all nine conservative rivals in the polls. More than 40 newspapers have been shut down and dozens of journalists and other intellectuals jailed since Khamenei accused the reformist press of being "bases of the enemy" in a public speech last year.

Hambastegi was one of the first major pro-reform newspapers to open late last year after the wave of earlier closures.