Pressure builds on Ahmadinejad

Beirut: The current political turmoil in Iran indicates a growing rift within Iran's conservative camp and could serve to further sap the authority of a president already considered illegitimate by reformists.

The Islamic Society of Engineers, a political group close to Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani, warned in an open letter to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that he could suffer the same fate as former prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh, who was deposed with the acquiescence of the clergy.

The letter also cited the experience of Abul Hassan Bani Sadr, who was impeached and fled the country after he fell out with the Islamic Republic's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Both leaders had been elected by huge margins.

"It seems you want to be the sole speaker and do not want to hear other voices," the group's letter said, noting that recent actions by Ahmadinejad have frustrated his own supporters. "Therefore it is our duty to convey to you the voice of the people."

Opposition figure Mir Hussain Mousavi's supporters have begun circulating routes for unauthorised marches and candlelight vigils to mark the religiously significant 40th day following the death of those killed during demonstrations June 20, including Neda Agha Sultan, whose slaying, captured on videotape, has drawn worldwide shock.

Dozens have been killed since the election and hundreds arrested, most recently including Ali Maqami, a campaigner for reformist presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi.

Lawmaker Kazem Jalali said 140 prisoners arrested during the unrest have been released from prison and that only 200 remained in Evin, far below the number estimated by international observers.

"Those who were released had committed lighter offences," he said, according to the semi-official Iranian Labor News Agency.

Human-rights lawyer Shadi Sadr has been freed on $500,000 bail, according to reformist websites. But other well-known Iranian political figures remained behind bars.

Officials said another prison ordered closed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was the Kahrizak detention centre, described by some as Iran's Guantanamo because it is not under the control of the State Prisons Organisation.

"The closure of Kahrizak Detention Center had been decided before the election, but post-election events made it necessary to keep it open," Iran's prosecutor-general, Qorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi, told local media. "Finally, the supreme leader was informed of poor sanitation and other problems for detainees, and he ordered its closure."

Amid the uproar, Ahmadinejad wrote a letter to the judiciary demanding "maximum Muslim leniency" toward those detained, acknowledging that the "duration of the detentions has been more than normal," a departure from the government's insistence that detainees were well-treated and few.

Ahmadinejad's post-election actions have enraged fellow conservatives, in particular his attempts to buck Khamenei's order to dump a controversial vice president and his firing of Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, the intelligence minister.

"His reckless actions indicate quite well that the president does not understand what security challenges we are grappling with," lawmaker Parviz Sorouri said.