Tehran - Iran's conservative courts sentenced a key aide of the reformist President, Mr Mohammad Khatami, to jail and targeted another yesterday, in what one analyst called a dangerous escalation of factional tension just four months before presidential elections.
Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh (44), who had been designated organiser of the June 8th presidential poll in the face of fierce opposition from conservatives, was ordered jailed for a year and banned from political activities.
He had been found guilty by an administrative court in Tehran of complicity in fraud in last year's parliamentary elections which gave reformists control of the legislature and which he also organised.
Tajzadeh, who strongly denied the charges and is free for 20 days pending an eventual appeal, told journalists he would make unspecified revelations about the case in the coming days.