An Iranian court has charged six reformists with endangering the state's internal security by taking part in a conference in Berlin earlier this month.
State television said the court, meeting yesterday behind closed doors, ruled that the six, including three prominent journalists and a student leader, were charged with "acting against the internal security of Iran by taking part in the Berlin conference."
The conference on Iran's reforms was disrupted repeatedly by exiles opposed to Iran's Islamic system, prompting the conservative establishment to label participants as traitors to Islam and the revolution.
State television, which is controlled by hardliners, has broadcast excerpts of what it said was immoral conduct by members of the conference audience in an effort to discredit the reform movement. The video has become a hit on Tehran's black market.
The court ordered campus leader Mr Ali Afshari, of the nationwide Unity Consolidation Office, to be held without bail. Feminists Ms Mehrangiz Kar and Ms Shala Lahiji, detained since Saturday, were also bound over for trial.
Also charged was investigative journalist Akbar Ganji, who was already under detention on charges of defaming the security services in news articles that linked them to the serial murders of dissidents.
Freed on bail of about $12,000 was Hamid Reza Jalaiepour, an editor of a pro-reform newspaper banned in last week's press crackdown, while Ezzatollah Sahabi, an editor of a banned journal, was released after posting a bond of about $48,000.