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1840 GMT: The National Iranian American Council has picked up on another extract from the meeting between a Parliamentary special committee on detainees and the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani (see 1410 GMT):

Ayatollah Larijani alluded to the necessity to immediately free some prisoners and punish the agents of the [offenses] at Kahrizak and the dormitories, and that judgments or indictments relating to the post-election events must be accurately based on judicial regulations.

Reading this in conjunction with the news of the release of high-profile detainees, albeit on bail (1650 GMT), NIAC concludes provocatively, "It remains to be seen if Larijani plans to engage in a full-blown offensive against the actions of the IRGC and the Shahroudi-era Judiciary, or if these are token attempts to restore legitimacy in the Islamic judiciary."

1650 GMT: University Chancellor Released. Mohammad Zabihi, whom we reported (1450 GMT) had been in detention for almost two weeks, has been released on bail, although his son is still in prison.

Hamzeh Ghalebi, head of the youth branch of Mousavi’s campaign, has also been released after more than 70 days ago in detention. He was pressed to "confession" and was at one of the Tehran trials, although there were no charges against him in the indictment.

1510 GMT: Amidst the attention to the Parliamentary debate, Fars News hasn't forgotten the real enemies of the State: it is making not-too-subtle insinutations about an alleged trip by Hashemi Rafsanjani's son, Mehdi Hashemi, to London.

1505 GMT: Surprisingly little on today's Parliamentary deliberations over the Cabinet nominees. So far the focus is on the diffculty faced by Sussan Kesharvarz in becoming Minister of Education.

1450 GMT: I wonder if the Supreme Leader's injunction to academics last night to ensure they prepared students for "soft war" covered this case? The chancellor of Tarbiet Modares University in Qom is reported to have been in detention for almost two weeks.

1430 GMT: The Reform Front Coordination Council has stated its deep sorrow and regret regarding post-election events and emphasised that oppression and crimes committed in the name of “preventing a velvet revolution” or “cutting foreign influence” have damaged the dignity and legitimacy of the Iranian regime.

1410 GMT: An Investigation? Kazzem Jalali, a member of the special Parliament committee studying the conditions of post-election detainees, has said, "The committee had a 1 1/2-hour-long meeting with [head of judiciary] Ayatollah [Sadegh] Larijani and briefed him about the committee's formation process, the studies carried out so far as well as the committee's visits [to detention centers]."

Jalali quoted Larijani as saying, "Those in charge of the post-election incidents should be treated in a decisive, legal and judicial manner. They actually damaged the ruling system's reputation."

On Saturday, Sadegh Larijani named his own panel to investigate allegations of abuse. Members are Iran's Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeii, Judiciary First Deputy Chief Ebrahim Raeesi and Judiciary advisor Ali Khalafi.

1350 GMT: A Most Symbolic Case. Tehran Bureau, drawing from Mehr News Agency's quoting of an "informed source", reports that the death of Mohsen Ruholamini, a graduate student detained in Kahrizak and then Evin Prisons, "was caused by physical stress, conditions of imprisonment, repeated blows and harsh physical treatment”.

The case has had huge political signficance, as Ruholamini was the son of Abdolhossein Ruholamini, the campaign manager of Presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei. News of the death galvanized "conservative" and "principlist" opposition to President Ahmadinejad's handling of the post-election crisis.

1345 GMT: The move of Saeed Mortazavi from Tehran Chief Prosecutor to Iran's Deputy Prosecutor General is an illustration of how complex the political situation, and its connections with legal matters, has become and how easy it is to jump to misleading conclusions. We've considered this in a separate analysis.

1300 GMT: A Convergence on "Soft Power"? Heydar Moslehi, the nominee for Minister of Intelligence, has told Parliament that a new security will include a strategy "to improve the intelligence capacity to confront the enemies' soft war."

The language is striking in its similarity to the Supreme Leader's speech to academics yesterday, so does this --- after the fight last month over the sacking of Minister of Intelligence Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejeie --- symbolise a reconcilation of approach between Ayatollah Khamenei and the President?

Earlier, reformist MP Jamshid Ansari said the Intelligence Ministry should "not be affiliated to one branch of power, just implementing the president's instructions". He added that Moslehi, a former member of the Revolutionary Guard, "does not have a minimum of experience of intelligence work and therefore his presence in this complicated system would not be fruitful".

1015 GMT: Battle Begins. Parleman News is featuring the challenge by reformist MP Jamshid Ansari to the nomination of Heydar Moslehi as Minister of Intelligence. Meanwhile, "conservative" MP Ahmad Tavakoli has continued his assault against President Ahmadinejad's legitimacy.

0915 GMT: The Clerical Challenge. This front of the post-election battle has been quieter during Ramadan, but there are two reminders that the contest is not over. Grand Ayatollah Montazeri's latest fatwa declared that the legitimacy of a government is validated through people’s free choice; without that choice, it will have neither legitimacy nor acceptance. He stated, presumably as a slap at the Supreme Leader, that there is no instance in history where a Shi’a Imam has used force to gain power or govern.

A statement from Grand Ayatollah Bayat-Zanjani also asserted that people’s choice gives legitimacy to the establishment; if the majority of people wish to protest peacefully, it is the duty of the Minister of the Interior to issue the permit. He also aimed, less subtly, at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, saying that the Assembly of Experts has the final word on the activities of the Supreme Leader.

0830 GMT: Mediawatch. Credit to Michael Slackman of The New York Times, who has raised his game in recent articles. This morning's report covers both the announcement of Sadegh Larijani, the head of judiciary, that a panel would investigate post-election unrest and the debate in Parliament over the President's Cabinet.

Meanwhile, CNN still hasn't noticed the Parliamentary discussions.

0825 GMT: The Green movement website Mowj-e-Sabz, down last night, is back up with front-page stories including a pronouncement by Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri against the legitimacy of the Supreme Leader and Mehdi Karroubi's declaration that the movement will march on Qods Day, 18 September.

0745 GMT: Looks like there will be some leftover scrapping from yesterday before getting to the votes on the individual Ministers. Reformist members of Parliament have raised President Ahmadinejad's appearance with bodyguards, since it is illegal to carry weapons inside the Majlis chamber.

0710 GMT: This, however, was the most ominous comment in the Supreme Leader's address: "All those who have been the victims of the post-election events must know that the establishment has no intention of making concessions. Just as those individuals who openly confront the establishment are legally and justly dealt with, legal and just punishment will also be mete out to the perpetrators of crimes and atrocities."

Four days after saying that Government official who committed post-election abuses would be held to account, has Khamenei moved back toward his President's line of focusing on the punishment of opposition leaders?

0700 GMT: The Supreme Leader gave a lengthy speech to heads of universities and research centres last night.

Most of the address was devoted to thoughts on research and scientific matters, but Ayatollah Khamenei offered headline comments on the post-election situation, "Students are the young officers fighting on this front who with their thoughts, actions and perceptions are present in the scene and who test the scene and act within its framework but university professors are the commanders of this soft confrontation."

Khamenei explained:

The recent issues have placed the country in front of a determining political test. However, the establishment of the Islamic Republic given its high capabilities was able to overcome the situation....Freedom in the Islamic establishment is a true issue defined within an Islamic framework and the Islamic Republic will never consent to or accept the false freedom sought by the West.

0645 GMT: Once more back to the Majlis, the Iranian Parliament, where discussion begins on individual Ministers proposed by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The President had a rough time yesterday, as leading MPs criticised his Administration, lack of policies, and mismanagement. He even suffered ridicule, with jokes from the Speaker, Ali Larijani, and the shouts of "Peach! Peach!" over his professed admiration for his former Minister of Health ("a peach you would like to eat").

Little of that mattered, however, as Parliament was unlikely to deny general support to the Government. The fun starts today, with up to 7 of Ahmadinejad's 21 Ministerial choices in possible trouble. Ten nominees will present themselves to the Majlis today.

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To appreciate how dramatic the regime's move was on Tuesday with the biggest of the four Tehran trials, in significance if not number of defendants, rewind 12 days to Saturday, 15 August. The regime had dodged a potential bullet the previous day when Hashemi Rafsanjani declined to lead Friday prayers in Tehran, but then it faced a torrent of disturbing news. The Supreme Leader, overruling opposition from the President's camp, pushed through the appointment of Sadegh Larijani as head of Iran's judiciary. The "Karroubi letter", demanding action on the abuse of detainees, was now circulating publicly. Mir Hossein Mousavi announced the "Green Path of Hope". Conservative members of Parliaments and newspapers were criticising key Ahmadinejad allies like Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, as doubts circulated over the President's still-to-be-declared Cabinet. Even Ayatollah Khamenei was not above the battle, with a group of clerics and former MPs (who met former President Khatami) raising the invocation of Law 111 to question the Supreme Leader's qualifications for his post.

This was more than a spectre. Only 10 days after the President had been inaugurated, the Ahmadinejad Government faced a challenge to its legitimacy as great as that of the immediate response to the 12 June elections. It might face not only the Green wave but also a renewed judiciary ready to challenge its (ab)use of the legal system for detentions, confessions, and trials, a Supreme Leader who was no longer ready to back Ahmadinejad to the full, and conservative and principlist MPs alienated by stories such as the death of Mohsen Roohulamini. And there was still the haunting question: what would Rafsanjani now do?

So, would the Ahmadinejad regime back down and accept compromise, to the point of crippling its authority? Or would it make an even more aggressive charge to knock back its opponents once and for all?

Tuesday's trial was the answer. This was the equivalent (for our American readers) of "swinging for the fences" in baseball and (for all others) of trying to land a one-punch knockout in the boxing ring. The crushing of the reformists, headlined by the non-Iranian press, was only one goal. This was also the occasion to put away the Rafsanjani challenge for good. It may even have been the declaration to the Supreme Leader that this was no time for his concessions --- token or real --- to the protests inside and outside the Establishment. No more Larijanis in key positions with power, no more apologies for detention centres like Kahrizak Prison.

Was it a knockout? At the end of Tuesday, the Government's challengers looked very wobbly. Apart from the "non-confession" of Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, the reformist leaders had been paraded and humiliated. The prosecutor mentioned the death penalty. Saeed Hajjarian had been forced to resign from his political party and to lay out --- as one of Iran's premier political theorists --- the designs of "velvet revolution". Tajzadeh, Aminzadeh, Nabavi, Atrianfar had all been put forth to show that there would be no backing down. (And, as a bonus, here was an Iranian-American, Kian Tajbakhsh, on trial and testifying to the "velvet revolution", linking billionaire George Soros and former President Mohammad Khatami.)

Here were the charges of "corruption", which had been raised by Ahmadinejad against Rafsanjani before the election, not only renewed but redoubled. Rafsanjani's son Mehdi Hashemi, nephew, and brother-in-law were all tarred in court for diversion of funds, electoral manipulation, and disinformation. While they were not amongst the defendants, they also faced a death penalty with the ending of their public lives. Mehdi Hashemi's attempts on Tuesday night to get some forum for a rebuttal showed how shaken he was. But was his father?

When we went to bed Tuesday night, it seemed that the referee might --- for the first time in 2 1/2 months, be counting out the opposition.

Yesterday, however, the challengers got off the mat.

Inevitably, there were regime opponents who were never going to be silenced, if only because there is little more that can done to them. Grand Ayatollah Montazeri put out an open letter defying a regime which "is neither Islamic nor republic". For the most part, however, the Green Wave/Path of Hope marked time yesterday. Mohammad Khatami denied the allegations against him, and Hossein Karroubi, describing his own court appearance on Tuesday, represented his father by declaring that the initial meeting with MPs over the detainee abuse inquiry was "very good". Mehdi Karroubi revealed that he had written the head of judiciary, Sadegh Larijani, asking him for“the implementation of the Constitution, the legal defense of freedom and citizenship rights, and the maintenance of legal justice to defend the dignity of the system”.

Instead, the first real twitch came yesterday morning in a small but significant step. The Rafsanjani camp posted the audio of the former President's Saturday statement to the Expediency Council: the call for unity behind the Supreme Leader but also the call for justice and for Government officials to follow the Constitution and proper guidelines. At the time, it appeared to be only a clarification of Rafsanjani's statement but it may have been the prelude (keep reading) to a more dramatic statement.

By the afternoon, Rafsanjani's office was being less subtle. Mehdi Hashemi continued to declare his innocence and then turned "corruption" against Ahmadinejad, declaring that the President, as Mayor of Tehran, had "lost" millions of dollars. More importantly, I suspect, the Rafsanjani camp took the fight to Ahmadinejad's ally and Chief of Staff, Esfandiar Rahim-Mashai, attacking his "hallucinations" and calling on both Rahim-Mashai and Ahmadinejad to back up their criticisms of Rafsanjani in court.

And then last night came the dramatic challenge to the President, from a most unexpected challenger. We had wondered on Tuesday whether the Supreme Leader was behind the fourth trial, especially given the attacks on Rafsanjani. In a speech to student leaders, he gave the answer: the opposition had not been engaged in a foreign-directed "velvet revolution" against Iran. For anyone thinking of more arrests, including leaders like Mousavi and Karroubi (and, less likely but still possible, for those throwing around spurious indictments in trials), “We should not proceed in dealing with those behind the protests based on rumours and guesswork. The judiciary should only give rulings based on solid evidence, not on circumstantial evidence.”

A three-word summary. Back. Off. Mahmoud.

Now it could be that Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is playing a very clever double game. He could have allowed the fourth trial to proceed, with the criticisms of Rafsanjani, and then pulled back last night. That way, both Ahmadinejad (enough is enough) and Rafsanjani (you had your warning) would be strongly encouraged to pull back and let the Supreme Leader put the regime's house in order.

I take another view, however, based on the Supreme Leader's signal from 19 June. In that Friday prayer address, the only one he has made since the election, he made clear that he preferred the political views of the President but that he also found Rafsanjani an honourable man and leader. And he specifically criticised Ahmadinejad's pre-election charges of corruption. The message had been given: shake hands, boys.

Rafsanjani may have crossed that line on 17 July when he led prayers, but with his general caution, even circumspection, before and after that speech, I think he has tried to ensure that he did not cross Khamenei. (Once again, note last Saturday's address to the Expediency Council. And note that the audio was released on Wednesday morning, just to make it clear where Rafsanjani stood.) Ahmadinejad, on the other hand, went well over the line. So who has to be pulled back?

On the surface, and if you limit your gaze to the Supreme Leader, Ahmadinejad (and, behind him, the Revolutionary Guard), and Rafsanjani, the situation is easily repaired. No more sledgehammer allegations of corruption from the Government, and Rafsanjani keeps his distance from the Green opposition.

But this conflict is no longer "on the surface" and it certainly is not just around this trio. The 4th Tehran trial was just the latest, more dramatic assertion of Presidential authority, following detentions, beatings, purges of some ministries, and attempts to control others. So now there are contests within the Establishment: what happens to those 20+ officials who were forced out of the Ministry of Intelligence and who now "supervises" its work? Does Sadegh Larijani, put in by the Supreme Leader, have real authority to "correct" the abuses of the system by the Ahmadinejad camp (and, again, the Revolutionary Guard)?

Already the next public display is upon us. Tomorrow the President, on Government Day, introduces the Friday prayer address in Tehran. No doubt he will point to his dedication and service in upholding the Islamic Republic and no doubt, given that the confirmation votes in Parliament on his Ministers begin on Sunday, he will declared that his Cabinet nominees are just as honourable and dedicated.

Ahmadinejad might win that short-term battle within Parliament (although I think that is far from certain). But, even if he does, that is only one punch in a 15-round contest. His regime connected with a blow on Tuesday, but it was far from a knockout.

Which leaves a warning to Mahmoud: when you thrown a punch that big and don't win immediately, you have to swing even harder next time. Or you have to put your hands up and ask for a referee's decision.

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1940 GMT: Mehdi Hashemi, the son of Hashemi Rafsanjani, has asked for time on state television to refute the charges made against him in today's Tehran trial.

1830 GMT: Press TV English's website is now featuring the testimony of Iranian-American academic Kian Tajbakhsh (1500 GMT). It is playing up the angle that Tajbakhsh, who had been with the Soros Foundation in Iran, conspired with former President Khatami and Mohammad-Javad Zarif, the former Iranian Ambassador to the United Nations, from 2006 on "velvet revolution" after a meeting with George Soros: “Because of the support of some officials from the reformist camp…a safe place was created for the cooperation of domestic and foreign forces…and American political parties and non-governmental organisations found a way to start activities in Iran."

1745 GMT: #MediaFail. OK, I've gone for a run, had a shower, grabbed a cup of tea, chatted with the wife, checked out the Israel-Palestine latest, and....

CNN still has not noticed there was a trial in Tehran today. (OK, at 1737 GMT, one of their Twitter feeds did figure out "Iran resumed Tuesday its mass trial of political reformists", but they have yet to get anyone on the website to notice.)

On a related note, I have yet to see one "Western" media outlet recognise that Hashemi Rafsanjani, as well as the "reformists", was targeted in the proceedings today.

1730 GMT: Freelance journalist and blogger Fariba Pajooh has been arrested.

1720 GMT: One Non-Confession. Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, the Deputy Secretary General of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, has been unrepentant after today's trials. He explained that, as he was arrested within 2-3 hours of the election results, he could not have been involved in post-election disturbances. He declared, "I have always been a reformist but I am pro-Islamic Republic."



1550 GMT: Mehdi Hashemi, Hashemi Rafsanjani's son, has issued a short but blunt denial of the charges of money laundering and electoral manipulation levelled at him in the Tehran trial today.

1530 GMT: Days after public allegations that security forces forced the staff of Behesht-e-Zahra cemetery to bury 40 bodies of slain protestors, the managing director of the cemetery has been fired.

1525 GMT: And now Press TV English headlines, "Rafsanjani son implicated in fresh Iran trials". It focuses on the testimony of Hamzeh Karimi with the claim "that the Iranian Fuel Conservation Organization's assets were used to finance Rafsanjani presidential campaign" in 2005: “Mehdi Hashemi believed that election in Iran were financed with government funds. He did not believe in spending private savings for the election. So they step up a system for forgery and document falsification."

1515 GMT: No Doubt About It --- Target Rafsanjani. IRNA's lead story is a long overview of the trial today, and its headline goes after Rafsanjani's son, Mehdi Hashemi. Another family member, brother-in-law Abdullah Jafar Ali Jasebi, a former University chancellor, is also criticised.

1500 GMT: Bringing Out the American. The next showpiece testimony, presented in Fars News, is that of Iranian-American academic Kian Tajbakhsh, identified as the representative of the Soros Foundation in Iran. (For the regime, "Soros Foundation", with its Open Democracy Project, embodies "velvet revolution".) The objective? Tajbaksh's "evidence" that he had continued meetings with Mohammad Khatami after the latter's departure from office in 2005 apparently links the former President to the foreign efforts at regime change in Tehran.

1440 GMT: The head of the Parliament Research Center, Ahmad Tavakoli, has called for the lifting of the ban on the "reformist" newspaper Etemade Melli and the trying of Tehran's chief prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi in military judge's court for his failure in "restoring public rights and promoting justice and legitimate freedoms" in this case and others.

1400 GMT: The Fightback Begins? Mark  down this date: 18 September. If I'm right, that is the last Friday of Ramadan (if I'm wrong, feel free to correct). It is also Qods Day, which is traditionally a day when Hashemi Rafsanjani leads ceremonies.

Mowj-e-Sabz has just declared that this will also be true this year, with Rafsanjani leading Friday prayers in Tehran and the Green movement preparing to march.

1345 GMT: A Quick Note on Media Coverage. Reuters has been in the lead on "Western" coverage of the trial, though it has little beyond Saeed Hajjarian, and it is still unaware of the regime's accusations against the Rafsanjani family. Al Jazeera English is still stuck with an early-morning overview, as is the BBC.

And CNN International is hopeless. Its Twitter outlet tweeted an hour ago about "the latest on our Iran wire": the story, from 0742 GMT, is on Mehdi Karroubi's allegations of sexual abuse of detainees.

1320 GMT: We were going to post a special analysis tomorrow morning of the significance of today's developments but, frankly, the move against Hashemi Rafsanjani as well as the attempt to break the reformists is so stunning that it cannot be too soon to highlight what may be a defining showdown in this crisis. So we've now published a snap analysis, "The Regime Goes After the Reformists AND Rafsanjani".

1220 GMT: Farhad Tajari, a member of the Parliamentary National Security Committee has told the Islamic Republic News Agency, "After a meeting with [Mehdi] Karoubi yesterday and based on our thorough and complete investigation.....We believe the claims [of sexual abuse of detainees] are baseless."

1215 GMT: Press TV English's website has published its first account of the trial, focusing on the Hajjarian statement, read by fellow Islamic Iran Participation Front member Saeed Shariati. Hajjarian did not admit --- "" have never been involved in cruelty and enmity towards the Iranian nation and the Islamic establishment" --- but expressed "hatred with all the moves that threatened the country's security". He then resigned from the IIPF.

Ominously the prosecutor called for the "maximum punishment", i.e., the death penalty, for Hajjarian.

1145 GMT: An EA correspondent confirms that the lead item on the Islamic Republic News Agency website claims, from today's "confession" of journalist Masoud Bastani, that the now-defunct website www.jomhouriyat.com was a "war room" for attacks against the Ahmadinejad Government and that the idea of claiming fraud in the election was passed to it through Mehdi Hashemi, Rafsanjani's son.

1140 GMT: Meanwhile, more "confessions" in the trial. Fars is now featuring the testimony of Shahab Tabatabai, the head of the youth branch of the Islamic Iran Participation Front. The headline claim is that Mir Hossein Mousavi suffered from the "illusion" that he would win a first-round victory in the Presidential election.

1130 GMT: We're checking the accounts of the trial with the help of correspondents. Here is the latest reading of the allegations linking Mir Hossein Mousavi and Hashemi Rafanjani: "Rafsanjani and Mousavi knew Ahmadinejad was winner when the preliminary count showed Ahmadinejad had a wide lead. They decided to create a 'velvet revolution' and demonstrate 'vote fraud'. Rafsanjani's son, Mehdi Hashemi, was involved with Saham News, which was coordinating the demonstrations with the BBC, and he was geting paid through the Azad University in the form of a cheque."

1100 GMT: It looks like we read this correctly. Rah-e-Sabz summarises that the indictment and "confessions" implicate Hasemi Rafsanjani's nephew, Ali Hashemi, for stimulating demonstrations and his son, Mehdi Hashemi, for spreading disinformation.

1030 GMT: If our translation is correct, the regime has used the "confessions" of journalists Hamzeh Karami and Masoud Bastani not only to draw the picture of a foreign-directed network for velvet revolution and not only to allege the implementation of this through Mir Hossein Mousavi's campaign, but also to implicate Hashemi Rafsanjani's son, Mehdi Hashemi. IRNA also carries an account of the effort "to create doubt and undermine the Ahmadinejad Government's decisions".

1020 GMT: Away from the trial, members of Parliament are holding meetings with President Ahmadinejad's Ministerial nominees in advance of votes of confidence beginning Sunday.

The Press TV article, quoting "principlist" MPs, indicates that the chances of Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, currently Minister of Defence but proposed to move to Interior, depend on his speech to Parliament: “The controversy surrounding Najjar's military background and how it will affect the interior ministry all depends on how he will defend his programs on the voting day in Parliament.” Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki is in better shape, though approval is not certain, and Minister of Industry Ali Akbar Mehrabian may remain if he can provide “an acceptable explanation” about his involvement in a fraud case.

1010 GMT: Fars is featuring more "confessions" from defendants, all of which point towards a foreign-instigated "velvet revolution". One defendant has spoken of the involvement of the US Government-funded Radio Farda and training at a site in Czechoslovakia.

It appears, though we cannot be certain, that at least one of the statements may refer to the involvement of sites connected to Hashemi Rafsanjani and, in particular, his son Mehdi Hashemi in this alleged conspiracy. We are double-checking translations to verify.

0925 GMT: Fars News Agency has now published a set of photographs from the 4th Tehran trial.

0740 GMT: Press TV has also published the general indictment of the defendants, based on their alleged statements, in the 4th Tehran trial. "Before the election, statistical evidence was provided that the difference [between candidates] was so great that [President] Ahmadinejad did not need to cheat"; however, the defendants claimed fraud to implement the "velvet revolution". The had "a direct relationship with the colonial and television networks of the BBC and the advertising propaganda machine of the British regime". Even while the voting was in progress, police closed "illegal networks". (Inadvertently, this claim highlights the significance of the testimony of Mousavi advisor Alireza Beheshti, which we carry today in a separate entry.)

0730 GMT: Fars News Agency has published, from Press TV, the statement of Saeed Hajjarian in the 4th Tehran trial. Hajjarian says he is innocent but apologised for "formidable errors" during and after the election. He then goes into a lengthy exposition of the "Western theory of velvet revolution" as "a serious lesson for all political activists".

0700 GMT: Reuters has first summary in English of the 4th Tehran trial. It lists the defendants we name below but, citing Islamic Republic News Agency, says, "Saaed Hajjarian, a former deputy intelligence minister turned architect of Iran's reform movement, was also among the accused".

0545 GMT: The fourth Tehran trial of post-election political detainees has opened, and there are some high-profile reformist politicians, activists, and journalists and the first Iranian-American to stand trial, Kian Tajbakhsh. According to Fars News, other defendants include Behzad Nabavi, Mohsen Safaei Farahani, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh, Mohsen Mirdamadi, Saeed Shariati, Mohsen Aminzadeh, Mostafa Tajzadeh, Shahab Tabatabai, Masoud Bastani, and Saeed Laylaz.

We're checking to see if Saeed Hajjarian, as rumoured over the last 72 hours, is also being tried today. Hajjarian's lawyer said he was forced to resign from the case was replaced by an attorney appointed by the State.