The Latest from Iran (11 March): In the Balance

2118 GMT: Rafsanjani Watch. Hashemi Rafsanjani may have lost the contest to retain his leadership of the Assembly of Experts, but he has triumphed elsewhere: in a poll of Khabar Online readers on the political figure of the last year, Rafsanjani gets 59% of the vote vs. 17% for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Conservative MP and Government critic Ali Motahari is third with 9.2%.

2115 GMT: The New Leader. Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani has issued his first statement after the Assembly of Experts election, declaring, "We must preserve unity."

2100 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Political activists Mohammad Reza Malekian and Iman Sedighi have been freed on bail.

1745 GMT: Your Tehran Friday Prayer Summary. Ayatollah Emami Kashani took charge today, and he was in a good mood because "enemies" --- who have been defeated but still seem to be everywhere --- were defeated when they tried to seize the Assembly of Experts election this week.

Emami Kashani explained that all had gone well because Hashemi Rafsanjani said "he would abandon his candidacy", thus the post was delegated to our dear brother "Ayatollah Mahdavi Kani". The two men were "noble religious and Islamic figures of the country and are respected by the nation”.

1340 GMT: The House Arrests. The family of Mehdi and Fatemeh Karroubi say last night that lights were on inside the Karroubi house but no one answered the doorbell.

The Karroubis have been under house arrest since last month but it has been reported that they were moved to detention on 21 February.

1300 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Reformist Sayed Housein Marashi, a former Vice President in the Khatami Administration, has been released after serving his one-year sentence.

1110 GMT: The activist group United Against Nuclear Iran reports that, after its lobbying, the Turkish automobile manufacturer Karsan Otomotiv has ceased business in Iran.

1025 GMT: Press Watch. Iranian authorities have expelled Jay Deshmukh, the deputy of the AFP bureau in Tehran.

Deshmukh had tried, together with his assistant, to cover the opposition protest in Tehran on 14 February despite an official ban. The reporter, an Indian national, had been in Iran since 2009.

0745 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Kourosh Zaim, a senior member of the Iran National Front party, has been released on bail.

0740 GMT: CyberWatch. Radio Zamaneh, a key site for latest news, is off-line.

0600 GMT: Political Prisoner Watch. Tahavol-e Sabz publishes a list of 20 people who it claims were arrested during protests in Shiraz on 1 March.

Rahsa News uses a claimed first-hand account to declare that a detention facility on Ahang Highway in Tehran is "another Kahrizak". 

The Kahrizak detention centre became a horrific symbol of the post-election conflict when stories of the abuse and killing of detainees emerged in summer 2009. Eventually it was closed by order of the Supreme Leader, but no senior official has ever been punished for the abuses.

0540 GMT: A quiet Thursday in Iran --- literally in the case of Mir Hossein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard, Mehdi and Fatemeh Karroubi with another day of no contact and no word about their fate, politically for the regime as it tried to smooth out the conflict over Hashemi Rafsanjani's position through an appearance by the Supreme Leader at the Assembly of Experts.

The Karroubis' oldest son Hossein, who has been evading arrest, did fire a direct volley with a challenge to the head of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi. Turning the regime's propaganda against Mousavi and Karroubi around, he said that Naqdi was guilty of "corruption of the earth" through his violent response to dissent and protest.

This morning Rashid Ismaili, writing for Rooz Online, offers a wider context for the challenge. The cases of Mousavi and Karroubi point to a "judicial system in the balance". Iran's judiciary, led by Sadegh Larijani, has clung to the position that the two opposition figures should not be formally arrested, but that is eroded with each day of the regime's repression through house arrest or detention without formal legal charges.