Iran's state television said Saturday Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had appointed a hard-line cleric as the country's new judiciary chief. Saturday's report says Sadeq Larijani will lead the judiciary for the next five years. Larijani replaces conservative cleric Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, who has finished serving two customary five-year terms. The new judiciary chief is Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani's brother and a member of the constitutional watchdog, the Guardian Council. Larijani's appointment does not appear to be related to turmoil following Iran's disputed June presidential election. But the judiciary has played a key role, especially with a controversial trial of 100 reformist politicians and activists accused of attempting revolution. Iran said Saturday it would try 25 more people arrested after the disputed result of the June presidential election, as fresh claims surfaced that several protesters in jail were tortured to death. “The third session of the elements of recent riots in Tehran will be held Sunday,” a court statement carried by the ISNA news agency said. “In this session charges against 25 defendants... will be presented.” Iran has already put on trial 110 people charged with protesting against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The defendants include top reformists, political activists, a French lecturer and two employees of the French and the British embassies. The trial of lecturer Clotilde Reiss has finished, although she remains in custody. Opposition leaders have denounced the court proceedings as “show trials.” The hearings have angered the international community and heightened political tensions as Iran battles its worst political crisis since the 1979 revolution. Ahmadinejad's June 12 re-election triggered massive street protests in Tehran by supporters of opposition leaders, and according to officials resulted in about 30 deaths. However, the opposition claims that 69 people were killed in the protests which rocked the pillars of the Islamic regime and deeply divided the nation's clergy and ruling elites. Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi made fresh claims Saturday that several protesters died in prisons after being tortured, beaten and made to crawl like animals. “Some youngsters who were chanting slogans were beaten in such a way that they lost their lives,” Karroubi wrote in his newspaper Etemad Melli.
