In an emotional speech pronounced in the Majles Sunday, Mrs. Haqiqatjoo denounced the "brutal" arrest, last week, of a moderate female journalist by Islamic courts agents and expressed "serious concern" on the fate of Mr. Ezzatollah Sahabi, a veteran journalist and political dissident and Mr. Ali Afshari, a students leader, both reported by their families to be suffering from psychological and physical tortures.

Agents of the Islamic revolution courts erupted into Mrs. Fariba Davudi-Mohajer’s house as she was entering the parking and dragged her by force to a waiting van after some wrangling.

She was referring to both the arrest of Mrs. Mohajer-Davudi, a journalist with the reformist daily "Hambastegi" (Solidarity) and the outcry by radical clerics after conservative newspapers published pictures showing some foreign women in an international conference against racism held in Tehran not wearing their headscarves.

"Who are those who created a crisis for the government every nine days? Who are those who ordered the assassinations in the serial murders case? Who are those who attacked students in Tehran and Tabriz universities? Who are those who attack authorised meetings while organising unauthorised ones? Who are those who beat up ministers during Friday priers? Who are those who ordered the (failed) assassination of Mr. Sa’id Hajjarian? She asked amid warm applauses from the hemicycle.

Considered as the "architect" of both Mr. Khatami and the reformists landslide victories in the presidential elections of May 1997 and Legislative race of February 1999, Mr. Hajjarian was shot at close range last March, but escaped death, with profound head injuries that clues him to wheelchair.

The daughter of Mr. Sahabi, Haleh, told the Persian service of the Radio France Internationale (RFI) that the last time she met her father, he found him "absent minded, immensely sad, emotionally unstable and unable to recognise his family when they visited him in the office of revolutionary courts.

But Mr. Mobbasheri angrily denied Monday allegations of torture against political prisoners and the irrational behaviour of his agents with Mrs. Davudi-Mohajer, who, according to Mr. Mobbasher, has written to the Speaker of the Majles denying the lawmaker’s claims about her.

Editor and owner of "Iran Farda" (Tomorrow's Iran), Mr. Sahabi is associated with the "Nationalist-Religious" current that is much hated by the leader and Afshari were charged for having participated at a conference in Berlin last April debating reforms in Iran and sentenced last month to four and five years detention.

The publication's managing Editor, Mr. Reza Alijani was arrested Saturday in his office and taken to one of the many secret prisons controlled by the conservatives.

His wife said after being arrested, Mr. Alijani was brought home, where agents confiscated some items and documents, including notes and books and tapes belonged to her.

Refuting as "baseless" Mrs. Haqiqatjoo’s statement, Mr. Mobbasher disclosed that all the meetings between Sahabi and Afshari with their families as well as the arrest of Mrs. Davudi-Mohajer have been videotaped and the films testify to Ms Haqiqatju's false testimony".

Defending the "absolutely polite and mannered" attitude of the court’s agents sent to arrest Mrs. Davudi-Mohajer, he also claimed that two firearms and "illegal documents supporting dissident Grand Ayatollah Hosseinali Montazeri were found in the possession of the family and accused Mr. Davudi-Mohajer for breaking the arm of one of the agents.

"Our agents entered her house with a warrant, but she resisted arrest and her husband got into a scuffle with the agents and gave one of them two broken bones," he said.

Counter-charging, Mrs. Haqiatjoo told the Iranian Students News Agency "ISNA" that the firearms belonged to Mrs. Davudi-Mohajer’s husband, a Revolutionary Guard officer and Mr. Mobbasher claim that she has written to the House Speaker was a "flat lie" for which the cleric must be "answerable to".

She said if arrested for her Sunday speech, it would mean that there was no security in this country. "Arresting me, an MM who, under the Constitution, has immunity would have a very high price that Mr. Mobbasher could not afford", she observed.

In a bid to tame the Majles, several MMs have been charged by the leader-controlled Judiciary with "un-islamic" statements or slander against the leader and called in for questioning.

To defend the deputies summoned by various courts, some reformist lawmakers have created a legal office in the House.