DEFIANT DEPUTY INTERIOR MINISTER WARNS GUARDIANS

TEHRAN 4 Feb. (IPS)    Deputy Interior Minister Mostafa Tajzadeh warned Saturday the Judiciary that is harassing him to disclose all he knows about attempts to rig the legislative elections held last year and in which the reformists scored a landslide victory over the conservatives.

Mr. Tajzadeh made the warning to the Iranian Students News Agency ISNA at the end of the second session of his trial, along with Mr. Ayatollah Azarmi, the Governor of Tehran, charged for electoral fraud in Majles elections of February 2000.

The conservatives-controlled Council of Guardians (CG) which oversees all elections in Iran as well as the conformity with Islamic canons of laws approved by the Majles, charged the Interior Ministry with a number of fraud cases during the last Majles elections, nullified 720,000 votes as being "tampered with" in the Tehran constituency, accused Mr. Tajzadeh, then in charge of Elections Headquarters, of having a role in the electoral fraud and refused to certify all of the election results until three months after the polls, ordering several recounts in Tehran alone.

But Mr. Tajzadeh told reporters that the nullification of 720,000 votes in Tehran by the CG was "illegal and unjustified" and threatened to name those who were involved in the attempted massive vote rigging by the Guardians.

By nullifying votes and refusing to endorse the results of the elections, the Guardians were in fact trying to help buying some credit for former president Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who was badly defeated in the ballots.

Pointing to the strong personality of Mr. Tajzadeh, political analysts in Tehran said the ruling conservatives wanted to remove him before the next presidential race of June this year.

According to these sources, after having "removed" from their way former Interior Minister Hojjatoleslam Abdollah Nuri, who was impeached by the last Majles and later send to jail for five years on charges of anti-Islamic activities and criticising the leader, and Mr. Ata'ollah Mohajerani, the Guidance Minister, who was forced to resign under pressures from Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, now the conservatives are aiming at Mr. Tajzadeh, probably the last "pillar" of the embattled President Mohammad Khatami's government.

Despite systematic attacks by the hard liners, yet Interior Minister Hojjatoleslam Abdolvahed Mousavi-Lari reconfirmed him as the head of Elections Headquarters for next June's presidential polls.

Mohsen Mirdamadi, head of the Majles Committee for National Security and Foreign Affairs told the official news agency IRNA that Tajzadeh's successful management is why he has become the target of conservative detractors.

"A politically-motivated will outside the Judiciary is trying to eliminate Mr.Tajzadeh", Mr. Mirdamadi said.

But a  a defiant Tajzadeh warned he will disclose "many untold things" if there is a trial to look into Interior Ministry's complaint against the Secretary of the Guardians Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati.

The Interior Ministry has lodged a complaint against the hawkish cleric for what it says are false accusations on the function of the Ministry in last year's parliamentary elections by the GC.

"Ya-Lesarat", an ultra-right wing weekly wrote recently that Tajzadeh had been convicted and banned from holding governmental positions for five to eight years.
 
Tajzadeh is also being prosecuted by the judiciary in connection with the students unrests that erupted last August in the western city Khorramabad.

One policeman was killed and dozens of people wounded in several days of clashes after a conservatives-controlled Ansar Hezbollah stormed the city airport to block two liberals from entering the city and address the students gathering.

The conservative-run State Inspectorate put much of the blame for the unrest on reformists, specifically naming Tajzadeh after his ministry issued permits for the conference.

But other investigations by the National Security Council and the Majles cleared Mr. Tajzadeh. ENDS TAJZADEH 4201