In the so-called "interview’ broadcast late Wednesday night without prior announcement, Mr. Afshari, an outspoken and influent member of the Office to Consolidate Unity (OCU), the largest of Iranian students organisations, admitted that the Office, in co-ordination with the now outlawed Islamist-nationalists, was debating ways and means of changing the present theocratic system.

On several occasions, Mr. Afshari, looking pale, sick and tired, apologised to the "Great leader" and repeated that he personally had requested the interview in order to "enlighten the brave and noble people of Iran about plots by enemies".

Meeting Saturday at the Amir Kabir Technical University in Tehran on the invitation of the OCU, hundreds of students studied the film and concluded that not only Mr. Afshari’s confessions were "utterly baseless", but also nowhere he had "confessed" that the OCU was planning to overthrow the regime.

"After seeing the film, almost all the students present at the meeting, some of them weeping, reached the conclusion that the interview was a disgusting montage and obtained under intense psychological pressures", one OCU member told Iran Press Service on condition of anonymity.

"From organisation and institutions that are under the control of the leader and pretend defending the system, one would expect a more logical move, particularly in view of past experiences that worked against them", one student said, referring to the VVIR, the Islamic revolution tribunal, the Revolutionary guards and "Keyhan" newspaper that co-operated closely in the production of the controversial interview.

Mr. Afshari’s televised "confessions" are thought to be part of a new series named "Hoviyyat (Identity) II" aimed at humiliating and discrediting dissidents opposed to both the concept of "velayat faqih", or the rule of absolute leader, the cornerstone of the present Iranian Islam-based system of which Mr. Khamenehe'i is the symbol and the "unicity" of religion and state.

In a statement, the Office protested to the VVIR for the "abject" interview and rejected allegations that it was aiming at toppling the regime.

Meeting latter with Mr. Afshari’s family, representatives from the OCU assured them of their "full support" for the jailed student, insisting, "no one had been impressed or influenced by the broadcast".

Joining the protest movement, Mr. Afshari’s lawyer said the interview was recorded while the judicial authorities did not allow him one single meeting with his client or even to have access to his file.

"One’s confessing against himself, recorded in an undisclosed prison under dubious and strange conditions are totally ridicule and not credit worthy", Mr. Alireza Alavitabar, an influential journalist and Editor of the banned "Sobh Emrooz" (This Morning) reformist daily noted.

In a commentary, the reformist daily "No Rooz" (New Day) said by listening carefully Mr. Afshari’s "confessions", one reaches the conclusion that what he says is "analysis and not confessing to criminal acts".

While the VVIR remained silent in face of mounting criticism from all sides but the conservatives, the English-language "Tehran Times" that is controlled by the hard-liners said Mr. Afshari’s confessions proves clearly that "he along with some counterrevolutionaries based abroad, had planned to overthrow the Islamic regime and to deal a blow to the main pillar of the Islamic system, the principle of Velayat Faqih or Islamic leadership".

Furthermore, results of investigations conducted by Tehran's Revolutionary court indicates that the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been funnelling money into the pockets of Iranian counterrevolutionaries and dissidents, it said.

Quoting a statement published Thursday by the Islamic revolution tribunal, the article named a certain Hassan Sassani as "a founding member" of the (Prague-based) Radio Freedom/Europe (sic), which is financed by the CIA to present a distorted image of the Islamic Republic.

The tribunal’s statement, said that Sassani, on behalf of the CIA, had paid money to three so-called liberals who have been acting against the Islamic government, adding that more confessions were to come after that of Mr. Afshari.

"The Appeals Court has ordered his release from Evin Prison today (in connection with the Berlin conference), but since he faces additional charges in a public court he should remain in jail until he posts the bail" Mr. Qolamali Riahi told the official news agency IRNA.

The Court has cut to six months a 10-year jail sentence and also struck down a sentence of five years in internal exile passed against Ganji.

Last year, newspaper editor Akbar Ganji was sentenced to 10 years in prison and another five years in internal exile in Bashagard, one of the most deprived regions in the country, for participating in the Berlin conference.

The Appeals gave six other activists sentences of between four to 10 years for their involvement in the conference.

The conference, organised by the Heinrich Boell Foundation, which has close ties to Germany's Green Party, was called to assess the prospect of reform in the wake of President Mohammad Khatami's victory in the 1997 presidential elections, IRNA added.

The controversial leader-controlled Clergymen’s Special Tribunal (CST) had condemned Mr. Yusefi-Eshkevari to death on charges of "apostasy", spreading corruption on earth and "moharebeh", or fighting God, all carrying the death penalty under Iran's strict Islamic law.