Iran Says U.K. Embassy Staff Stoked Unrest

Iran has videotape proof that local employees of the British Embassy in Tehran detained for allegedly stirring up post-election unrest "were distinctly present at the scene of clashes," a senior official said, and he warned that their fate now rests with the country's cleric-run judiciary.

Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseini Ejehi said in an interview with state television broadcast late Sunday that the detainees - all Iranian nationals - mingled with demonstrators to encourage unrest.

Ejehi said Iran's judiciary, which is tightly controlled by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will decide what happens next.

"Some of them who were distinctly present at the scene of clashes and were even videotaped have been cracked down on, and we should wait and see what will happen to them later with the cooperation of the judiciary," he said.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Iranian authorities have barred journalists for international news organizations from reporting on the streets and ordered them to stay in their offices. This report is based on the accounts of witnesses reached in Iran and official statements carried on Iranian media.

Britain, which expressed outrage at the detentions of up to nine local employees, has said four since have been released. The European Union condemned the action Sunday as "harassment and intimidation" and demanded the immediate release of those still in custody.

Five of those arrested had been freed Monday morning, according to a report on the BBC, citing Iranian officials.

"Eight people were arrested. Five were freed and three are still being interrogated," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi said at a news conference, according to the BBC report.

On Sunday, several thousand protesters - some chanting "Where is my vote?" - clashed with riot police near the Ghoba Mosque in north Tehran. It was Iran's first major clash in four days.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that police used tear gas and clubs to break up the crowd, and said some demonstrators suffered broken bones. They alleged that security forces beat an elderly woman, prompting a screaming match with young demonstrators who then fought back.

The reports could not be independently verified because of tight restrictions imposed on journalists in Iran.

North Tehran is a base of support for opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has alleged massive fraud in Iran's disputed June 12 presidential election and insists he - not President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - is the rightful winner.

Witnesses who spoke with the AP said they did not spot Mousavi at the rally. But one of his close assistants addressed the crowd through a loudspeaker and other opposition figures also appeared, including reformist presidential candidate Mahdi Karroubi.

Sunday's clashes erupted at a rally that had been planned to coincide with a memorial held each year for Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, who came to be considered a martyr in the Islamic Republic after he was killed in a major anti-regime bombing in 1981.

Iranian authorities say 17 protesters and eight members of the volunteer Basij militia have been killed in two weeks of unrest, and that hundreds of people have been arrested.

The Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights said its information suggests at least 2,000 arrests have been made - "not just (people) arrested and later released, but who are locked up in prison," the group's vice president, Abdol Karim Lahidji, told the AP.

He said his information came from members of human rights groups in Iran and other contacts inside the country.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband denounced the detentions as "quite unacceptable" and dismissed Iranian allegations that embassy staff were involved in protests as "wholly without foundation."

Iran has accused the West of stoking unrest, singling out Britain and the U.S. for alleged meddling and for expressing concern about the ferocity of the regime's crackdown on protesters. Last week, Iran expelled two British diplomats, and Britain responded in kind.

Iran also has said it was considering downgrading diplomatic ties with Britain.

But in a press conference broadcast on state television Monday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said "reduction of diplomatic ties is not on our agenda for any country, including Britain."