Iranian opposition activist hospitalized after 9-day hunger strike to protest trial

Iranian activist hospitalized after hunger strike

TEHRAN, Iran — An Iranian journalist and opposition activist has been hospitalized after a nine-day hunger strike to protest his detention and trial, a reformist news Web site reported Tuesday.

Ahmad Zeidabadi is among more than 100 prominent activists and opposition supporters on trial in Iran. They are accused of involvement in a plot to overthrow the clerical leadership through the protests that broke out after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed June 12 re-election.

Zeidabadi is in poor health and was hospitalized after being forced to break his hunger strike on Monday, said the Iran Green Wave Camp Web site.

Zeidabadi leads a group of reformists who were once members of Iran’s largest student organization, the Office for Fostering Unity.

The Green Wave Web site said he began a hunger strike after his appearance in court on Aug. 8.

The mass trial, an attempt by the government to silence the opposition, began Aug. 1.

The defendants include a former Iranian vice president and other former senior government officials linked to the country’s pro-reform movement, French and Iranian-American academics, employees of the British and French embassies, and an Iranian-Canadian reporter for Newsweek magazine.

They are charged with plotting a “soft revolution” against the Islamic theocracy. The opposition denies the accusations and dismisses what it calls a “show trial.”

Some of the defendants have given televised confessions during their court appearances, though rights groups say such admissions are likely coerced.

The trial follows a crackdown on protesters in the streets that the opposition says killed at least 69 people. It says some of them died in prison from beatings and other abuse.

The opposition and some clerics have called for those who committed abuses to be prosecuted.

(This version CORRECTS Zeidabadi is no longer a member of the student group).)