December 31, 2001	Monday	Shawwal 15, 1422

TEHRAN, Dec 30: Six reformist members of the Iranian parliament submitted their resignations on Sunday to protest the jailing of a colleague for insulting the conservative judiciary, the state IRNA news agency reported.

Mohammad Kazemi, Bijan Shahbaz-Khani, Zabihollah Safaie, Mohsen Torkashvand, Mohammad Piran and Mohammad-Reza Hosseini had sent resignation letters to the reform-majority chamber’s deputy speaker, IRNA said.

Parliament can decide whether to accept or refuse the resignations.

Hossein Loghmanian, a deputy who represents Hamedan in western Iran, was sentenced by a Tehran court in September to a year in prison for “insulting” the judiciary.

He started his term in the Iranian capital’s notorious Evin prison on Tuesday, sparking outrage among reformist deputies in parliament, who claimed that their immunity had been violated.

Leading conservative and former head of the judiciary Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi said on Friday that parliamentarians had no immunity.

According to parliamentary sources, more than 60 deputies are being prosecuted for their writings or speeches in parliament, or for having taken part in political gatherings.

Tehran’s appeal court has confirmed the jail sentences on three of them, while only Loghmanian has so far been jailed.

As tensions mount between the country’s two rival camps, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on Sunday for “mutual respect” between the judiciary and parliament, but refused to block the trials of the MPs and prevent them being jailed.

KHAMENEI: Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called on Sunday on the reformist-dominated parliament and the conservative-run judiciary to put an end to their arguments and show each other “respect”.

But he refused to come down on one side or the other, notably by blocking court action against members of parliament which has enraged the assembly.

“It is essential that parliament respects the courts and the courts respect parliament,” Khamenei said in a letter to the house deputy speaker and head of the main reformist party, Mohammad Reza Khatami.

Khatami, brother of Iran’s reformist President Mohammad Khatami, asked Khamenei last week to order a halt to legal proceedings against members of parliament and the release of MP Hossein Loghmanian, who was recently jailed for his criticism of the judicial system.

“Judicial and parliamentary officials should pursue legal channels, respect the laws of the land and avoid vain arguments,” Khamenei said.

“In this case, as in other similar situations, there is no legal void. Everything is covered by the Constitution,” he added.

“The noisy disagreements, resorting to public opinion within our dear country, which looks to its leaders to resolve its problems, work against the national interest,” Khamenei said.

“In front of God, and our people, this is something that is not good. Duty demands that each at his own level of responsibility must resolve the problems of the people.”

The Iranian leader said deputies had a duty to monitor, give warnings and criticize according to their prerogatives, and in this respect “nobody should have the right to challenge them.”

According to parliamentary sources, more than 60 deputies are being prosecuted for their writings or speeches in parliament, or for having taken part in political gatherings.

The dispute between the deputies and the courts centres on immunity from prosecution, which the former say they should enjoy.

Leading conservative and former head of the judiciary Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi said on Friday that parliamentarians had no immunity.—AFP