TEHRAN, July 28 Iranian authorities on Tuesday freed 140 people detained in street protests over last month's disputed election and the supreme leader ordered a jail closed amid opposition claims of prisoner abuse.

A lawmaker with parliament's judicial committee also disclosed that about 30 people had been killed in the unrest that erupted after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election, up from previous official figures of 20.

But in a blow to the opposition, the authorities refused to issue a permit for a planned mourning ceremony for those slain during the worst crisis to rock Iran since the 1979 revolution.

The post-election turmoil and the crackdown on the opposition has exposed deep rifts among the ruling elite and has led to political tensions that have weakened Ahmadinejad's standing even among his own hardline supporters.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the closure of a jail holding protesters arrested during the massive demonstrations over the June 12 vote, which the opposition charges was rigged.

“The supreme leader has issued a strict order to ensure there is no injustice committed against anyone in the aftermath of the recent events,” said the secretary of Iran's National Security Council, Saeed Jalili.

“As an example, he has ordered the closure of a detention centre which was not up to required standards,” he said in a statement.

The head of Tehran prisons, Sohrab Soleimani, denied that two protesters had died from prison beatings, insisting they had been struck down by meningitis.

But opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's closest election rival, said that if one of the protesters had died of meningitis, “how come his teeth were broken?”

The reformist Sarmayeh newspaper also reported that the life of Saeed Hajjarian, an adviser to former president Mohammad Khatami being detained in Tehran's notorious Evin prison, was in danger.

“He looked pale... very weak and seriously depressed... He had a foul body odour and said he had been kept in the sun as a pressure tactic,” Hajjarian's wife Vajiheh Marsoosi was quoted as saying.

Iranian authorities on Tuesday freed 140 protesters detained in Evin prison, according to a member of a parliamentary panel who visited the detainees.

“We had an intensive meeting with Tehran prosecutor (Saeed Mortazavi) and 140 detainees of the recent events were freed,” MP Kazem Jalali said in a statement to the ISNA news agency.

Around 200 people remain in detention, including 50 “politicians, members of anti-revolutionary groups and foreigners” who he said were suspected of masterminding riots.

Farhad Tajari, the deputy head of parliament's judicial commission, said that Hajjarian would also be freed soon.—AFP