Iranian MP freed from prison in victory for reformers

A gathering political crisis in Iran appeared to have been averted after a member of parliament jailed for daring to criticise the hardline judiciary in a speech to parliament was pardoned and released from prison.

A gathering political crisis in Iran appeared to have been averted after a member of parliament jailed for daring to criticise the hardline judiciary in a speech to parliament was pardoned and released from prison.

Hossein Laghmanian was greeted with flowers by fellow parliamentarians when he emerged from the forbidding gates of Evin, the Shah's old prison, under the shadow of the mountains in north Tehran. He was imprisoned on Christmas Day for saying the judiciary had been wrong to shut pro-reform newspapers.

Inside the prison remain scores of political leaders, journalists and intellectuals, the leaders of the reform movement that not long ago seemed on the verge of toppling the mullahs.

The reform movement has been crippled by the jailings, ordered by the judiciary, which remains in the grip of the hardline mullahs who do not want to lose control of Iran. The pace of reform has all but ground to a halt.

But the decision to jail a member of parliament – the first time it has happened since the 1979 Islamic Revolution – seems to have been a step too far. Mehdi Karroubi, the Speaker of the Majlis, Iran's parliament, led deputies out of the chamber in protest and refused to allow further sessions of parliament until Mr Laghmanian was released.

The crisis came at a bad time for the mullahs, under fire at home and abroad. America has been making threatening noises towards Iran recently. There has been furious condemnation of Iran in the US press since Israeli forces boarded a ship full of guns, alleged to be Iranian arms supplies on their way to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

George Bush, the American President, said he would "deal" with Iran after claims that al-Qa'ida members were escaping from Afghanistan across the border into Iran.

At home, there is growing resentment among the Iranian public at the slow pace of reform, after three landslide election victories for the reformist President Mohammad Khatami and his allies in parliament.

There are even whispers of disenchantment with Mr Khatami, once the hero of the reform movement. When he made a speech recently to students, who used to be his most ardent supporters, he was greeted frostily.

Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,a hardliner, appears to have opted to avert the crisis by personally pardoning Mr Laghmanian. He was able to save face by doing so "in response" to a request from the head of the judiciary.

The pardon will probably avert the immediate crisis and get Mr Karroubi and his MPs back to work, but the long-term power struggle remains unresolved. Two more MPs have been sentenced to prison, but have not yet been jailed. And Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of the powerful Council of Guardians, which can veto laws, has been trying to secure a ruling that MPs' parliamentary immunity is un-Islamic.

The mullahs appear to have covered their backs – for now.