Four reformist journalists and a professor detained after last year's disputed presidential poll in Iran that sparked anti-government protests were freed on bail on Sunday, ILNA news agency said.

It said journalists Abdolreza Tajik, Mashallah Shamsolvaezin, Mohammad Javad Mozafar, who is also a prisoners rights activist, and Behrang Tonkaboni, chief editor of a cultural magazine, were freed from Tehran's Evin prison.
 

A retired university professor, Mohammad Sadeq Rabani, was also released after posting bail, the agency said.
 

It said they were rounded up after the Shiite holy day of Ashura on 27 December when the opposition took to the streets as part of a series of protests over the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last June.
 

Parlemannews.ir, a website run by the minority reformist faction in Iran’s conservative-dominated parliament, said Mozafar and Tajik were released after each posted a bail of 100,000 dollars.

Releases on bail
On Thursday, Iran released a number of opposition figures rounded up during anti-government protests, some on bail while others were merely given a respite from their detention.
 

Several thousand people have been arrested since June for their participation in anti-Ahmadinejad protests over what the opposition charges were rigged elections.
 

Most have been freed, but hundreds, including dozens of reformist figures, journalists and human rights activists, remain behind bars.
 

Some opposition leaders have already been handed hefty prison terms and a dozen people accused of trying to foment unrest and overthrow the Islamic regime have been sentenced to death.
 

Two were executed in January while the other 10 are awaiting the outcomes of their appeals.
 

Source: AFP