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Protests sprung up throughout Iran in the wake of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in 2009. Fernando Llano/AP
Iran
Journalist reports existence of Iran 'vote-rigging' tape, gets arrested
A news website editor has been arrested after reporting on tapes where Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ‘discusses vote-rigging’.
A JOURNALIST from an Iranian news website says its editor has been arrested after reporting that there is an audiotape of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discussing vote rigging in his disputed 2009 re-election.
Ahmadinejad’s office strongly denied last month’s report on the Baztab website, and so far, no audiotape has surfaced.
The journalist, Ammar Kalantari, said Monday that editor Ali Ghazali had been arrested yesterday.
The Baztab report said that Ahmadinejad did not want authorities to boost his vote total in 2009, but that the vote-rigging was done anyway.
The president’s supporters claim the purported tape was an attempt to undermine Ahmadinejad’s attempts to get his protegé onto the ballot for the June 14 presidential election that will pick his successor.
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