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Freedom near for Tehran's former mayor - report

TEHRAN: A prison furlough for Tehran's jailed former mayor has been extended amid efforts to win his early release, Iranian media and legal sources said on Saturday.

Former mayor Gholamhossein Karbaschi, a reform-minded political powerbroker jailed last year on corruption charges, remained free at the weekend, two days after he was due back in Tehran's Evin prison to serve out the rest of his two-year term, the pro-reform Fath newspaper said.

The daily said the extension would be made permanent, effectively ending Karbaschi's prison ordeal and allowing his return to active politics.

But a source close to the former mayor's legal team told Reuters that no final agreement had been reached with the authorities and Karbaschi could yet be returned to prison. The source said talks were continuing.

Karbaschi was convicted of embezzlement on July 23, after a public trial that critics likened to a "televised inquisition".

His conviction and subsequent sentencing to two years in prison, a 10-year ban from executive office and fines and restitution of $533,000 deprived moderate President Mohammad Khatami of one of his leading institutional allies.

Reformers said the trial was designed by conservatives to punish Karbaschi for backing Khatami, a charge the judiciary denies. The ex-mayor was jailed last May after extended wrangling.

Speculation has picked up speed in recent weeks that Karbaschi would be freed ahead of parliamentary elections on February 18, restoring him to his position at the head of the centrist Executives of Construction party.

The party, which gave Khatami crucial financial and logistical support in his 1997 presidential campaign, is expected to play a leading role in the parliamentary campaign.

Earlier reports said Karbaschi would be granted a pardon if he requested one in writing from supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but he has apparently declined to do so._Reuters