Prominent Iranian judge shot dead

The judge in the trial of Iran's best-known political prisoner, journalist Akbar Ganji, has been shot dead, a judiciary spokesman has said.
At least one gunman on a motorcycle opened fire at Massoud Moghaddas as he was leaving a court building, Jamal Karimirad said.

Mr Ganji was jailed five years ago for linking senior Iranian officials to the murders of prominent intellectuals.

He has been on hunger strike for 53 days in protest at his imprisonment.

Power struggle

"Massoud Moghaddas... was shot and martyred leaving the court building," Mr Karimirad told Reuters news agency.

"We do not know anything about the identity of the assassin".

Mr Moghaddas sentenced Mr Ganji to six years in prison in 2001 after he accused members of the conservative establishment of being responsible for the killing of dissidents and intellectuals.

Mr Ganji's trial and imprisonment was seen as part of a wider struggle between Iran's reformist movement, led by former President Mohammed Khatami, and conservative clerics and the judiciary.

The US, EU and international human rights organisations have called for Mr Ganji's release.

His wife, Masoumeh Shafiei, says the authorities have pledged never to release her husband unless he withdraws his accusations and apologises to Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.