TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's judiciary has tried a number of arrested al Qaeda members and verdicts have been issued, a senior judiciary official was quoted as saying on Monday.
Tehran Justice Department head Abbasali Alizadeh told the semi-official Fars news agency Iran's "high-ranking officials are satisfied with the issued verdicts," but did not elaborate on what the verdicts had been.
Ruters could not immediately reach officials for comment.
Alizadeh said the trials had been conducted by a "special judge" after taking into account information presented by security and intelligence officials.
Iranian officials had been saying for more than a year that they intended to put on trial several members of Osama bin Laden's network arrested inside its territory.
Hossein Mousavian, secretary of the foreign policy committee of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, said in June that the suspects were middle-ranking al Qaeda members and added they were still being questioned in jail.
He said they had been "plotting against the national security of Iran and they have planned for terrorist activities inside Iran."
The United States has long believed that Iran was harboring al Qaeda militants who escaped Afghanistan after U.S. troops invaded in late 2001 after the Sept. 11 attacks.
Iran denies providing safe haven to al Qaeda members and says the suspects are behind bars, but has refused to name them.
The most important figure that Western intelligence agencies say may be there is Saif al-Adel, an Egyptian. He is widely believed to have taken charge of al Qaeda operations after Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, was captured in Pakistan.
