Dissidents infiltrated Basij, Iran claims

TEHRAN, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Student demonstrators during the post-election unrest that gripped Iran in June posed as members of the Basij militia, Iranian authorities claim.

Iranian authorities are examining the case of 12 dissidents they claim were posing as members of the Basij during the violent unrest that greeted the disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June ,Iran's Press TV reports.

"Iran's judiciary is probing the case of 12 saboteurs who introduced themselves as members of the Basij force but had no records or history of membership in the Basij," said Hossein Hamedani, a commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.

Hamedani said the dissidents were not members of the Basij force, nor were they aligned with any of the candidates challenging Ahmadinejad.

Tehran claims as many as 30 people were killed in the post-election unrest. In the most high-profile case, Neda Agha-Soltan, a 26-year-old woman, was gunned down by an unknown assailant June 20. Eyewitness accounts blame the Basij for her death and for much of the violence during the government crackdown on dissidents.

Hamedani said several of the dissidents had infiltrated the ranks of the Basij, masterminding several of the shootings linked to the militia.