Iran Grant Foreign Newsweek Reporter on $300,000 Bail

Iran has finally released a foreign Newsweek reporter on bail Saturday almost four months, after he was arrested following the country's disputed presidential election. Embattled opposition leaders promised to press on with their campaign against the country's oppressive rulers.

Maziar Bahari, a dual Iranian-Canadian citizen who was released after posting bail of 3 billion rials ($300,000), is among more than 100 prisoners put on mass show trial as part of the government's attempts to silence opposition protests that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June 12 re-election was completely fraudulent.

The government also waged a bloody crackdown using their iron-fisted security forces. Iran's opposition leaders said Friday that the use of force will not silence their demands for democratic change.

The defiant statement by opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and former reformist President Mohammad Khatami sent a message to their supporters that the protest campaign still had energy even if public and street demonstrations have been repressed.

'The use of force and pressure won't force the Iranian nation to deviate one iota from the path it has chosen,' said a statement posted on Khatami's Web site. 'And those loyal to ... Iran won't give up their ... patriotic responsibilities despite all problems, oppression and threats.'

Since the violent post-election crackdown, the opposition has been struggling to reinvigorate itself, whilst Iran's government, under Ahmadinejad, cements its control.

A key part of the government's strategy has been the mass trial of reformist political figures accused of supporting the post-election unrest and seeking to topple the ruling system through a ''velvet revolution.'' The trial has so far produced three death sentences.

The opposition has called the trial a ''ridiculous show'' and has said that confessions by defendants, including Bahari, were obtained under duress.

In his turn at the stand, Bahari said Western media had attempted to guide events in Iran following the election and he sought mercy from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Bahari's family and colleagues said his comments likely came under duress. Like other defendants, he has had no access to a lawyer and no specific charges have been announced against him.

Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Bahari's release, citing the Tehran prosecutor's office. The report did not give a reason for the release, but Bahari's wife in London, who is having a difficult pregnancy and is expected to give birth at the end of October, has pleaded for his freedom.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon also made a joint call in September for Iran to free Bahari, who was arrested on June 21.

On Saturday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon welcomed Bahari's release.