TEHRAN, (Reuters) – A prosecutor demanded yesterday  “maximum punishment” for a senior reformer accused of acting  against national security, a crime which can carry the death  sentence, in Iran’s fourth mass trial of moderates since a  disputed election.

Saeed Hajjarian, disabled since an assassination attempt in  2000, was among several prominent opposition figures in the dock  charged with fomenting huge street protests that followed the  June presidential election.

The poll plunged Iran into its most serious internal crisis  since the 1979 Islamic revolution, exposing deep divisions in  its ruling elite and further straining ties with the West.

“The prosecutor … called for maximum punishment for  Hajjarian considering the importance of the case,” the official  IRNA news agency reported.

Analysts regard the trials as an attempt by the authorities  to uproot the moderate opposition and put an end to protests  that erupted after the election, which defeated candidates say  was rigged in favour of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.