If there was any question about how far the Iranian authorities would go to end the weeks of election dissent, a trial that started Saturday provided a clear answer — far.

This is no run-of-the-mill court hearing for ordinary dissidents. It's a mass trial of more than a hundred defendants and a who's who list of Iran's renowned reformists, including former ministers, a former government spokesman, even a former vice-president.

Also included is a Canadian journalist who works for Newsweek, Maziar Bahari. The accusation is that they all played a part in the post-election protests that have rocked Iran since the June 12 vote.

This photo from an unknown source shows the mother of Sohrab Arabi, shown in poster, at the grave of Neda Agha Soltan. Both Arabi and Soltan were killed in Iran's post-election violence. A graveside memorial for the two on July 30, 2009, evolved into an anti-government protest that was dispersed by police using batons and tear gas. (Associated Press)

During Saturday's proceedings, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the former vice-president, appeared to be the star defendant.

Now a well-known blogger, Abtahi apparently told officials in a prepared confession that any question of election fraud in Iran "was a lie. [It] was brought up to create riots so Iran becomes like Afghanistan and Iraq and suffers damage and hardship."

In other words, the mass protests that called the election's legitimacy into question were, as the regime alleges, driven by foreign hands.

Human rights defenders immediately labelled this a forced confession.

So did Abtahi's old boss, former Iranian president Mohammed Khatami. He criticized the hearing as a "show trial" that "will directly harm the system and further damage public trust."

The evidence so far suggests Khatami is bang on.

Questionable results

The problem began when, before the polls had even closed, authorities declared that the current president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, had won, with 63 per cent of the vote, nearly twice that of his nearest rival, the reform-minded Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Voters who had hoped for change simply didn't believe the results and alleged outright fraud.

They openly challenged the regime's authority and took to the streets in huge numbers to show their discontent with the election and their lack of faith in a regime that has grown more authoritarian in recent years.

Iranian protestors set trash bins alight in Tehran after police fired tear gas on demonstrators at a graveside memorial earlier in the day, Thursday, July 30, 2009. (Photo from unknown source/Associated Press)

The smiles, jubilance and hope that they expressed in pre-election, pro-reform rallies were replaced by consternation, outrage and bloodshed.

Within days, and as fewer foreign journalists remained to bear witness to the events that unfolded, security forces were putting down the protesters with batons, tear gas and, eventually, live gunfire.

Hundreds were injured and arrested, and there were many deaths, which began to cause the regime some serious credibility problems.

Throughout it all, however, the government of Ahmadinejad and Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, stood firm.

Still, behind the closed doors there were signs of growing consternation and outrage even among Iran's ruling conservatives. They included: a poorly-attended victory party for Ahmadinejad; and the second- or third-hand rumblings from clerics who found the crackdown distasteful and were quietly saying so.

There were also private entreaties made to the supreme leader to do whatever it took to preserve, even restore, faith in the religious establishment. But nothing changed and that faith kept eroding.

Anger reportedly brewed even among some of the ruling clerics and this did nothing to boost public confidence in the regime.

Divisions inside

The growing schism became public when former president Hashemi Rafsanjani, a powerful establishment figure also known for his sympathies with the reformists, called for the detained protesters to be released.

His speech at Friday prayers last month became the first public salvo against the regime's tactics from within.

Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami, a top power in reformist circles, has been calling for a nationwide referendum to legitimize the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Vahid Salemi/Associated Press)

But there have been other problems since the election, which have pointed to serious cracks at the top.

Among them was the very public difference of opinion between Ahmadinejad and Khamenei over the former's choice for first vice-president, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie.

Eventually, Khamenei had his way and Mashaie gave up the post. Since then, Ahmadinejad fired his intelligence minister and now his press adviser has quit.

None of this did anything to improve the government's image in the public eye.

But what might pose the greatest threat to any remaining public faith in both the Ahmadinejad government and the religious establishment is the matter of detainees.

A raw nerve

Because of their experience under the Shah and his notoriously brutal network of spies and prisons, Iranians are extremely sensitive to the plight of political detainees.

In recent weeks, they have heard about the anguish of mothers searching for their children and being kept in the dark about their fate.

There have also been several reports suggesting detained protesters have been tortured in prison and these have raised the ire of both conservatives and reformists alike.

In one case, a young man died in hospital after a stint in prison, his body reportedly showing signs of severe beatings.

The young man happened to be the son of a prominent conservative, Abdolhossein Rouhalamini, and the criticism from conservative ranks was swift, showing that public discontent had definitively crossed the political divide.

There have reportedly been other deaths at least at one particular prison, Kahrizak, on the outskirts of the capital, according to human rights groups. Concern was so heightened that the supreme leader actually ordered the closure of Kahrizak.

In addition, about 140 protesters were spontaneously released last week from Evin prison and a committee has been appointed to look into the imprisonment of the rest.

But among many Iranians, there were hard questions, such as: why hadn't the supreme leader, or Ahmadinejad for that matter, acted sooner?

There is deep anger that the regime appears to be adopting, in the words of one critic, the tactics of the long-deposed Shah and his repressive regime.

Disaffection

For many Iranians, a raw nerve had been touched, which is why the trial that began on Saturday is being so closely watched.

The unprecedented proceedings appear to be aimed at quieting dissent by instilling a fear of consequences.

But after only one day, it seems to have done the opposite and more critical voices are being heard.

Depending on the harshness of any sentences that might be handed down, this trial could one day be seen, as Khatami suggested, as the unpleasant turning point for a regime that is now clearly fighting for legitimacy.

What started as a dispute over election results could have been resolved by a recount, a re-vote or a referendum, as Khatami suggested.

Instead, it has now mushroomed into acrimonious counter-accusations of treason and national security on the one hand versus heavy-handedness, torture and even murder on the other.

This week, Ahmadinejad was officially endorsed as president by Iran's supreme leader. But given the course of events since the election, disaffection may only deepen.