A very strange confession

GOING to jail counts as victory, so long as you go in a blaze of eloquent defiance, or so says the code that governs Iran's public life. Ever since conservative judges started imprisoning the reformists gathered around President Muhammad Khatami, Iranians have come to expect courtroom heroics from condemned freedom-seekers. But they have been disappointed by Abbas Abdi, an architect of reform, and their movement has been thrown into confusion.

When Mr Abdi's trial for espionage started last month, an anticipatory cheer rippled through the stands. Mr Abdi had, in the past, emerged from solitary confinement and worse even hungrier for the fray. His friends predicted that he would use the trial to lampoon his opponents, and to ridicule the weird-sounding accusations about the polling institute that he used to run. They expected him to repeat his earlier recommendation that reformists should show their disgust by quitting public life, as well as again making his call for a referendum on Iran's form of government.