A mass trial of 100 Iranian dissidents began Saturday in Tehran. The opposition leaders and political activists on trial have been charged with rioting and conspiring to topple the government in the turmoil surrounding Iran’s presidential election. The defendants include many prominent reformist leaders. Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said the hearings were “show trials” that would harm the establishment. Former presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi said some of the prisoners on trial had been forced to confess after being subjected to medieval torture. At the trial, Tehran’s deputy prosecutor accused the United States and other countries of masterminding the effort to topple the Iranian government. He alleged that several US organizations, including the Soros Institute, Freedom House and Stanford University, financed and instructed pro-Mousavi politicians in order to bring down the country’s leadership. Meanwhile, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has formally endorsed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for a second term as president in a step leading up to his inauguration in parliament.