The official IRNA news agency and state Press TV said the defendants, who appeared in a Tehran courtroom Saturday, face charges ranging from plotting against the establishment to violating security regulations.
Five of those on trial, including two women, were accused of "moharebeh," or defying God, a charge that could carry the death penalty, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported.
IRNA said all of the defendants were detained during anti-government demonstrations on Dec. 27, when at least eight people were killed and hundreds more were arrested after clashes between opposition activists and security forces. The violence was the worst since authorities launched a harsh crackdown immediately after Iran's disputed presidential election in June.
IRNA quoted a prosecutor identified only by the last name of Farahani as saying in court that the defendants have confessed to spying, planning bomb attacks and damaging public and private properties. He also said the defendants sent videos on the clashes between protesters and Iranian police to the "foreign hostile networks," IRNA reported.
During past mass trials in Iran, many Western human rights group have cautioned that detainees in Iran have made confessions under coercion from the authorities.
The new trial comes amid a sweeping crackdown by Iran's clerical leaders against opposition activists in a bid to crush the challenge that has emerged to their rule in the wake of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election in June.
The hardline government has tried more than 100 political activists since August, sentencing more than 80 people to prison terms and handing down 11 death sentences.
