Human rights groups assume at least 20 were killed and hundreds of others arrested or taken to secret prisons as the full might of the state was unleashed against those who dared to associate themselves with political rebellion.

Iranian dissidents at home were only part of the story as far as Tehran was concerned. The police, secret service and other paramilitary forces also took exception to the way foreign media covered the election. In fact most foreign media persons did not have their visas extended because of what the Iranian authorities claimed was 'biased' reporting.

More than the media, however, Iran used the occasion of the election to lash out at one foreign government in particular. At the receiving end of Iran's anger was the UK, which had two diplomats expelled for 'activities incompatible with their status', diplomatic jargon for spying.

Britain responded in a tit for tat move by expelling two Iranian diplomats from its embassy in London.

Worse was to follow, however, when Iran upped the stakes by arresting eight local staff of the British Embassy in Tehran.

At the time their arrests were justified by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the head of Iran's powerful Guardian Council, who said during Friday prayers, 'In these incidents, their embassy had a presence, some people were arrested. Naturally they will be put on trial, they have made confessions.'

Although all the local British Embassy staff have now been released without charge, Iranian exiles in London say there is more than meets the eye in the sheer severity of Tehran's reaction.

Some exiles say the expulsion of the diplomats and the arrest of embassy staff represent the pent up rage of many Iranians who have a bone to pick with the British for their repeated interference in the country's internal affairs over the years.

The most celebrated example of this interference was the 1953 coup when Iran's elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, was overthrown in a coup sponsored by the British and American governments to return the Shah to power. Every Iranian school child knows the story of the coup and the inglorious role played by the UK.

Other exiles say this is too facile an explanation, claiming instead that Iran was angered by Britain's decision to freeze Iranian bank assets. Most of those assets, these Iranians claim, came from the personal account of Ayatollah Khamenei's son who has extensive business interests in the West. Since Khamenei is Iran's supreme leader, any attack on him or his immediate family is tantamount to a declaration of war, or so the argument goes.

In recent days, however, a more plausible explanation has emerged that explains the ferocity of Tehran's anger. It comes in the shape of a little known (little known to the public at large, that is) Iranian general, Ali-Reza Asgari, former senior director of Iran's foreign intelligence service called VEVAK.

Asgari's decision to switch sides by defecting to Britain was one of those walk-in scoops that every intelligence service in the world longs for. Known to his British MI6 handlers as the 'Falcon', he had an impressive portfolio of expertise, including liaison work with Hizbollah in Lebanon, knowledge of Iran's contacts with Al Qaeda, contact with disaffected Pakistani nuclear scientists and, most important of all, inside information about Iran's own nuclear programme.

In fact if the U.S. and Israel have to hold back from punching a hole in Iran's nuclear infrastructure, it is probably because of the detailed information that has become available to them courtesy of Asgari.

Just when Asgari defected to the UK is still a closely guarded secret, but there is no doubt at all about the quality of information he brought out with him. In the words of author Gordon Thomas, who reveals the secret of Asgari's defection in his newly published book Secret Wars, 'In the long history of MI6 operations in Iran, no double agent was better placed or more politically astute than Asgari.

'Not only was he superbly placed to judge the quality of information he provided, but he displayed the cool nerve of the quintessential double agent of World War II.'

For months after his defection in early 2007 the Iranian government could not fathom what had happened to their prize spook. There was speculation at the time that he had been kidnapped by foreign agents, or that he had been killed in a mysterious accident in some unknown location.

It is fair to assume, Iranian exiles say, that the facts of what happened to Asgari emerged only incrementally and the full story of his defection was confirmed in the months leading up to the presidential election.

An unresolved mystery for Iranian analysts is why Asgari elected for refuge in Britain, rather than in the U.S. where he would have been assured of at least as warm a welcome and probably offered more choices, including financial benefits.

One reason might lie in Asgari's help to Hizbollah in striking U.S. targets in Lebanon, including the kidnapping and torture of CIA station chief William Buckley, and the bombing of U.S. marine barracks near Beirut airport. Fearful of possible prosecution in the U.S., Asgari chose to stay within the relatively safer confines of the UK.

Recent reports suggest that the legal obstacles have finally been overcome and Asgari has at last been granted a false U.S. identity and a safe house in perpetuity where he and his family can live out the rest of their days.

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