Ahmad Zeidabadi was arrested in a crackdown on senior ex-officials and journalists supporting the opposition after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared winner of the June 12 poll amid allegations of widespread fraud.

He has been in jail ever since.

"This morning Zeidabadi was taken to court and informed of a five-year jail term," Mowjcamp.com said, without naming any sources.

Zeidabadi, a father of four, will be jailed "in exile" in Gonabad, a town in northeastern Iran more than a thousand kilometres (miles) away from Tehran, the report said, adding that his lawyers would appeal.

The report did not say what he had been convicted of, but most post-vote detainees were charged with harming national security, propaganda against the regime and provoking protests.

He had been expected to be freed on bail in early October, but "the prosecutor prevented his release despite posting bail," the report said, adding that his bail had been increased on Monday to 3.5 billion rials (350,000 USD).

People convicted in courts of first instance are sometimes freed on bail before their appeal is heard.

Iran was plunged into the worst political crisis in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic in June when mass protests erupted against Ahmadinejad's re-election in what the opposition charged was a massively rigged poll.

Thousands of people were arrested and dozens killed. The opposition charges that some detainees were abused or raped in custody. About 140 protesters have been put on trial and five have received death sentences.

Reformist former vice president Mohammad Ali Abtahi, sentenced to six years in prison in connection with protests, was released on Sunday on 700,000-dollar bail pending appeal.