Iranian intellectual calls on opposition to unite as he is again sent to prison

Majid Tavakoli, taken from his family in handcuffs, urges dissidents to frankly analyse' why opposition to the regime has successively failed

One of Iran's foremost public intellectuals and critics of the Iranian regime was taken to prison in handcuffs on Saturday to start serving a five-year sentence.

Majid Tavakoli, who has a three-year-old child, was found guilty of spreading propaganda against the state. His dispatch to jail had been deferred for three weeks, but security officials came to take him away on Saturday, the day after another jailed Iranian human rights activist, Narges Mohammadi, was given the Nobel peace prize.