WASHINGTON – On the eve of a presidential runoff election, Iranian authorities are cracking down on one of the country’s leading dissidents.

According to an interview with the wife of journalist Akbar Ganji, the dissident leader is in physical danger now that guards have placed a violent criminal in the sector of Evin prison where he is being detained.

Friday, the hard-line mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, will face a two-time former president, Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, in a head-to-head race that comes a week after a contested general election.

Mr. Ganji’s wife, Massoumeh Shafii, told BBC news yesterday that prison guards transferred a drug smuggler to her husband’s prison cell Monday with instructions to “take good care of him.”

“My husband showed a negative reaction,and the authorities of the prison moved the smuggler to the facing cell but left the doors of each of the cells open,” she told the network, adding that Tehran’s chief prosecutor – who ordered Mr. Ganji to be rearrested this month – demanded that the doors of his cell be “permanently be taken off their hinges.”

Police states often dodge responsibility by forcing political prisoners into the vicinity of violent criminals to intimidate or harm them. Tehran’s chief prosecutor, Saed Mortazavi, said that the man transferred to Mr. Ganji’s cell area is not a violent criminal and was arrested for fraud, but human rights activists are doubtful.

An Iran researcher for Human Rights Watch, Hadi Ghaemi, yesterday told The New York Sun that he believes Mr. Ganji’s life is at risk.

“We have received reports that one common criminal has been moved to his cell,” Mr. Ghaemi said. “He has refused to be kept in the same cell as someone else, he is afraid for his life. It may be a plot to engage him physically. We are very concerned for Ganji’s health and safety.”

Mr. Ganji was originally arrested for publishing a book in 1999 called “The Red Eminence.” In it, he accused Mr. Rafsanjani of directing a chain of murders against Iranian intellectuals.

Mr. Rafsanjani will square off today against Mr. Ahmadinejad, who has taken an even harder line than the former president in an election most reformers have said is deeply flawed. Three of the losers from last Friday’s vote have stated publicly that the military and state-affiliated militia, known as the Basij, rigged the vote.

[Iran’s stance in delicate nuclear talks with the West is shaping up as a key issue dividing the two candidates who face each other in Friday’s presidential runoff – and American and European officials are watching closely, the Associated Press reported.

It also is a top campaign issue for Iranians themselves, who view the nuclear program as a source of both national pride and worrying tension with America and Europe.

The 49-year-old Mr. Ahmadinejad has indicated he will push for a tougher position at the talks if he becomes president. But key nuclear officials have said they’d like to see the country’s top job go to Mr. Rafsanjani, 70, a former president with an experienced hand.

America accuses Iran of using a peaceful nuclear program as a cover to develop an atomic bomb. Iran maintains its program is peaceful and aimed only at generating electricity.

Since last Friday’s contested elections, the regime has closed four newspapers, proposed a ban on text messaging, and threatened former presidential candidates for defaming the two contenders in today’s runoff election. Reports surfaced yesterday that political prisoners released for medical furlough have been threatened with more jail time.

Mr. Ahmadinejad, in comments that drew sharp criticism from the Foreign Ministry, accused Iran’s nuclear negotiators Monday of being weak and bowing to European pressure at the negotiation table. He also told a news conference last week he could not foresee improved ties with any country that “seeks hostility” against Iran, a reference to America.

Some Ahmadinejad supporters, including the hard-line Students’ Islamic Association, want the government to seek nuclear weapons to “deter the United States from threatening or attacking us.”

“We’ve had enough of waiting for Westerners to decide about us,” Mansour Hesami, 37, who has a portrait of Mr. Ahmadinejad in his dry-cleaning shop, said. “We have to resume our nuclear activity as soon as possible after Ahmadinejad comes to power.”

In contrast, Mr. Rafsanjani is widely expected to keep key nuclear negotiators in place – and remain open to a compromise with the West – if he wins.

Mr. Rafsanjani has campaigned extensively on the plank that he is the most capable person to handle the sensitive talks.

“Rafsanjani can manage the important issues of Iran, especially the nuclear story, in a moderate way,” a bookstore owner, Reza Khatibi, 47, said, according to the AP. “If he’s not elected, I will leave this country. It will be so dangerous.”]

Mr. Ganji was released from Evin prison last month to receive medical treatment. While out of jail, he gave an interview to Rooz online, in which he called on the supreme leader to stand for election and announced his support for the boycott of the presidential elections last Friday.

When asked how he would feel if he were forced to return to prison, he said, “I know that saying this in Iran means playing with my life. I have chosen this with the knowledge and will accept the consequence.”