Skip to main content

Iranian Opposition Leaders Call on Clerics, Launch New Charges





By VOA News
25 July 2009

Iranian reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi during a press conference after polls closed in Tehran, 12 June 2009
Iranian reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi (file photo)
Opposition leaders in Iran are calling on the country's top clerics to help end the crackdown that followed massive protests of Iran's June 12 elections.

Defeated presidential candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, along with former president Mohammad Khatami, sent a letter to clerics in the holy city of Qom Saturday, comparing the crackdown to the violent methods employed by the former shah before the 1979 Islamic revolution.

A statement posted by Karroubi on his Internet site went even further, accusing Iranian security agents of using tactics more brutal than those he said were employed by the Israelis against the Palestinians.







Rights groups say hundreds of people were detained during the post-election crackdown. At least 20 people were reported killed during the protests.

One reformist Web site Saturday said one of the protesters in custody has died. He was said to be the son of an advisor to another defeated presidential candidate, Mohsen Rezaie.

Mousavi and Karroubi say the June 12 vote was rigged, but Iran's powerful Guardian Council has since upheld the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Human rights supporters gathered in about 80 cities around the world Saturday, echoing the calls for Iran's leadership to end the crackdown.

Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi was expected to speak at one of the rallies in Amsterdam.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.





Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

ASEAN pushes for resumption of N. Korea nuke talks

ASEAN and friends: Foreign Ministers from left, Vietnam's Pham Gia Khiem, South Korea's Kim Sung-hwan, Japan's Takeaki Matsumoto, Indonesia's Marty Natalegawa, and China's Yang Jiechi, hold hands during a group photo at the opening session of ASEAN Plus Three Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Nusa Dua, Bali, Indonesia, Thursday. (AP/Dita Alangkara) Associated Press, Nusa Dua | Thu, 07/21/2011 2:19 PM Foreign ministers from 10 Southeast Asian nations are calling for a speedy resumption of talks aimed at convincing North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. China, the US, Japan, South Korea and Russia had been negotiating since 2003 to persuade Pyongyang to dismantle the program in exchange for aid and other concessions. The North pulled out of the talks about two years ago after being censured for launching a long-range rocket. It has indicated a willingness in recent months to return to the table. The 10-member Association of Southeast As...
Post a Comment
Read more

Army: Gunmen kill Indonesia soldier in Papua

 Associated Press, Jayapura | Thu, 07/21/2011 6:47 PM An army officer says unidentified gunmen have ambushed Indonesia soldiers and killed one of them in the easternmost province of Papua. The chief army officer in Papua says soldiers are still searching for the gunmen. Maj. Gen. Erfi Triassunu said the ambush Thursday morning happened outside a village in the hilly district of Puncak Jaya. Triassunu said the victim was a first private killed by a shot to his head. No information was available on the other soldiers. The attack occurred one day after a military tribunal indicted three low-ranking soldiers for killing a civilian in Puncak Jaya last year. Papua is a former Dutch colony incorporated into Indonesia in 1969 after a U.N.-sponsored ballot. A small, poorly armed separatist movement has battled for independence ever since.
Post a Comment
Read more