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Iran president urges prosecution of opposition leaders over election protests

By Bernard Hibbitts (editor) and University of Pittsburgh School of Law students.

[JURIST] Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Friday for the prosecution of opposition leaders who allegedly conspired to orchestrate widespread protests after the country's disputed June 12 presidential election. Ahmadinejad spoke in front of thousands before Friday prayers in Tehran, calling for pro-reformists to be dealt with decisively. The president's comments, directed toward opposition candidates Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi along with former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, apparently contradict a statement made earlier this week by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in which he said he was not sure that opposition leaders had conspired with foreign leaders to cause the post-election unrest. On Tuesday, Iran began the fourth mass trial of election protesters and reformists. Earlier in August, three UN human rights experts called on Iran's Revolutionary Court to reject protesters' confessions obtained through torture. Also this month, Iran's Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi acknowledged that some protesters arrested after the election were tortured. Human rights groups have called arrests political repression, saying that Iranian forces are using the protests to "engage in what appears to be a major purge of reform-oriented individuals." Last month, Iran released some 140 detainees arrested during the election aftermath. Also in July, a conservative newspaper called for Mousavi and Khatami to be tried for treason.

Full post as published by JURIST - The Paper Chase on August 28, 2009 (boomark / email).