Iran opposition leaders are still in jail: families

TEHRAN/WASHINGTON (Agencies)

Detention of Iran opposition figures unacceptable: US

The families of Iranian opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi insisted on
Tuesday that the two men and their wives were still held in a jail despite a judicial official denying it, as Washington said that their detention was “unacceptable”. “We, the children of Mousavi and (his wife Zahra) Rahnavard, utterly reject the report denying our parents’ detention in the prison of Heshmatiyeh,” Mousavi’s Kaleme.com website quoted the opposition leader’s daughters as saying. “The only way to disprove the report of their arrest is by us meeting them immediately at our father’s home. Given the evidence over the past days and weeks, we are certain that our parents are not at home.” Karroubi’s family too insisted that the cleric and his wife were in prison.

Families confirm, Iran denies

“All the evidence shows Mehdi Karroubi and Fatemeh Karroubi are not present at their home,” the cleric’s Sahamnews.org website quoted the family as saying.

It said a daughter-in-law of Karroubi had gone to visit him Monday morning, “but unfortunately no one showed up at the door.

“The family of Mehdi Karroubi considers this as abduction carried out by the regime.”

The latest statements from the two families came after an Iranian judicial official denied an earlier report by the two websites that the two men and their wives “have been arrested and transferred to the Heshmatiyeh prison of Tehran.”

“A judiciary source has denied the arrest of the chiefs of sedition Mousavi and Karroubi,” the Fars news agency reported, without naming the official, adding that he had insisted that both men were at their homes.

“They are currently in their homes and are faced only with restrictions to contact suspect elements,” the report said.

The two men, who have never accepted President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s controversial June 2009 re-election, were put under “complete” house arrest after their supporters staged protests on Feb. 14, the first in a year, their websites reported last month.

Judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani accused the two men of “treason”, while lawmakers demanded they be hanged.

Opposition supporters planned to hold fresh demonstrations for their release later on Tuesday, according to their websites, but prosecutor general Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie warned that such illegal gatherings would not be tolerated.

“Anyone who acts against the law will be dealt with,” the state television website quoted him as saying on Monday.

“Unacceptable” for US

The United States said Monday that the detention of opposition leaders in Iran was “unacceptable”.

The White House took a new jab at Iran over its reaction to Middle East political tumult and its own domestic situation as the websites of opposition figureheads Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi reported their arrest.

“We obviously find the detention of opposition leaders to be unacceptable. And we call (for) them to be treated well and released,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

President Barack Obama’s spokesman also hit out at what he said was the “hypocrisy” of the Iranian government over its different attitude to anti-government protests abroad and at home.

“We note with continued astonishment the hypocrisy of the Iranian government,” Carney said.

Long-time allies Iran and the United States have been trading frequent accusations since the outpouring of Middle Eastern revolt started in Tunisia and spread to Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen and Libya.

Iran has described the wildfire of rebellion as a revolt by the peoples of the Middle East and North Africa against U.S.-backed rulers.

Earlier Monday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said weapons manufactured and delivered to “dictators” by the United States were killing protesters in uprisings around the Arab world.

He said the United States and its allies must be blamed for imposing dictatorships on regional countries now in the grip of deadly revolts.

But Washington has used the popular uprisings to focus attention on political tensions in Iran, saying that it should allow its own people to enjoy the freedoms allowed, or seized elsewhere.

On Sunday, the U.S. National Security Council condemned the Iranian government for what it said was an organized campaign of intimidation and arrests of political figures, journalists and activists.