MOUSAVI FACES 10 YEARS’ IMPRISONMENT

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
02.07.2009 11:42 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Iran’s embattled opposition leader, Mir Hossein
Mousavi, faces a new threat after the Basiji militia accused him of
"offences against the state" and "disturbing the nation’s security",
charges which carry a sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment. The militia,
which played a key role in the brutal suppression of street protests,
has become known as the "enforcers" of the country’s Supreme Leader,
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and are unlikely to have made the allegations
against Mr Mousavi without receiving his authorisation to do so.

The Basiji high command wrote to the chief prosecutor asking him
to take action over Mr Mousavi. It claimed that "evidence" would
follow which showed his culpability in the disturbances over the
disputed elections. Mr Mousavi broke a week-long silence yesterday
to denounce the election result as a "coup". "A majority of the
people – including me – do not accept its political legitimacy," he
said of the government, adding: "There’s a danger ahead. A ruling
system which relied on people’s trust for 30 years cannot replace
this trust with security forces overnight." He was joined by Mehdi
Karoubi, another candidate, and the reformist ex-president Mohammed
Khatami in making statements which bring them into further conflict
with Ayatollah Khamenei who has upheld the result and declared that
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was the winner. The men said that it
was their "historic responsibility to continue our protests and not
to abandon our efforts to preserve the nation’s rights".

Mr Mousavi asked for the release of the "children of the revolution"
who had been taken away by the police and the Basiji. Earlier, state
television said that all but one of nine Iranians who worked for the
British embassy in Tehran had been released, The Independent reported.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress