Mir Hossein Mousavi accused of committing "terrible crimes"
04.07.2009 15:47 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ A newspaper editor seen as close to Iran’s top
authority said Saturday defeated election candidate Mir Hossein
Mousavi and a former pro-reform president had committed "terrible
crimes" which should be tried in court.
In a commentary published in his hardline Kayhan daily,
editor-in-chief Hossein Shariatmadari suggested that Mousavi and his
supporters in last month’s disputed election had acted on the
instructions of the United States, Iran’s arch-foe.
The June 12 poll stirred the most striking display of internal dissent
in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution and strained ties with the
West. At least 20 people died in post-election violence last month.
The authorities have portrayed mass pro-Mousavi protests, which
erupted after official results showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
had been re-elected by a landslide, as the work of local subversives
and foreign powers.
They blame Mousavi, a moderate former prime minister, for the
bloodshed after the election. Mousavi rejects the charge.
Although hardliners have regained the initiative since security forces
quelled the protests, Mousavi and another losing candidate, pro-reform
cleric Mehdi Karoubi, have not yielded.
They again denounced the election result Wednesday and said
Ahmadinejad’s next cabinet would be illegitimate, Reuters reported.