Iran opposition figures arrested after protests

[Solid Beast]

Page last updated at 11:07 GMT, Monday, 28 December 2009

BBC

A number of opposition figures have been arrested in Iran, a day after violent protests in the capital left at least eight people dead.

Those detained include senior aides to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.

His nephew Seyed Ali Mousavi was among those killed in Sunday's violence, the worst since June's contested elections.

Family members say they are being prevented from holding his funeral because his body has been taken from the hospital where it was being kept.

Other opposition sources say the body has been taken by government agents in order to prevent his funeral becoming a rallying point for more protests.

Foreign media face severe restrictions in Iran and these reports cannot be verified.

An opposition website, Norooz, said police had fired teargas on Monday to disperse a group of Mousavi supporters who were demonstrating outside the hospital.

According to Mr Mousavi's website, Seyed Ali Mousavi was shot in the back as security forces fired on demonstrators in Tehran on Sunday.

BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne, reporting from London, says the government's immediate response to the latest confrontation has been to arrest senior opposition figures, as it did after protests against the disputed presidential elections in June.

The authorities are blaming troublemakers for the violence, our correspondent says, with the police denying that security forces are responsible for any deaths and suggesting that protesters may have shot each other.

But, our correspondent adds, the government will be doing itself no favours if it has taken the body of Seyed Ali Mousavi because this would outrage religious conservatives, as well as the opposition.

'Shameless act'

Among those reported arrested on Monday were opposition politician Ebrahim Yazdi, a foreign minister after the 1979 revolution and now leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran, and his nephew, Lily Tavasoli.

Mr Yazdi's son Khalil, who lives in the US, told the BBC's World Today programme he believed the Iranian authorities wanted to close down all opposition groups.

"It is a shameless and irresponsible act. [They are] arresting a 78-year-old man who has stood for nothing but freedom and open society within Iran all of his life," he said.

"Any opposition now, they want to shut [it] down. We're going down a one-way street that's now going downhill."

Opposition sources said Mousavi Tebrizi, a senior cleric from the holy city of Qom who is close to Mr Mousavi, had also been detained.

The protests, which began after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in June, have grown into the biggest challenge to the government since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Tear gas reports

Monday's arrests follow violent clashes which broke out on Sunday after opposition supporters took to the streets as the Shia Muslim festival of Ashura reached its climax.

Police fired tear gas to disperse crowds of demonstrators in various parts of the city overnight, according to reports.

On Monday, state-owned English-language Press TV said eight people had died. Earlier, Persian state television had reported at least 15 people killed.

The official death toll for Sunday's confrontation is the highest since June.

Witnesses said that in Tehran some protesters attacked police.

Police responded by firing directly into the crowds, opposition sources say, although this is denied by Iranian authorities.

Tehran's police chief, Azizollah Rajabzadeh, was among dozens of security force members injured in the clashes, officials said.

About 300 people were detained after the protests, police said on Sunday.

They included members of the banned opposition group Mujahideen Khalq Organisation (MKO) - or the People's Mujahideen - Press TV reported.

Unconfirmed reports said four people also died in protests in the north-western city of Tabriz and there were clashes in Isfahan and Najafabad in central Iran and Shiraz in the south.

Violence condemned

Moderate cleric Mehdi Karoubi, who came fourth in last June's election, criticised Iran's rulers for Sunday's violence, an opposition website reported.

The United States and France also condemned the violence.

Iranian security forces have been on alert since influential dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri died a week ago aged 87.

His funeral attracted tens of thousands of pro-reform supporters, many of whom shouted anti-government slogans.

Anger at last June's elections, won by incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sparked mass protests in Tehran and other cities that led to thousands of arrests and some deaths.

Mr Mousavi and other opposition leaders have said the poll was rigged.