Iran's Defiant Green Movement Vows to Fight On
THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: Zahra Rahnavard, wife of defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, says opposition remains strong despite repression and violence under Ahmadinejad regime since disputed election a year ago

Zahra Rahnavard, wife of Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, waves to supporters during a pro-reform rally in June 2009. Photograph: The Guardian
Iran's opposition Green movement, fighting for democracy since the disputed election a year ago, has not been crushed despite having to call off protests in the face of government repression, says a defiant Zahra Rahnavard, the wife of the defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Rahnavard, a high-profile academic, sculptor and campaigner for women's rights, says she is prepared to "face the gallows" in the struggle for freedom – but insists the movement her husband leads is reformist, not revolutionary, and wants to see respect for the Iranian constitution.

In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, her first for a British newspaper since mass unrest erupted last June, Rahnavard lambasts the Islamic regime for its "Tiananmen-style" attack on demonstrators protesting that their votes had been stolen by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"This movement started with the simple question: 'Where is my vote?'" she said. "But because the response was violence and bullets and repression from the ruling regime, the situation entered another phase which was completely unpredictable.

People's demands have changed so now there are more fundamental questions and more intensive criticism of the regime. The Islamic republic has deviated from its path and goals.

"We are still pursuing our ideals of 30 years ago [the Islamic revolution of 1979]. But the current government is the result of an electoral coup d'etat. The Green movement has not been defeated at all. It is going forward." >>> Saeed Kamali Dehghan and Ian Black, Middle East Editor | Friday, June 11, 2010

Iran Regime Weakened: Divisions Exposed One Year After Disputed Presidential Election

THE TELEGRAPH: Deep divisions have emerged within the Iranian leadership in the run-up to Saturday's first anniversary of the hotly disputed presidential election contest that returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

Factional infighting fuelled by a series of splits since the vote was exposed as rigged last year have come to a head with a row over an attack on attack [sic] on the family of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of Iran's Islamic revolution.

The dispute has further eroded support for Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader, who has been criticised for driving Iran into economic and diplomatic isolation by backing the extremist president.

The emergence of prominent hardliners as critics has intensified pressure on a government already facing a revolt by reformists.

Official results that granted an overwhelming victory to Mr Ahmadinejad last June are still hotly disputed by millions of Iranians.

Mass protests in the wake of the vote pitched the country in its worst turnmoil since the Islamic revolution in 1979.

A harsh clampdown has seen an estimated 5,000 Iranians jailed and hundreds killed as the regime moved [to] crush[ed] the popular challenge to its authority.

The protest movement has been virtually forced underground as its leaders were forced to cancel protests that had been planned across Iran today. Only sporadic defiance was reported on the eve of the anniversary yesterday.

Pictures of those killed in last year's clashes were hung from trees in central Tehran while an estimated 700 political prisoners at Gohardasht prison staged a hunger strike.

There were also unconfirmed reports of clashes between protesters loyal to the opposition, which calls itself the Green Movement and security officials on Tehran's metro system. >>> Con Coughlin and Ahmad Vahdat | Saturday, June 12, 2010

Iran Oppostion Leader Mir Hossein Mousavi 'Flees Tehran'
TIMES ONLINE: The leader of Iran's opposition was to have fled Tehran, state media reported tonight.

Mir Hossein Mousavi, defeated in hotly disputed elections in June, was said to have left the Iranian capital on a day marked by pro-government rallies at which crowds chanted "Death to Mousavi". Another of the leaders, Mahdi Karroubi, was also said to have fled.

The news comes three days after Mr Mousavi's nephew, Ali, was killed during a protest against the regime in which at least eight lost their lives.

He was said to have been shot in the chest. Opposition figures have claimed he was deliberately targeted and had received a number of death threats. >>> Times Online | Wednesday, December 30, 2009

MAIL ONLINE: Iran's opposition leader flees as tens of thousands of government supporters swarm Tehran chanting 'death to Mousavi': Iran's police chief threatened to show 'no mercy' in crushing any new protests by the country's opposition supporters today.

Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam warned protesters to stay off the streets or face harsh consequences. >>> Mail Foreign Service | Wednesday, December 30, 2009

MAIL ONLINE: >>> Mail Foreign Service | Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Warning! Graphic Content Two Convicted Bank Robbers Cut Loose from Gallows

Iran Protests: Opposition Leader Mir Hossein Mousavi's Nephew Shot Dead
THE TELEGRAPH: Iranian security forces have shot and killed a nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi during the fiercest clashes with anti-government protesters in months.


At least eight people are thought to have died in clashes across the country, according to opposition web sites and witnesses.

Amateur video footage from the centre of Tehran showed an enraged crowd carrying away one of the casualties, chanting, "I'll kill, I'll kill the one who killed my brother".

In several locations in the capital, demonstrators fought back furiously against security forces, hurling stones and setting their motorcycles, cars and vans ablaze, according to video footage and pro-reform websites.

Demonstrations also took place in at least three other cities. >>> | Sunday, December 27, 2009

Battered Not Beaten: Iranian Opposition Plays the Long Game
TIMES ONLINE: The Iranian opposition is brave and inspiring. Its members repeatedly risk their limbs, lives and liberty by taking to the streets in defiance of the regime and its ruthless security forces. They do so despite six months of arrests, beatings, torture and show trials that have resulted in death penalties and years of incarceration. But are they achieving anything?

The demonstrations are smaller than they were. The grip of the security forces has never looked seriously threatened. Western governments, preoccupied with the nuclear issue, appear to have accepted President Ahmadinejad’s re-election and written off the "green" movement.

Opposition activists are not discouraged, however. They insist they are playing a long game the goal of which is gradually to win over the provinces, the small towns, members of the basij volunteer militia; to eat away at whatever support the regime still has until eventually it topples.

They scribble anti-government slogans on banknotes, daub graffiti on walls, disseminate information on e-mail trees to counter the propadanga of the state-controlled media. Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mr Ahmadinejad’s election rival, has likened the regime’s attempts at censorship to stopping a flood with barbed wire. >>> Martin Fletcher | Monday, December 07, 2009

Tehran Univeristy Demonstration for Students Day


Manifestation sous haute tension à Téhéran
Les manifestants de l'opposition ont une nouvelle fois défilé lundi à Téhéran pour contester la réélection en juin dernier du président Ahmadinejad. Crédits photo : Le Figaro
LE FIGARO: Des milliers de manifestants de l'opposition ont défilé lundi dans la capitale iranienne pour protester une nouvelle fois contre la réélection du président Ahmadinejad. Des mouvements rapidement réprimés par les forces de l'ordre.

Nouvelle poussée de violences dans les rues de Téhéran. La police, déployée en force lundi dans la capitale iranienne, a utilisé des gaz lacrymogènes pour disperser les milliers de manifestants de l'opposition venus protester contre le président Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, en marge de la «journée de l'étudiant». Cette dernière commémore chaque année la mort de trois étudiants lors d'une manifestation anti-américaine en décembre 1953. Et donne lieu, depuis les années 1990, à des rassemblements en faveur des réformes. Les étudiants, fer de lance de l'actuel mouvement d'opposition né au lendemain de la réélection contestée d'Ahmadinejad en juin dernier, ont ainsi profité de cette journée pour manifester.

Selon un témoin, les affrontements entre les forces de l'ordre et les manifestants ont eu lieu sur l'avenue Enghelab, qui longe l'université de Téhéran, elle-même encerclée par des policiers anti-émeute et des gardes révolutionnaires. >>> Le Figaro.fr (avec agences) | Lundi 07 Décembre 2009

Proteste in Iran: Polizei knüppelt in Teheran
ZEIT ONLINE: In Iran demonstrieren Regimegegner, Sicherheitskräfte setzen Schlagstöcke und Tränengas ein, die Universität ist umstellt. Anlass der Unruhe ist der sogenannte Studententag.

Im Zentrum Teherans ist die Polizei mit Gewalt gegen Demonstranten der Opposition vorgegangen. "Die Polizei setzt Schlagstöcke ein, um die Demonstranten zu zerstreuen", sagte ein Augenzeuge der Nachrichtenagentur Reuters. Auch Tränengas kam zum Einsatz. "Die Leute skandieren Parolen gegen die Regierung." Die Zusammenstöße ereigneten sich demnach auf dem Platz Ferdowsi. Zuvor hatte die Polizei die Universität von Teheran umstellt, um Proteste der Opposition zu verhindern. >>> Zeit Online, Reuters, dpa | Montag, 07. Dezember 2009

Clashes in Tehran as Opposition Defies Regime Warnings
TIMES ONLINE: Supporters of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi fought running battles with riot police and hardliners on the streets of Tehran today as tens of thousands joined the first protests against President Ahmadinejad for two months.

The demonstrators defied warnings of a "decisive" crackdown from the elite Revolutionary Guard to mount the protest during the annual al-Quds rally, a mass display of solidarity with the Palestinians that is one of the set pieces of the Islamic regime.

Mr Mousavi himself was forced to abandon his own plans to join in the rally after an angry mob shouting "Death to the hypocrite Mousavi" attacked his car.

Another leading reformist, the former president Mohammad Khatami, was also roughed up on the streets of Tehran and had to leave after his robe was ripped and his turban fell to the ground. >>> Philippe Naughton | Friday, September 18, 2009

Iran Security Forces Retreat as Huge Numbers of Mourners Gather at Cemetery
LOS ANGELES TIMES: As many as tens of thousands of protesters meet at the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan, whose shooting death was videotaped. Meanwhile, the first group of protesters arrested in the unrest heads to trial.

Reporting from Tehran and Beirut -- Thousands and possibly tens of thousands of mourners, many of them black-clad young women carrying roses, overwhelmed security forces today at Tehran's largest cemetery to gather around the grave of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young woman whose videotaped shooting at a June 20 demonstration stunned the world.

Amateur video apparently taken at Behesht Zahra cemetery and quickly uploaded to the Internet shows a sea of mourners moving through the cemetery chanting slogans.

"Death to the dictator," chanted those in one long procession, kicking up a storm of dust as they walked. "Neda is not dead. This government is dead."

Afterward, the crowds began to gather in front of central Tehran's Grand Mossala mosque, defying authorities who had prohibited the use of the site. Protesters chanted slogans as they rode the subway to the venue, setting the stage for more clashes as dusk approached.

Uniformed security forces initially clashed violently today with some of the mourners, supporters and leaders of the opposition, who were there to protest and grieve for those killed in recent unrest. Unsuccessful presidential candidates Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi attempted to attend the graveside ceremony marking the religiously significant 40th day since the death of Agha-Soltan and others killed in the fighting.

"Oh, Hossein! Mir-Hossein," the mourners chanted in support of him. >>> Borzou Daragahi and Ramin Mostaghim | Thursday, July 30, 2009

Iranian Police Beat Up Mourners at Ceremony for Neda Soltan
TIMES ONLINE: Baton-wielding Iranian riot police arrested mourners and drove away opposition leaders as they tried to stage a ceremony in a Tehran cemetery to commemorate protesters killed in anti-government demonstrations last month.

Ignoring Islamic customs and traditions, the security forces beat and detained many of the 2000-odd people who came to mark the end of the 40-day mourning period at the grave of Neda Soltan, the young student who has become an icon of the opposition movement.

When Mir Hossein Mousavi, the movement’s leader, arrived at the Behesht-e Zahra cemetery on the baking plains south of the capital, he was mobbed by supporters who chanted “Mousavi we support you” and “Death to the Dictator”.

Foreign journalists are banned from Iran, but witnesses said the former prime minister managed to leave his car and walk up to Ms Soltan’s grave before the police stopped him. “Mousavi was however not allowed to recite the Koran verses said at such occasions and he was immediately surrounded by anti-riot police who led him to his car,” said one.

The police then had to push back a large crowd gathered around Mr Mousavi’s vehicle so he could leave.

Later Mehdi Karoubi, another defeated presidential candidate, arrived. Witnesses said he was swiftly surrounded by police. Mourners pelted the security forces with stones and shouted “Today is a mourning day.” >>> Martin Fletcher | Thursday, July 30, 2009

Listen to BBC audio: A mother’s anguish >>> | Wednesday, July 29, 2009

’United for Neda’

Rafsanjani Calls for Release of Jailed Protesters in Iran Amid Clashes in Tehran
TIMES ONLINE: Iranian police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse thousands of demonstrators outside Tehran University today as a former president who is backing the opposition movement led Friday prayers for the first time since the disputed election.

Hojatoleslam Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the influential head of the Assembly of Experts and key supporter of the opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, called for prisoners to be released as he preached inside the campus that Iran was in crisis.

Demonstrators gathered at the university, which has been a regular focus of the protests, despite a violent crackdown by the authorities, only to be met by a wall of officers who have made at least 15 arrests according to a witness.

The former president’s sermon, broadcast live on state radio, was at one stage interrupted by slogans chanted by Mousavi supporters.

“I will talk about a solution for today’s situation, so that a way can be found to go ahead in the future with the same greatness, unity and consensus which we had in the beginning,” he said.

“Our key issue is to return the trust which the people had and now to some extent is broken ... It is not necessary that in this situation people be jailed. Let them join their families. We should not allow enemies to rebuke and ridicule us because of detentions. We should tolerate each other."

The opposition is seeking to show that their movement remains vibrant even after the repression that followed Iran’s discredited June 12 presidential election. >>> Nico Hines | Friday, July 17, 2009

Iranian Police Disperse Pro-reformists: Witness
REUTERS: TEHRAN - Iranian police used tear gas and fired into the air to disperse about 250 pro-reform protesters gathered near Tehran University on Thursday in defiance of a ban on gatherings for the anniversary of violent 1999 student unrest, a witness said.

"Police used tear gas twice to disperse the crowd. There was also many Basij militia on motorbikes patrolling the area," said the witness, who asked not to be named.

Another witness said police urged passers by through loudspeakers to leave the area.

"They were about 250 people who shouted in favor of (defeated presidential candidate Mirhossein) Mousavi and made the victory sign. Police dispersed them," said the witness, who also asked not to be named. >>> Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Janet Lawrence | Thursday, July 09, 2009

THE NEW YORK TIMES: Iran Security Moves to Crush New Protests in Tehran

CAIRO — Security forces began clashing with protesters shortly after they began massing in the streets of Tehran on Thursday evening, as an initially festive demonstration quickly turned grim, witnesses said.

Tear gas was fired into Lelah Park, they said, and a woman whose coat was covered in blood ran from Revolution Square, one of the main gathering spots during the initial weeks of protests over the June 12 election. She said that police officers were beating protesters.

It was the first protest in 11 days, and was called to commemorate the 10th anniversary of violent confrontations at Tehran University when protesting students were beaten and jailed. Iranian authorities had announced earlier that the demonstration was illegal and would be met with a “crushing response.”

But at the end of the work day, hundreds of protesters began packing the streets of one area of Tehran, chanting, clapping and sitting in jammed traffic as drivers honked their horns, witnesses said. Families brought their children. Many held a hand in the air in the defiant V for victory.

The security forces quickly moved in. >>> Michael Slackman and Alan Cowell | Thursday, July 09, 2009

NZZ Online: Iranische Opposition erneut auf der Strasse: Erstmals seit über einer Woche wieder Proteste gegen umstrittene Wahl

Erstmals seit über einer Woche haben im Iran wieder Anhänger der Opposition gegen das Ergebnis der umstrittenen Präsidentenwahl protestiert. Die Polizei ging mit einem massiven Tränengaseinsatz gegen die Demonstranten vor.

Mehrere hundert Demonstranten zogen am Donnerstag durch die Innenstadt von Teheran und skandierten «Tod dem Diktator». Zuvor hatte der Gouverneur der Stadt die Anhänger von Oppositionsführer Mir Hossein Moussavi vor weiteren Protesten gewarnt und mit deren Niederschlagung gedroht.

Sicherheitskräfte bemühten sich laut Augenzeugen unter Einsatz von Tränengas, die Kundgebungen aufzulösen. Zunächst versammelten sich etwa 300 Oppositionsanhänger in der Nähe der Universität, innerhalb kürzester Zeit wuchs ihre Zahl auf etwa 700 an. Auch an anderen Plätzen im Stadtzentrum versammelten sich hunderte Demonstranten. Viele von ihnen trugen Atemschutzmasken in Grün, der Kennfarbe Moussavis. >>> ap | Donnerstag, 09. Juli 2009

LE FIGARO: Une manifestation dispersée à Téhéran

La police iranienne a lancé des gaz lacrymogènes contre des milliers de manifestants. De nouvelles interpellations auraient eu lieu.

A Téhéran, plusieurs milliers de personnes ont bravé jeudi l'interdiction de rassemblement. La police a dispersé des cortèges de manifestants venus commémorer les émeutes étudiantes de 1999 et afficher leur hostilité au pouvoir. Il s'agit des premiers rassemblements d'opposants depuis la confirmation le 29 juin de la réélection de Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, où le pouvoir avait promis «d'écraser » toute nouvelle manifestation.

Environ 3.000 personnes se sont rassemblées sur l'avenue Taleghani, proche de l'université, au centre de la ville, lançant des slogans hostiles au pouvoir, tels que «Libérez les prisonniers politiques!» ou encore «mort au dictateur!», selon des témoins, qui ont également rapporté que la police avait arrêté plusieurs manifestants. De mêmes sources, «la police a fait usage de gaz lacrymogène pour disperser» le cortège et les forces anti-émeutes ont pris position dans le quartier. Peu auparavant, la police avait déjà eu recours au gaz lacrymogène contre 200 à 300 manifestants qui scandaient des slogans similaires, près de la place Enghelab. >>> F.G (lefigaro.fr) avec AFP | Jeudi 09 Juillet 2009

Mousavi Labelled 'US Agent' as Iran Charges UK Official
THE OBSERVER: Reformist leader attacked by influential editor and embassy worker's lawyer predicts imminent trial

The stakes over Iran's disputed presidential election were raised dramatically yesterday, after a powerful regime hardliner denounced Mir Hossein Mousavi, the candidate officially declared to have lost, as an American agent and demanded that he undergo a public trial.

Hossein Shariatmadari, editor-in-chief of the influential Kayhan newspaper, said Mousavi had committed "terrible crimes", including "murdering innocent people, holding riots, co-operating with foreigners and acting as America's fifth column", in pursuing his claims that last month's re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was rigged.

The accusations - in a newspaper editorial - were the most ferocious yet from regime insiders and may serve notice that preparations are under way to arrest Mousavi and his main allies. Several hundred known reformists and pro-Mousavi supporters have already been detained since the election. The editorial also singled out the reformist former president, Mohammad Khatami, who last week compared Ahmadinejad's re-election to a coup.

"An open court, in front of the people's eyes, must deal with the all the terrible crimes and clear betrayal committed by the main elements behind the recent unrest, including Mousavi and Khatami," Shariatmadari wrote. "Documents and undeniable evidence show that this mission was directed from the outside. All they did and said was in line with the instructions announced by American officials in the past."

The editorial carried added weight given Shariatmadari's position as confidant to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has declared the election result legitimate and called for protests to end. Shariatmadari has been called "the aggressive public face" of Khamenei, who appointed him to his current position.

His outburst fits with the regime's strategy of depicting the demonstrations against Ahmadinejad's re-election as orchestrated by foreign governments, including Britain. It came a day after a Khamenei ally, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, head of the Guardian Council, said at Friday prayers that Iranian employees of the British embassy in Tehran would be tried after they had "confessed" to helping to organise the protests. >>> Robert Tait | Sunday, July 05, 2009

Iran's British Stooges Are Staring Right at You
THE SUNDAY TIMES: Zahra, an Iranian woman studying at an English university, is in a state of terror. Her husband, an activist in the cause of the defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, was arrested a fortnight ago, and has not been seen since. Zahra, whose eyes are lined in green, the colour of the country’s reformist opposition, told the BBC: “Why should he be in jail? What was wrong with what we did in Tehran? It was the basic right of all Iranians to take part in the election.” She went on: “They don’t let my husband call me . . . this is torture.”

It is torture for Zahra because she has a good idea of what is happening to her husband. The Iranian state media have been broadcasting a series of “confessions” by demonstrators against the alleged rigging of the presidential vote in favour of the incumbent, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. They all tend to say the same thing: “I admit that I demonstrated under the influence of the BBC, the Voice of America and other foreign media.”

Their identities are not discernible, because their faces have been obscured. The reason for this was made horribly clear by remarks in The Guardian from a shopkeeper friend of an 18-year-old who had been “questioned” by the Iranian security services: “You could tell straight away he had just been released. His face was bruised all over. His teeth were broken and he could hardly open his eyes . . . [Later] the doctor told me that he had suffered rupture of the rectum.”

The shopkeeper quoted his 18-year-old friend to the effect that he had not “confessed” despite several days of beating while being hung from a ceiling with his hands and feet tied together. At that point two men tore his clothes off while a third “did it” – that is, inflicted the assault that ruptured his rectum. He was raped several times in this way, in front of four other detainees, but continued to refuse to sign a confession along the lines suggested by his interrogators.

So when we hear Ayatollah Jannati, chief of the Guardian Council, say of arrested Iranian employees of the British embassy in Tehran, “Naturally they will be put on trial, they have made confessions,” we should be only too aware of what will have been happening to some of Her Majesty’s servants. >>> Dominic Lawson | Sunday, July 05, 2009

Iran Opposition Leaders Speak Amid Crackdown
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: BEIRUT -- Iranian opposition figures re-emerged to accuse the government of a virtual coup against its people and plan a new political party, even as the regime hardened its crackdown on opponents and accused them of endangering national security.

The tensions within Iran reignited just as Tehran's diplomatic conflict with the European Union heated up, with the government threatening to cut off relations with EU countries unless they apologize for considering pulling their ambassadors out of Iran.

Increasingly, the government has been seeking to cast its opponents as outlaws. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has been blamed for the blood spilled during the clashes between protestors and security forces over the outcome of the presidential election, in which the government says he came in a distant second to the incumbent, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

On Wednesday a student wing of the Basij -- plainclothes militia responsible for crushing protestors with guns, batons and chains -- asked Tehran's chief prosecutor to investigate Mr. Mousavi's role in "destabilizing national security." If charged and convicted, Mr. Mousavi could face a maximum 10 years in prison.

Mr. Mousavi lashed back, joined by former President Mohammad Khatami, an influential cleric who has supported Mr. Mousavi's campaign but who had become quiet as the regime made clear it wouldn't accept further opposition to the election results.

In a statement posted on his Web site, Mr. Khatami accused Iran's leadership of a "velvet coup against the people and democracy" and criticized what he called "a poisonous security situation" in the wake of violent street protests.

Mr. Mousavi announced that he plans to form a political party with a group of like-minded intellectuals. He said the party would make public all the allegations of vote fraud that he and their candidates have made, and pursue their complaints through the judiciary.

"They keep asking me to forgive and forget. I will not compromise nor negotiate over the vote and the right of the public," Mr. Mousavi said in his statement, his ninth since election unrest began, posted on his personal Web site.

The post-election unrest over the disputed presidential vote has created the worst crisis in the Islamic republic's 30-year history. As security forces crushed street protests, the regime began pursuing the line that the turmoil was conceived by reformers and funded by Westerners -- namely Americans and British. >>> Farnaz Fassihi with contributions from Marc Champion in Brussels | Thursday, July 02, 2009

Iran 'Has Arrested 2,000’ in Violent Crackdown on Dissent
TIMES ONLINE: More than 2,000 Iranians have been arrested and hundreds more have disappeared since the regime decided to crush dissent after the disputed presidential election, a leading human rights organisation said yesterday.

“A climate of terror and of fear reigns in Iran today,” the International Federation for Human Rights, an umbrella body for 155 human rights organisations, said as it released the startling figures.

Last night 3,000 protesters tried to gather outside a mosque in Tehran where they believed that Mir Hossein Mousavi, the defeated presidential candidate, was going to speak. The police rapidly dispersed them and Mr Mousavi never appeared.

Having largely suppressed such protests, the security forces are engaged in a purge of dissidents in an apparent effort to decapitate Mr Mousavi’s so-called green movement.

Prominent Iranian actors, actresses, writers and singers are believed to have been seized at the weekend for supporting the demonstrators. Several opposition bloggers have fallen silent, probably because they have been detained. Almost anyone who dares to challenge President Ahmadinejad’s re-election is now considered an enemy of the state.

At least one senior Mousavi aide and other unidentified Iranians have appeared on state television to “confess” that the demonstrations were part of a foreign conspiracy against the Islamic Republic.

Human Rights Watch says that the Basiji — volunteer Islamic militiamen — are raiding houses, beating civilians and destroying their cars and other property in an effort to silence the nightly rooftop chanting that has become the opposition’s last means of peaceful protest. “The Basiji entered our neighbourhood and started firing live rounds into the air, in the direction of the buildings from which they believe the shouting of ‘Allahu akbar’ [God is greatest] is coming from,” a middle-aged Tehran resident said. >>> Martin Fletcher | Monday, June 29, 2009

Jailed Iran Reformists 'Tortured to Confess Foreign Plot'
THE GUARDIAN: Amnesty reports apparent attempt to implicate defeated presidential candidate in conspiracy to overthrow regime

Jailed Iranian reformists are believed to have been tortured in an attempt to force them into TV "confessions" of a foreign-led plot against the Islamic regime.

According to Iranian websites, the "confessions" are aimed at implicating Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the defeated reformist candidates in this month's presidential poll, in an alleged conspiracy.

Mostafa Tajzadeh, Abdollah Ramezanzadeh and Mohsen Aminzadeh, all Mousavi supporters, are reported to have undergone "intensive interrogation" sessions in Tehran's notorious Evin prison since being arrested in a mass round-up of opposition figures following Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

The three, who all served in the government of the former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, are among several hundred activists, academics, journalists and students detained in a crackdown coinciding with the brutal suppression of street protesters who believe the election was stolen.

Fellow prisoners are reported to have heard screams of pain from Tajzadeh, a former deputy interior minister, and Ramezanzadeh, who was Khatami's government spokesman, during interrogations at Evin's section 209, which is reserved for political prisoners and run by the hardline intelligence ministry. >>> Robert Tait | Friday, June 26, 2009

Mir-Hossein Mousavi 'Ready for Martyrdom' as Iranians Defy Supreme Leader
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi on Saturday night told his supporters he was ready for martyrdom, and demanded that the entire disputed election be annulled.

He dramatically raised the stakes in the standoff with Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, after publishing a letter to the country's highest electoral authority in which he cited examples of electoral fraud to support his "undeniable right" to call for a re-run of the election.

Mr Mousavi made his defiant call during a speech delivered in southwest Tehran, according to an ally, who telephoned a western news agency shortly afterwards to report: "Mousavi said he was ready for martyrdom and that he would continue his path."

A witness told Reuters that Mr Mousavi had called for a national strike if he was arrested.

It was an unprecedented act in defiance of Ayatollah Khamenei, who has declared President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner of the June 12 election and on Friday ordered an end to protests by demonstrators who say Mousavi was the winner. >>> By Angus McDowall | Saturday, June 20, 2009

Khamenei Tells Mousavi to Toe the Line over Election or Be Cast Out
TIMES ONLINE: The moderate Iranian leader who says that he was robbed of victory in last week’s presidential election faces a fateful choice today: support the regime or be cast out.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has told Mir Hossein Mousavi to stand beside him as he uses Friday prayers at Tehran University to call for national unity. An army of Basiji — Islamic volunteer militiamen — is also expected to be bussed in to support the Supreme Leader.

The demand was made at a meeting this week with representatives of all three candidates who claim that the poll was rigged, and it puts Mr Mousavi on the spot. He has become the figurehead of a popular movement that is mounting huge demonstrations daily against the “theft” of last Friday’s election by President Ahmadinejad, the ayatollah’s protégé.

Mr Mousavi, 67, is a creature of the political Establishment — a former revolutionary and prime minister who would like to liberalise Iranian politics but has never challenged the system in the way his followers are doing. It was unclear last night what he would do or even whether the protests would die away if he backed down. Yesterday tens of thousands of demonstrators packed into the Imam Khomeini Square in Tehran — named after the founder of the Islamic Republic — for another massive rally, this one to mourn protesters killed in Monday’s clashes with pro-government militias. >>> Ella Flaye in Tehran, Catherine Philp and Martin Fletcher | Friday, June 19, 2009

Khamenei Tells Mousavi to Toe the Line Over Election or Be Cast Out
TIMES ONLINE: The moderate Iranian leader who says that he was robbed of victory in last week’s presidential election faces a fateful choice today: support the regime or be cast out.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, has told Mir Hossein Mousavi to stand beside him as he uses Friday prayers at Tehran University to call for national unity. An army of Basiji — Islamic volunteer militiamen — is also expected to be bussed in to support the Supreme Leader.

The demand was made at a meeting this week with representatives of all three candidates who claim that the poll was rigged, and it puts Mr Mousavi on the spot. He has become the figurehead of a popular movement that is mounting huge demonstrations daily against the “theft” of last Friday’s election by President Ahmadinejad, the ayatollah’s protégé.

Mr Mousavi, 67, is a creature of the political Establishment — a former revolutionary and prime minister who would like to liberalise Iranian politics but has never challenged the system in the way his followers are doing. It was unclear last night what he would do or even whether the protests would die away if he backed down. Yesterday tens of thousands of demonstrators packed into the Imam Khomeini Square in Tehran — named after the founder of the Islamic Republic — for another massive rally, this one to mourn protesters killed in Monday’s clashes with pro-government militias. >>> Ella Flaye in Tehran, Catherine Philp and Martin Fletcher | Friday, June 19, 2009

Iran Elections: Mousavi Supporters Protest
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran's opposition held another rally and stepped up its challenge to the Islamic regime, as the authorities intensified a crackdown on the media to try to contain the biggest crisis since the 1979 revolution.

Supporters of Iranian Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi stage a protest against the election results in Iran near the Iranian embassy in Ankara. Photo: The Telegraph
Tens of thousands of supporters of the defeated Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi took part in what was billed as a "silent" protest rally, marching through central Tehran, witnesses said.

Wearing green wrist- and headbands in the colour of Mousavi's campaign, the demonstrators carried placards accusing re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of having "stolen" their votes in Friday's poll.

Iranian state television broadcast footage of the rally. >>> By The Telegraph’s Foreign Staff | Wednesday, June 17, 2009

TIMES ONLINE: More Than 100,000 Join Defiant Silent Protest in Tehran

This picture, posted on Twitter, claims to show the crowd in Krimkhan St today. Photo: TimesOnline
At least 100,000 demonstrators marched silently through the streets of Tehran tonight in a direct challenge to the authority of Iran's clerical regime.

Witnesses said that the protesters, both young and old and many accompanied by children, marched through central Tehran Haft-e Tir square towards Vali Asr square in the heart of the city.

The rally was called by the defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi to protest against the "shameful fraud" that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected by a landslide in last Friday's election.

Mr Mousavi's appeal to supporters, issued via his website, flew in the face of a declaration by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, that the former prime minister should pursue his objectives through the electoral system and not on the streets. >>> Ella Flaye in Tehran and Philippe Naughton | Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Third March Planned in Iran as Reformists Are Arrested
THE TELEGRAPH: Iran's opposition movement has called for a third major public rally in Tehran as pressure builds on the Islamic regime over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's fiercely-contested re-election.

Mobile phone footage of Iran protests
Grappling with the biggest wave of public anger since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran has lashed out at enemy "plots," hauling in foreign ambassadors, rounding up scores of reformists and clamping down on the media.

World governments voiced increasing alarm about the situation in Iran, but US President Barack Obama, while raising "deep concerns" over the election, said Washington would not interfere in the affairs of the country.

Supporters of defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has accused the regime of vote-rigging, said they have called another rally in Tehran this afternoon, despite a ban on such gatherings.

Reformists also reported that another two prominent academics and journalists had been arrested by the authorities. Hamid Reza Jalaipour, a sociologist and Mousavi campaigner, and Saeed Laylaz, a political and economist analyst, were both arrested at home[d].

Iran's most powerful military force has also warned online media of a crackdown over their coverage of the country's election crisis.

The Revolutionary Guards, an elite body answering to the supreme leader, says Iranian websites and bloggers must remove any materials that "create tension" or face legal action. >>> | Wednesday, June 17, 2009

TIMES ONLINE: Mousavi Issues Direct Challenge with Rally Call over 'Shameful Fraud' in Iran

Iran's defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi issued a direct challenge to the country’s clerical regime today, calling for a mass rally to protest against the "shameful fraud" that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad re-elected by a landslide.

Mr Mousavi's appeal to supporters, issued via his website, flew in the face of a declaration last night by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's Supreme Leader, that the former prime minister should pursue his objectives through the electoral system and not on the streets.

It also came despite a demand from the powerful Revolutionary Guard that websites and bloggers should remove any materials that "create tension". >>> Phillipe Naughton | Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Mir Hossein Mousavi’s Website (میرحسین موسوی خامنه) >>>

YOUTUBE: Protest Against ‘Fake’ Elections (June 13, 2009)