Iran hardliner calls for Mousavi trial over "big lie"
EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to film or take pictures in Tehran. An Iranian woman holds a picture of defeated presidential candidate and opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi during a rally marking Qods (Jerusalem) Day in Tehran September 18, 2009.
Credit: Reuters/Caren Firouz
TEHRAN (Reuters) - The head of a hardline Iranian political party called on Saturday for opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi to face trial for spreading the "big lie" of fraud in June's disputed election.
Any legal action against Mousavi, who has vowed to press on with his drive for political reform in the Islamic Republic, may trigger new street protests by his backers.
Mousavi and other opposition figures say the June poll was rigged to secure President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election. The authorities reject the charge and have portrayed post-election opposition demonstrations as foreign-backed.
"I believe both Mousavi and all those who propagated this big lie must face trial in a court of law," said Mohammad Nabi Habibi, secretary-general of the conservative Islamic Coalition Party, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Other hardliners have also called for legal action against Mousavi, a former prime minister who came second in the June 12 presidential vote, which sparked months of political turmoil.
Iran's judiciary said on Tuesday that five people have been sentenced to death and 81 have received jail terms of up to 15 years in connection with protests and violence after the poll.
On Friday, the commander of an Islamic militia which helped quell the opposition demonstrations that erupted after the vote said it would confront any further "street riots," speaking ahead of a memorial for a dissident couple.
The daughter of the couple, stabbed to death by Iranian security agents in 1998, has urged people to attend the gathering on Sunday to commemorate their killing, a reformist website reported.
The deaths of Dariush Forouhar and his wife, who headed the illegal but tolerated Iran Nation Party, and at least two other secularist figures around the same time outraged many Iranians.
Iranian authorities have warned the opposition against staging "illegal" rallies.
Since the June protests, Mousavi supporters have clashed with security forces at two official commemorations, one held annually to support Palestinians and the other to mark the storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran during the revolution.
(Reporting by Hashem Kalantari; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Louise Ireland)
