Iran says courts will teach protesters a lesson

Mousavi, himself a scion of the religious establishment, says he does not seek to undermine the Islamic Republic but to purge it of what he calls lies and deceit.

FOREIGN BROADCASTS BLAMED

Iranian state television, in broadcasts clearly intended to discredit opponents defying a ban on protests, paraded people it said had been arrested during weekend violence.

"I think we were provoked by networks like the BBC and the VOA (Voice of America) to take such immoral actions," one young man said. His face was shown but his name not given.

A woman whose face was pixilated said she had carried a "war grenade" in her hand-bag. "I was influenced by VOA Persian and the BBC because they were saying that security forces were behind most of the clashes.

"I saw that it was us protesting ... who were making riots. We set on fire public property, we threw stones ... we attacked people's cars and we broke windows of people's houses."

At least 10 protesters were killed in the worst violence on Saturday, and about seven more early last week.

Mousavi was quoted by an ally on Saturday as calling for a national strike if he was arrested and Karoubi signaled on Tuesday opposition would continue, calling on Iranians to hold ceremonies on Thursday to mourn those killed at protests.

The official IRNA news agency quoted senior judiciary official Ebrahim Raisi as saying on state television late on Monday: "Those arrested in recent events will be dealt with in a way that will teach them a lesson."

He said a special court was studying the cases.

"The rioters should be dealt with in an exemplary way and the judiciary will do that," Raisi said.

Iran's Foreign Ministry accused U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon of interfering in Tehran's affairs "under the influence of some powers" -- an apparent reference chiefly to Britain and the United States.

Iranians on social networking sites called for mourning for "Neda," a young woman shot dead on Saturday. Footage of her death has been watched by thousands on the Internet.

Iranian TV, quoting an unnamed source, said Neda was not shot by a bullet used by Iranian security forces. It said filming of the scene, and its swift broadcast to foreign media, suggested the incident was planned.

Her fiance Caspian Makan told BBC Persian TV that Neda Agha-Soltan had been caught up accidentally in the protests.

"She was near the area, a few streets away, from where the main protests were taking place, near the Amir Abad area. She was with her music teacher, sitting in a car and stuck in traffic," it quoted him as saying. "She was feeling very tired and very hot. She got out of the car for just a few minutes."

(Writing by Ralph Boulton and Jon Hemming, editing by Mark Trevelyan)