In the red: Iranian authorities blocked access to Mousavi (R) to prevent him from attending a rally supporting Arab revolts which he and Karroubi sought to hold. Picture: Kenare/Mehri Source: AFP
IRANIAN lawmakers demanded opposition leaders be hanged after violent anti-government protests in Tehran.
Lawmakers singled out Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who called for protests in Tehran on Monday in support of Arab uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Those protests ended in clashes with police, and two people were killed.
Mohammad Khatami, the former reformist president, also came under fire from the nation's conservatives following his public backing of the opposition movement after the disputed 2009 presidential election.
"Mousavi and Karroubi should be executed! Death to Mousavi, Karroubi and Khatami!" the lawmakers shouted in parliament, state news agency IRNA reported.
Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a hard-line cleric who often leads Friday prayers in Tehran, applauded the lawmakers and accused the two opposition leaders of being "mohareb," or enemies of God, adding that they deserved the harshest of punishments.
"The chiefs of the sedition have reached the end of the road, and it is time for [the authorities] to do their duty and judge and punish the chiefs of sedition," he said in a statement.
No further opposition gatherings were reported in Tehran on Tuesday, but hard-liners organised a number of counterprotests.
The Human Rights Reporters Committee, citing a judicial announcement, said 1500 protesters were arrested during Monday's demonstrations, the Netherlands-based Radio Zamenah reported.
Those arrested were transferred to the notorious Evin Prison, and security forces harassed family members outside courtrooms, the rights committee said. It previously cited statements from police that 150 people were arrested. The report could not be independently verified.
Despite a strict ban on the rally, a heavy security force deployment and the placing of Mousavi and Karroubi under de facto house arrest, thousands of opposition supporters took to streets of the capital Monday.
The demonstrations sparked violent clashes in which riot police fired tear gas and paintballs at demonstrators. Two protesters died during the clashes, a senior lawmaker and official media said.
Protests were also reported in the cities of Mashad, Isfahan and Tabriz, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The anti-government demonstrations were the first in Tehran since February 11, 2010.
Mousavi and Karroubi allege President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in June 2009 was massively rigged. In the months after the results were announced, they called for protests that drew tens of thousands onto the streets - shaking the pillars of the Islamic Republic and angering its leaders.
Since then, the so-called Green Movement has been ruthlessly suppressed by Iran's authorities, with mass arrests and reports of executions.
The UN's rights chief, Navi Pillay, urged Iran earlier in February to halt executions, expressing dismay that it was apparently stepping up the rate.
The UN said that Iran executed 66 people in January alone, reportedly for drug offenses, but three of these were known to be political prisoners arrested during the 2009 protests.
An adviser to Mousavi said the scale of Monday's protest was a sign that the opposition was still a force.
"What we were after was a peaceful demonstration by the people of Iran to show that despite all the claims [of the government] over the past year, the Green Movement is alive and energetic," Ardeshir Amir-Arjomand wrote on Mousavi's Facebook page.
Britain, the US, France and the European Union appealed to the Iranian authorities to show restraint, recalling Iran's earlier support for the uprising in Egypt.
Spain, meanwhile, said it protested to Tehran over a "very serious" incident in which Iranian authorities detained a Spanish diplomat for four hours, the Spanish foreign ministry said Tuesday in Madrid.
Spanish media said the diplomat was detained by police outside the Spanish embassy in Tehran near where an anti-government demonstration was taking place Monday.
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