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  Iran court seeks to try Mehdi Karroubi |
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 | Reported by guardian.co.uk
on Tuesday, 13 October 2009
(on October 13, 2009) |
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Opposition leader faces possible trial in court supervised by country's supreme leader over post-election abuses claimA leading Iranian opposition figure, Mehdi Karroubi, is facing possible trial in a court supervised by the country's supreme leader for alleging detainees were raped after last June's bitterly disputed election, officials confirmed today.A special clerical court with powers to impose the death penalty was preparing a case against Karroubi after he refused to withdraw claims that male and female prisoners had been sexually abused.Karroubi, who came fourth in the election, would be the most senior opposition figure to be tried over the turmoil that followed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.
Hardliners have repeatedly called for Karroubi and the other defeated reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, to be arrested for insisting the poll was rigged.More than 100 opposition figures - including Karroubi's adviser, Mohammad Ali Abtahi - have already appeared before the revolutionary court.
But Karroubi would appear before a special court because he is a cleric, though officials have not yet confirmed that he will be tried."He is a cleric and his remarks should be studied at the special court for the clergy," Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, Tehran's chief prosecutor, told the IRNA news agency.
"Some people have also been summoned in connection with the case."The move comes after a three-man judiciary committee last month rejected the rape allegations as baseless and called for libel proceedings against anyone repeating them.
Karroubi, a former parliamentary speaker, has stood by the claims, which provoked an outcry when he first publicised them in August.He went public with them after failing to receive a reply to his letter to the former president Hashemi Rafsanjani requesting an investigation by the experts' assembly, a senior clerical body.
One of his witnesses has since fled to Turkey after claiming that Iranian security forces threatened to kill his family.
The proceedings suggest that Karroubi has angered Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's supreme leader and Iran's most powerful figure.The special clerical court, established by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, is independent of the judiciary and under Khamenei's direct control.
Unconfirmed reports previously suggested that Khamenei issued a warrant for Karroubi's arrest after the rape allegations.Iran's supreme leader has sought to keep a lid on the post-election abuse controversy.
He ordered the closure of the Kahrizak detention centre in Tehran following claims that some prisoners died after being beaten and tortured.
But the publication of a parliamentary report on detainees' treatment has been postponed twice.
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