Hardliners pursue Mousavi

A supporter of defeated reformist candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi (pictured) films a rally during the campaign. Photo / AP

TEHRAN - 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 President 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 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.

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.

Two employees are still in custody at Tehran's Evin Prison after the arrest of nine Iranian members of staff a week ago. Iran has accused the embassy staff of stirring up the unrest after Khamenei last month lambasted Britain as the "most evil" of Iran's enemies.

On Saturday, the EU summoned all Iranian ambassadors to its 27 member states to receive formal protests over the threat to try the employees.

Reformist leaders have continued to voice defiance after last week's declaration by the Guardian Council that the results were final and the poll Iran's "healthiest" since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

While street protests have subsided following heavy deployment of security forces, Mousavi has continued to question the election and has urged his supporters not to lose heart. Last week, he openly described Ahmadinejad's Government as "illegitimate" and vowed that protests would carry on.

"A majority of the people, including me, do not accept [the Government's] political legitimacy," he said on his website. "It is our historical responsibility to continue our protests and not to abandon our efforts to preserve the nation's rights. A ruling system that relied on people's trust for 30 years cannot replace this with security forces overnight."

Leading clerics in the shrine city of Qom, the home of Iran's religious establishment, have echoed his criticisms - illustrating the depth of the split that now exists at the heart of the theocratic regime.

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