Iran Prosecutor-General confirms receiving lawsuit against Mousavi

Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei

While prosecutor of Tehran announced on Monday that he has received no official complaints against opposition leader, MirHosein Mousavi, on Wednesday, Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejei, Prosecutor-General of Iran announced that he has received the lawsuit filed by100 members of Iran's parliament against the opposition leader.

According to Mr. Ejei, he received the lawsuit on October 22.

Last week, conservative member of parliament, Hamid Resai announced that with a group of 100 MPs, they have prepared a lawsuit against MirHosein Mousavi and handed it to the judiciary.

On Monday Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi denied having received this lawsuit.

Iran’s Prosecutor-General after confirming the receipt of the lawsuit added that processing this lawsuit was not actually in the range of his immediate duties, but his office “will prepare the documents and deliver them to the relevant judiciary officials.”

He maintained that MPs had called for the arrest of MirHosein Mousavi for “disturbing social order and security, and spreading propaganda against the Islamic regime.”

In the past months, a number of conservatives and supporters of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have called for legal proceedings against opposition leaders MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi.

ILNA-Habibollah Asgaroladi

However, one of the most prominent conservative figures of the establishment, Habibollah Asgaroladi, head of “Followers of Imam and Leadership Front” has condemned the “violent extremists” for engaging in “character assassination” against Mousavi and Karroubi.

ILNA cited Mr. Asgaroladi saying that “in the current situation, extremists say we need to prosecute and execute people like Mousavi and Karroubi. But this is going overboard. The extremists are trying to create enemies. They want to create an 'Ayatollah Montazeri' or a 'BaniSadr' for the system and have no understanding of the country’s situation.”

Ayatollah Montazeri, one of the top leaders of the Revolution, has become the most outspoken critic of the Islamic Republic. Abolhassan BaniSadr, president of Iran in 1980 and an intimate of Ayatollah Khomeini, escaped assassination and went into exile after falling out of the leader’s favour.

Habibollah Asgaroladi accused MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi of “stepping out” of the circle of the Revolution and claimed the only way for their return is “kind discussions” and refraining from “smearing their characters.”