Tehran (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The Tehran court has indicted Karroubi, one of two reformist candidates defeated in Iran's disputed presidential elections on 12 June.
Karroubi, who with Mir Moussavi led the "reformists" front in the elections, will be prosecuted for having reported, in August, rapes carried out by prison guards against men and women, protagonists of protests against electoral fraud. His step, addressed to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, immediately provoked reactions. The official news agency IRNA reported the request by Yadollah Jvanai, a senior officer of the Revolutionary Guard, to put Mousavi, Khatami and Karoubi, nearly the entire leadership of the "reformists", on trial guilty of plotting a "velvet revolution" to overthrow the regime, while a newspaper, Kayhan, reported the words of a cleric, Ahmad Khatami, who called for the "Islamic" punishment of 80 lashes for Karoubi, because he was unable to prove allegations of sexual violence launched against the jailers of Evin and Kahrizak, the latter closed on the orders of Khamenei.
Today, IRNA, quoting the prosecutor of Tehran, Abbas Jafari-Dolatabadi, announced that "a file was opened on the Karroubi by the Special Court for Clergy," as Karroubi is a mullah. Subsequently, al Jazeera satellite television spread the news of the indictment.
The charge against Karroubi confirms the decision of the Iranian regime to proceed with harsh prosecution, bent on intimidating opposition movements. In recent days, news has come of the sentencing to death of three people for their role in the “incidents since the elections”, according to declarations made by the Minister for Justice Zahed Bashiri Rad to ISNA news agency.