Mir-Hossein Mousavi Calls for Public Readiness

Sep-2009 Rooz

After security forces raided the offices of the committee to investigate detainee conditions, confiscated documents, arrested Morteza Elviri and Alireza Hosseini Beheshti, and sealed shut the offices of Mehdi Karoubi, E’temad Melli (National Trust) Party and the Association for Defense of Prisoners Rights, Mir-Hossein Mousavi released a statement warning of more “horrendous” days and called on the public to remain calm as forces of the coup try “to provoke them.”

Events of the past two days, which were ordered by Tehran’s new prosecutor general, who has replaced the infamous Mortazavi, left the Iranian political and media society in shock. While political figures and media outlets were expected to heavily react to the arrest of Ayatollah Beheshti’s son and Morteza Elviri, and office closures, a strange silence has taken over Iran’s political landscape.

Even Majlis lawmakers did not react to yesterday’s events. Some lawmakers hanged up their telephones after a Rooz reporter asked about the past two day’s arrests and office closures, while other lawmakers claimed that they have been barred from commenting on recent events. One lawmaker told Rooz, “I have no desire to become Beheshti and Elviri’s neighbor.”

Mousavi’s Statement

In this midst, Mir-Hossein Mousavi was the only personality to respond to the arrests.

Mousavi issued a statement in which he said, “They now are in prison while those behind the latest catastrophe are free and officials claim that they will probe the crimes committed. How are you going to do this, by destroying documents of crimes and capturing those who are pursuing the rights of victims?”

The statement added, “People of Iran! It is clear that your attempts to return calm to society are not going to be met with a wise response. Detaining people like Dr. Beheshti is a sign of more horrendous events. But injustice is condemned to go and only that which benefits the people will remain… Keep your calm and stay alert. The new events that are transpiring, like the blind actions of previous days, will not leave anything but disaster for your opponents. Do not allow them to provoke you and damage your homes and country while they are destroying themselves.”

Kayhan Calls for Mousavi’s Prosecution

While media outlets supportive of the coup government have not reacted to the recent days’ arrests and office closures, the hard-line Kayhan daily, while ignoring the recent events as well, called for the judiciary to firmly and resolutely confront Mousavi, quoting “political activists.”

Hossein Shariatmadari, Ayatollah Khamenei’s representative at the newspaper, wrote quoting these political activists, “The judiciary’s tolerance of Mousavi has emboldened him. The judiciary must be told that justice demands that the main cause, not just the effects, of recent events must be prosecuted.”