Iran says courts will teach protesters a lesson
By Parisa Hafezi and Fredrik Dahl
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's judiciary will teach those arrested during protests over the disputed presidential election a lesson, an official said, after riot police broke up the latest demonstration in Tehran.
(EDITORS' NOTE: Reuters and other foreign media are subject to Iranian restrictions on their ability to report, film or take pictures in Tehran.)
Hundreds of people have been detained during protests sparked by official results of Iran's June 12 election showing hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won by a landslide.
Two defeated candidates -- former prime minister Mirhossein Mousavi and pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi -- have called for the election to be canceled, citing irregularities.
Iran's top legislative body, the Guardian Council, on Tuesday again ruled out annulment of the election saying there had been no major polling irregularities.
State television said more than 450 people were detained during clashes with police in Tehran on Saturday in which at least 10 people were killed.
"Those arrested in recent events will be dealt with in a way that will teach them a lesson," the official IRNA news agency quoted senior judiciary official Ebrahim Raisi as saying on state television late on Monday.
He said a special court was studying the cases. "The rioters should be dealt with in an exemplary way and the judiciary will do that," Raisi said.
Iranian police broke up a protest in Tehran and the hardline Revolutionary Guards said they would help crush what they called rioters opposing the re-election of Ahmadinejad.
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged an immediate stop to the use of force against civilians and said Iran should respect civil rights in dealing with protests.
People in Tehran, in a gesture of defiance first used in the 1979 Islamic revolution and now adopted by pro-reform protesters, again chanted "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) from their rooftops at nightfall on Monday.
Witnesses said supporters of Mousavi had earlier gathered in Tehran's Haft-e Tir square.
Iran's state Press TV channel said they were dispersed.
Residents said riot police, some on motorbikes, and members of the religious Basij militia were out in force.
One witness said that from his balcony he had seen a group of protesters chanting slogans being attacked by the Basij, who dragged the demonstrators out of a house to which they had fled.
"The Basiji were really aggressive and swearing at me to go inside," said the witness, who declined to be identified. "I was scared they were going to break into my house too."
The statement on Monday by the Revolutionary Guards, viewed as the most loyal guardians of the ruling clerical establishment, signaled a crackdown on any new unrest in the world's fifth-largest oil exporter.
"In the current sensitive situation ... the Guards will firmly confront in a revolutionary way rioters and those who violate the law," said a statement on the Guards' website.
Iranian state television on Tuesday said Tehran had been calm for a second night. "The presence of police and Basij forces in parts of the city has raised people's feeling of security," IRIB said.
Mousavi called on Sunday for new protests by his supporters.
U.N. REACTION
A U.N. statement issued by Ban's office said he urged "the authorities to respect fundamental civil and political rights, especially the freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of information." Ban called on the Iranian government and the opposition to resolve their differences peacefully through dialogue and legal means.
Iranian authorities have accused Western powers of supporting the protests, the most widespread since the 1979 Islamic revolution, and have not ruled out expulsions of some European ambassadors.
Sweden, the European Union's next president, said the bloc's members should consider drafting a plan to take in and provide aid to demonstrators at their embassies in Iran. Italy said it was prepared to open its embassy to wounded protesters.
Iranian state television said 10 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in demonstrations in Tehran on Saturday, which defied a warning from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The office of Tehran's prosecutor general blamed the weekend deaths on "unknown vandals" who had opened fire on civilians and killed people on Saturday, said Press TV.
Iranians on social networking sites called for mourning for "Neda," a young woman shot dead on Saturday. Footage of her death has been watched by thousands on the Internet and her image has become an icon of the protests.
Witnesses said security officials prevented her funeral from going ahead, blocking roads leading to a central Tehran mosque where the ceremony was to have taken place.
"Police were spraying paint on the cars of those who insisted on driving toward the mosque," said one witness.
Her fiance Caspian Makan told BBC Persian TV that Neda Agha-Soltan had been caught up accidentally in the protests.
"She was near the area, a few streets away, from where the main protests were taking place, near the Amir Abad area. She was with her music teacher, sitting in a car and stuck in traffic," it quoted him as saying.
"She was feeling very tired and very hot. She got out of the car for just a few minutes."
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/i...0090623?sp=trueჭკუას ვასწავლით დაკავებულებს და სამაგალითოდ მოვექცევითო....
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