TEHRAN: Iran’s government cracked down on its opponents Monday, websites said, arresting two outspoken critics as well as several aides to main opposition leaders after eight people died in fierce clashes in Tehran.
Opposition website Rahesabz said that Ebrahim Yazdi, who served as foreign minister in the early months of the 1979 Islamic revolution, and award-winning rights campaigner and journalist Emadeddin Baghi, were both arrested Monday.
Reformist website Parlemannews meanwhile said Iranian authorities had also rounded up several aides to reformist ex-president Mohammad Khatami and opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi.
Police had previously said at least 300 people were arrested during Sunday’s protests, which turned into the bloodiest showdown between protesters and security forces in months.
State-run English language Press TV on Monday put the death toll from the skirmishes at eight, quoting an official with Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. It did not specify in which cities the victims were killed.
Iranian state television earlier gave a contradictory toll of at least 15 killed in the capital alone, branding 10 among them as members of “anti-revolutionary terrorist groups.
Meanwhile, the body of Mousavi’s nephew, Seyed Ali Mousavi, who was killed in Sunday’s clashes, has been transferred from the hospital to an unknown location, his brother said.
“My brother’s body was taken away from the hospital and we cannot find it, Seyed Reza Mousavi told Parlemannews.
“Nobody accepts responsibility for taking away the body … We cannot have a funeral before we find the body.
The opposition said Seyed Ali Mousavi was among those killed when security forces opened fire with live rounds after firing tear gas and using batons against protesters in central Tehran.
Another opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi, on Monday condemned what he termed the “despicable violence and accused the government of “dipping its hand in people’s blood and unleashing a savage group on the people.
Defiance and disrespecting the law and people s rights have inflicted irreversible costs for seven months on the country and people, Karroubi said in a statement carried by Rahesabz opposition website.
The crackdown followed stern warnings by the authorities that they would crush attempts to use processions linked to Sunday s commemorations for Ashura, Shia Islam s holiest day, as a launchpad for protests.
Opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad s June 12 re-election, which they say was massively rigged, have used a series of government-backed public events to mount protests, many of which have ended in clashes with police.
The arrest of Yazdi, secretary general of the outlawed but tolerated Iran Freedom Movement, and Baghi, who has campaigned for years for prisoners rights and against the death penalty, is seen as a crackdown on the opposition in the wake of the protests.
Security agents treated Baghi s family and daughters very offensively as they arrested him, Rahesabz said. Baghi had backed Karroubi in June election.
Yazdi was arrested at home and taken to an unknown place early Monday morning by security agents, the website said.
He was summoned to an intelligence ministry office (last) Monday but did not go, it added, without elaborating.
Yazdi, 78, is an outspoken critic of Ahmadinejad and has previously been jailed, including for a brief period during mass street protests in June against the president s re-election.
Parlemannews named the Khatami aides arrested as Morteza Haji and Hasan Rasoolid and said they run his non-governmental Baran organization.
Mousavi advisors Alireza Beheshti, (Ghorban) Behzadian-Nejad and (Mohammad) Bagherian were also arrested in the morning, the website added.
Tehran s crackdown on protesters again drew international criticism.
The White House strongly condemned violent and unjust suppression of civilians.
The blunt statement contrasted with careful initial responses by Washington after election protests in June and came as the showdown with Iran over its controversial nuclear program reached a critical point.
The German government on Monday condemned what it said was a brutal state crackdown demanded Tehran stop the bloodshed and work to cool tensions. -AFP
