TEHRAN: Arresting Iran's opposition leaders after the 2009 election would have turned them into "saints", Iran's judiciary chief said Wednesday, adding their fate was in the hands of the nation's supreme leader.
"In the case of sedition leaders taking a decision is not only on me, but on vali e-faqhi (supreme leader) and it is beyond the judiciary's decisions," the ISNA news agency quoted Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani as saying.
He added: "If we had confronted the heads of sedition, they would have become saints. The arrest of sedition leaders is not a special case but we follow the expediency of the system and we will take action at the right time."
Iranian officials refer to opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi as "heads of sedition" after they called for mass demonstrations against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in 2009.
The protests turned deadly when the authorities launched a crackdown. Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all national issues, has regularly attacked Mousavi and Karroubi and accused them of being supported by Westerners.
Most of the top aides of Mousavi and Karroubi have been arrested in the aftermath of the election, with many sentenced to harsh jail terms. Mousavi and Karroubi have meanwhile been reportedly intimidated by hardliners on several occasions.
The two have sought to hold a rally on Febraury 14 in support of Arab revolts but observers say it could be a ploy to garner their supporters to stage fresh anti-government demonstrations.
Iran's prosecutor general Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said the aim of the two leaders by holding such a rally was to divide the Iranian people.
"This is a political act. These people have separated their path from that of the people and they want to divide the people of Iran," Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying by ILNA news agency.
Mohseni Ejeie said if the two leaders want to support the Arab uprisings they should join a government-endorsed rally on Friday marking the anniversary of Iran's Islamic revolution of 1979.
"If anybody wants to side with the wishes of people of Egypt and Tunisia, they should come along with the establishment and people on 22 Bahman (February 11) and take part in the rally," Mohseni Ejeie said.
Iranian officials have expressed their support for Egyptian protesters, with Khamenei going so far as to call for the establishment of an Islamic regime in the world's most populous Arab nation.
Since last year's anniversary of the Islamic revolution, no fresh protests have been called and opposition demonstrators have stayed off the streets.
On Tuesday, Mousavi and Karroubi, once seen as pillars of the Islamic regime, issued a scathing attack against the establishment on the eve of the 32nd anniversary of the revolution.
In a joint statement posted on their respective websites they said the country's religious atmosphere has been "most hurt" by the "anti-religion and oppressive behaviour of the regime itself."
Calling their movement as a "new discourse", they said it seeks to "put an end to the rule of hooligans and instil meritocracy" in Iran.
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