Iran's opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi said the government should stop intimidating people to try and change their political views, a reformist website said on Sunday. Mousavi's remarks preceded a scheduled gathering on Sunday by moderates to commemorate the killing of a dissident nationalist couple, stabbed to death by "rogue" agents in 1998.
-- Says reformers ready to pay 'any price'
-- Police block dissidents' memorial ceremony area
"The government should not intimidate people to change their path ... this movement will continue and we are ready to pay any price," Mousavi was quoted as saying by his Kaleme website.
Iran's security forces have warned the opposition not to take part in "street riots", trying to avoid a revival of mass protests that erupted after Iran's June 12 presidential vote. The turmoil after the election was the worst in Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution. Authorities deny vote-rigging and portrayed the unrest as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic state. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won a second term.
The killing of Dariush Forouhar and his wife, who headed the illegal but tolerated Iran Nation Party, and at least two other secularist figures around the same time in the killing of dissidents, outraged Iranian society.
A witness said police blocked the area where the ceremony was to be held. "The presence of police and security forces is very visible on the Hedayat Street," said the witness, who asked not to be named. Security forces clashed with people in the past at their annual memorial services, which turned into opposition rallies.
Police clashed with supporters of Mousavi in Tehran on November 4 when a rally marking the 30th anniversary of the storming of the US embassy turned violent.
The opposition says more than 70 people were killed in the post-election violence. Officials say the death toll was half that and members of the security forces were among the victims.
Thousands of people were arrested after the vote. Five have been sentenced to death and another 81 have received jail terms of up to 15 years.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Thursday the death sentences were "unfortunate and distressing". Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast called on Clinton to respect Iran's judicial independence.
"They (the five) were members of terrorist groups and targeted innocent people ... Interfering in Iran's state matters is unacceptable," said Mehmanparast, state media reported.