Iran Pro-Regime 'Hatred' Rally Demands Opposition Chiefs Hanged
Tens of thousands of Iran regime loyalists poured on to the streets of Tehran Friday, demanding that opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi be hanged for their "rebellion."
"Death to Mousavi! Death to Karroubi! Mousavi, Karroubi should be hanged!" worshippers chanted as they emerged from Friday prayers at Tehran University to join large crowds of loyalists marching towards prominent Enghelab Square (Revolution Square).
Many among the vast crowds were carrying posters of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and chanting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest) as they railed against Mousavi and Karroubi, both former pillars of the Islamic regime.
In his Friday prayer sermon, hardline cleric and head of the powerful Guardians Council, Ayatollah Ahmad Janati, demanded total isolation of Mousavi and Karroubi as worshippers chanted "American servants, shame on you!"
Janati said the judiciary must "cut access (of Mousavi and Karroubi) with the people completely, the doors of their homes must be shut ... so that they can't receive and give messages, their phones ... Internet must be cut and they be imprisoned in their homes."
In their final declaration the organizers of what was billed as a "hatred" rally demanded "harshest punishment to the heads of sedition" and labeled them as "corrupt on earth", a crime punishable by death under Iran's penal code.
"We earnestly ask the judiciary to pursue the complaints and by prosecuting Mousavi and Karroubi ... punish the treacherous actions of mercenaries of arrogance (the West)," said the declaration carried by state news agency IRNA.
The two leaders are already under de facto house arrest but have regularly managed to issue statements which have freshly fuelled unrest in Tehran as seen on Monday when their supporters clashed with security forces, leaving two dead.
Mojtaba Zolnour, a representative of Khamenei in the elite Revolutionary Guards branded those who took part in Monday's opposition rally as "anti-revolution rascals and thugs who were wounded by people of Islamic Iran" when he addressed the Friday rally.
On Wednesday, judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani issued a stern warning to the two men whom he said had committed "treason", saying the two had "rebelled against the religious government" and steps were being taken to block their communication networks.
The latest outburst against Mousavi and Karroubi erupted after their supporters came out on Tehran streets Monday and staged an anti-government demonstration under the pretext of showing solidarity to Arab uprisings.
That deadly rally, banned by authorities, also left several wounded, including nine members of security forces, reports said.
The protests on Monday were the first since February 11 last year, when Iran was marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution.
That demonstration, like others which erupted in the wake of the disputed June 2009 presidential election, was crushed by security forces and militiamen.
The supporters of Mousavi and Karroubi remain defiant and have called for nation-wide rallies Sunday to mourn the deaths of the two slain in Monday's protests by mobilizing their ranks through the Internet.
The Sunday rallies also intend to show "decisive support" to Mousavi and Karroubi for "continuing on the difficult path of freedom and human dignity," the Council for Coordination of the Green Movement Hope said in a statement on Kaleme.com and Sahamnews.org, websites of the two men.
Dozens of people were killed, scores wounded and thousands arrested when authorities first cracked down on anti-Ahmadinejad protesters in 2009, leading them to adopt, until Monday, a much lower profile.
Mousavi and Karroubi, who lost to him in the poll, maintain that Ahmadinejad was fraudulently re-elected and since then have opposed his presidency.
On Wednesday, the opposition leaders issued Internet statements in which Karroubi said he was "ready to pay any price", while Mousavi stated that Monday's protests were a "glorious achievement."