The official IRNA news agency quoted Ejehi as warning that authorities would take “other measures’’ against Mousavi and Karroubi if necessary. “In the first step, their contacts such as meetings and telephone conversations have been restricted,’’ Ejehi said. He did not say where they were being held.
The reformist website, Kaleme.com, said Mousavi, his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, as well as Karroubi and his wife, Fatemeh Karroubi, were transferred to a prison in the Iranian capital. It was not immediately clear when they were moved.
“According to the latest information obtained from reliable sources, Mousavi and Karroubi, together with their wives . . . have been arrested and transferred to Heshmatieh prison,’’ kaleme.com said.
The semiofficial Fars news agency, which is close to the powerful Revolutionary Guard, denied the report. Fars quoted an unnamed judiciary official as saying the men were still under house arrest and have not been allowed to leave their homes or have any outside contact.
Mousavi and Karroubi were placed under house arrest after urging supporters to attend a Feb. 14 rally. Clashes between protesters and security forces during the demonstrations killed two and wounded dozens.
Karroubi’s website, sahamnews.org, said Iranian security forces took the two and their wives to an “unknown location’’ on Thursday.
Activists and opposition members have demanded that Mousavi and Karroubi be released, vowing to stage demonstrations every Tuesday until they are freed. Ejehi said any attempt by opposition supporters to take to the streets will meet swift retribution.
Iranian officials had called Mousavi and Karroubi “leaders of sedition,’’ but Ejehi said the two were no longer seditionists but counterrevolutionaries.
“Today, this current has passed the sedition stage. It has turned into a counterrevolution,’’ IRNA quoted him as saying.
A prominent proreform cleric, Grand Ayatollah Youssef Saanei, denounced the government’s treatment of the two opposition leaders. “We are witnessing anti-Islamic and antihuman attacks against political opponents,’’ said Saanei in a statement posted on kaleme.com.
