TEHERAN, Iran — Iran's opposition leaders are barred from leaving the country, a prominent conservative lawmaker said Saturday, hiking up the pressure on the reform movement.
The comments by Mousa Qorbani, a member of the Judicial Committee in parliament, were the first official word of a travel ban on the top opposition figures, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi — who both ran in the disputed 2009 presidential elections — as well as former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.
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Qorbani said authorities had "recognized" that Mousavi, Karroubi and
Khatami are "mohareb" — a term meaning that they are "fighting God."
"Therefore, they are barred from leaving," Qorbani was quoted by the state TV-run Youth Journalists Club as saying Saturday.
Many other opposition figures who have been convicted were tried on
charges of being "mohareb." The elite Revolutionary Guard, Iran's most
powerful military force, has pushed for the trial of the three
opposition leaders. Jailing Mousavi, the most senior leader, or either
of the other two could stoke tensions with the opposition.
Mousavi and Karroubi said in a statement Wednesday that they are already
leaving in a "big prison" and didn't care if they were put behind bars
in a "small prison" for defending the trampled rights of the Iranian
nation.
Though no travel ban had been officially announced, Khatami was
forbidden to travel to Japan in April to attend a conference on dialogue
between cultures.
The opposition claims that Mousavi was the rightful winner of the 2009
election and that hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared
the winner through massive vote fraud.
Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters took to the streets in
the aftermath of the election in support of Mousavi but their peaceful
protest was crushed by the Guard-led forces.
The opposition says more than 80 demonstrators were killed in the
turmoil. The government, which puts the number of confirmed deaths at
30, accuses opposition leaders of being "stooges of the West" and of
seeking to topple the ruling system through street protests.