AFP/Tehran

Karoubi: standing firm

Opposition leader Mehdi Karoubi is prepared to go on trial over the unrest which followed Iran’s disputed presidential poll in June 2009 but wants the trial open to the public, his website reported yesterday.

His offer came after Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jaffari Dolatabadi threatened on Friday to file criminal charges against opposition leaders such as Karoubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi for their “seditionist” role in the post-vote violence.

“I completely welcome such a trial... I am ready for the court to be held in any form,” Karoubi said in a signed open letter posted on his website Sahamnews.org.

“But I have a request... that the proceedings be open to the public so that the people, who own the country, can listen to both sides and then make their own judgement,” the website quoted him as writing in the letter.

Tehran and other Iranian cities were gripped by violent street protests in the aftermath of the 2009 election, which officially returned President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.

Mousavi, Karoubi and their supporters maintain the poll was rigged.

In his letter, Karoubi also wrote that he had “strong reasons” for the stance he has adopted since the vote.

Dolatabadi has previously warned it was just a matter of time until opposition leaders would be held legally responsible for the widespread rioting after the election.

However, Iran’s prosecutor general Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said the trial of opposition leaders was unlikely to be held in the near future as certain “conditions” had to be met.

“Those who have committed crimes will definitely be prosecuted, especially those who gave hope to the enemy and inflicted a great injustice on the people,” Mohseni Ejeie was quoted as saying by Fars news agency.

Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, have regularly charged that the opposition leaders received backing from the US and Britain during the post-election unrest.

When asked to react to Karoubi’s offer to face the trial, Mohseni Ejeie said it was not up to the opposition leader to decide.

“The trial does not require (his) readiness. Even if he is not ready and conditions (to conduct the trial) are met, he will be prosecuted,” he said.