BEIRUT — Iran’s hard-line Revolutionary Court warned Sunday that those criticizing its ongoing proceedings against post- election protesters could face jail time themselves.
The threat came after a chorus of reformists and even some political conservatives labeled as a sham the televised court hearing Saturday of about 100 defendants arrested in the unrest that followed the disputed June 12 presidential election in which incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner.
Iran’s main opposition figure and presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, two former presidents and a former commander of the Revolutionary Guard voiced strong criticism of the proceedings, in which prominent moderate politicians and others stand accused of conspiring with the West to foment weeks of unrest across Iran. Defendants could face jail terms of 10 years if convicted.
Mousavi said the confessions “showed signs of medieval torture,” and he termed the trial a “sham” meant to distract attention from allegations of vote-rigging that continue to dog Ahmadinejad as his Wednesday inauguration to a second term nears. Mousavi and many other prominent Iranian figures have vowed to skip the swearing-in ceremony, which could spark further confrontations.
Mousavi predicted the confessions would backfire.
“Our people show sympathy to their children whose faces they saw after 50 days of no news,” he said in a statement carried by his website, Ghalamnews.ir.
