Opposition Leader's Wife Accuses Khamenei for Crackdown

The Associated Press, guardian.co.uk /

The wife of one of Iran's opposition leaders today accused the nation's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, of allowing violence and abuses to crush opposition supporters, including the alleged beating of her son during last week's protests. Fatemeh Karroubi claimed her son Ali was savagely attacked inside a mosque by hardline militiamen amid a large-scale security crackdown on Thursday during events marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic revolution. "They beat him up and insulted him along with other people arrested. This happened in a house of God," she wrote in an open letter to Khamenei appearing on prominent pro-reform websites Rahesabz and Sahamnews. The sites also posted photos purportedly showing bruises across Ali Karroubi's back. She said the country's rulers have resorted to "violence and cruelty" in attempts to wipe out dissent. The letter reflects the anger and dismay of many opposition groups at security operations to prevent disruptions of state-backed celebrations of the 1979 revolution.

There are now questions whether the opposition can rebound with more mass street demonstrations. Ali Karroubi was hauled away during an attack on the motorcade of his father, Mehdi Karroubi, who ran against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in last June's disputed elections. The elder Karroubi was not injured, but he abandoned plans to attend an opposition gathering the same day. Ali's mother said her son was taken from the mosque to a security base, where he was beaten further before being released. She wrote that one agent told Ali "his family would receive his corpse" if he was allowed to continue the punishment for another day. She begged Khamenei to reverse the country's direction "before more people die". Khamenei, however, has strongly backed Ahmadinejad and the nation's powerful Revolutionary Guard, which has led the assault on the opposition. "Unfortunately these days we don't have a proper justice system or a parliament who can truly defend people and their rights," she wrote. "So I'm asking you to help the people." Iranian authorities have confirmed at least 30 people have died in unrest since the disputed election in June, while the opposition and international human rights groups say the toll is at least 80.