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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran opposition leader's brother-in-law arrested |
| 2009-07-24 |
| TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The wife of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said Thursday that her brother is among the hundreds arrested in Iran's postelection crackdown, and she warned authorities not to publish any "forced confessions" from him or other detainees. More than 500 people remain imprisoned after the heavy crackdown against protests that erupted in support of Mousavi after the disputed June 12 election. Among them are many top politicians from pro-reform political parties, human rights lawyers, journalists and activists. Mousavi's wife, Zahra Rahnavard, told the semiofficial ILNA news agency that her 62-year-old brother was arrested more than a month ago. "We have tried all legal and peaceful means to try to win the release of him and other detainees," Rahnavard said, adding that she was speaking out now because some officials have spoken of allegations against her brother. She said her brother, Shahpour Kazemi, a communications engineer, was "apolitical" and that "accusations of provoking riots or connections to foreigners ... are unimaginable." She warned those that are making accusations against detainees that "a divine anger will catch them and the nation will reject them." Rahnavard, a former dean of Tehran's al-Zahra University, campaigned alongside her husband in the election, a rarity for a candidate's wife, which made her a star among women and student supporters. Her original name is Zohreh Kazemi but she changed it in the 1960s when she became an activist against the U.S.-backed shah, and she was a prominent activist in the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic Republic to power. |
| Posted by:Steve White |