and to put them on trial."The protracted house arrests without trial lack legal or religious justification," conservative MP Ali Motahari told parliament in remarks carried by the ISNA news agency.
Mousavi and Karroubi have been held incommunicado under separate house arrests since February 2011 for orchestrating massive, unprecedented street protests sparked by a disputed presidential election two years earlier.
The protests turned deadly when authorities resorted to a heavy-handed crackdown in which thousands of protesters, reformist activists and journalists were jugged
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Motahari slammed the judiciary for not having resolved the issue already, more than four years after the 2009 election of Mahmoud
Short RoundAhmadinejad as president for a second term that Mousavi and Karroubi claimed was rigged.
The issue remains a sensitive, polarizing issue in the Islamic republic despite Ahmadinejad's term ending in August when his successor Hassan Rouhani was sworn in to office.
"This crisis will not be resolved as long as one side is not allowed to speak for and defend itself, while the other side continues to mount accusations," said Motahari, the son of a prominent revolutionary ayatollah."The only solution ... is the public trial of Mousavi and Karroubi, and also Ahmadinejad," he said, arguing that the latter had mishandled the crisis.
Prosecutor general Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei however dismissed Motahari's remarks, arguing that those who had leveled "big lies" against the establishment in 2009 had committed a "major sin".
Motahari also warned, in separate remarks carried by the official IRNA news agency, that "the establishment will have to pay a hefty price, should Mousavi and Karroubi die while under house arrest".
Both men are suffering health problems, according to reports.
Motahari's comments come as pro-reform and more centrist factions urge Rouhani to work towards ending the detentions of political prisoners, including Mousavi and Karroubi.
Rouhani, a reputed pragmatist and a self-declared moderate, and some senior administration officials, have hinted at wanting to end the tensions sparked by the 2009 upheavals.