TEHRAN — Iran’s prosecutor general said Tuesday that opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi will remain under house arrest over anti-government protests until they “repent”, Fars news agency reported.
Mousavi and Karroubi have been held incommunicado under separate house arrests since February 2011, accused of orchestrating massive, unprecedented street protests sparked by a disputed presidential election in 2009.
Prosecutor general Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said they had committed a “great crime and treason”.
“Until time the sedition leaders [agree to] repent... the situation will remain as before,” he said.
The protests turned deadly when authorities resorted to a heavy-handed crackdown in which thousands of protesters, reformist activists and journalists were arrested.
Mousavi and Karroubi had claimed that the 2009 election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president for a second term had been rigged.
The fate of Mousavi and Karroubi — both of whom are reportedly suffering health problems — has attracted global attention and triggered heated debates at home.
