| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Iran's Karroubi vows to keep protest alive |
| 2010-06-21 |
| [Al Arabiya Latest] Opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi on Sunday vowed to continue fighting the presidential "vote scandal" which rocked Iran, a year to the day after the death of a young woman at a Tehran protest rally. Karroubi's latest salvo comes 12 months after a deadly demonstration in the capital against the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad led to the killing of 10 people, including Neda Agha-Soltan. A mobile phone video posted on the Internet showing the young woman bleeding to death in the street during the June 20, 2009 rally became the symbol of the uprising against Ahmadinejad's re-election. In an open letter to Iranians posted on his Sahamnews.org website, Karroubi criticized supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and attacked the authorities for jailing protesters and "filling cemeteries" with those killed in the unrest. "Your stolen votes and the right which was unjustly taken away is a scandal which will not be wiped out at all," said the cleric who has refused to accept Ahmadinejad's re-election. "I once again declare in all honesty that I will be committed to my pact with you until the end." Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters poured onto the streets of Tehran soon after last year's presidential election result returned Ahmadinejad to office for a second term. The opposition movement claims that the poll was massively rigged in Ahmadinejad's favor, and has continued to reject his government ever since. Dozens of people were killed in the clashes between protesters and security forces, and thousands were jailed in a crackdown launched by the authorities to quell the demonstrations that rocked the pillars of the Islamic regime. |
| Posted by:Fred |