Iranian MP contends Iranian opposition leaders under travel ban

Mehdi Karroubi-Mohammad Khatami-MirHosein Mousavi

Hamid Rasai, Iranian Member of Parliament announced that proceeding from complaints filed by 150 MPs, opposition leaders Mohammad Khatami, MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have been barred from the travelling abroad.

Fars news agency reports that Hamid Resai announced this action has been taken “as a policy to confront heads of the recent sedition.”

On Thursday, it was announced that Mohammad Khatami, who was planning on attending a nuclear disarmament conference in Japan, is under a foreign travel ban.

The conservative Member of the Iranian Parliament went on to add that he is hopeful that despite passage of months after the post-election events, the judiciary will confront “the perpetrators of the failed velvet revolution.”

The conservative faction of the Islamic Republic and supporters of Ayatollah Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claim that leaders of the opposition and reformists were trying topple the Islamic regime in the post-election events.

Following the June presidential elections in Iran, reformist candidates MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi disputed the legitimacy of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election and made allegations of fraud in the vote count.

Mass street demonstrations in protest to this alleged fraud was confronted with fierce violence of the government and caused tens of deaths, and thousands of arrests.

Yesterday, the government also issued an arrest warrant for the son of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani. Ayatollah Rafsanjani aligned himself with the cause of the protesters in the post-election events.

Mehdi Hashemi is currently residing in the UK and according to Hamid Rasai, if he fails to return to Iran to stand trial, international police should be charged to arrest and extradite him to Iran.