Iran bars opposition candidates from election

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi accused of committing ‘atrocities against the ruling system and the nation’

17 January 2013, 6:58 pm

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Iranian men line up as they wait to vote for presidential election, while they stand in front of a picture of the supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, at a polling station, in downtown in Tehran in 2009. (photo credit: AP/Vahid Salemi)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — A semi-official Iranian news agency is reporting that the country’s two main opposition leaders are not competent to run as candidates in the presidential election in June.

Fars news agency is quoting State Prosecutor Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejehei as saying Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi have committed “atrocities against the ruling system and the nation” and will be barred from running in the June 14 election, unless they repent.

Mousavi and Karroubi led massive street rallies in the aftermath of the 2009 election to protest official election results declaring President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner. Opposition supporters claimed “monumental vote fraud” in Ahmadinejad’s favor but their peaceful protest was crushed by security forces.