Iran's former president has joined ranks with the country's embattled reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi and accused the Iranian government of failing its people in the recent election and condemning the subsequent crackdown on protesters.
In a bold, lengthy statement on his website yesterday, Mr Mousavi said he considered Iran's cleric-led Government illegitimate and demanded political prisoners be released. He said Iran's Government needed to institute electoral reforms and ensure press freedoms.
Former president Mohammad Khatami, meanwhile, lashed out at what he termed ''a poisonous security situation'' after violent street protests.
Mr Khatami accused Iran's leadership of a ''velvet coup against the people and democracy'', and Mr Mousavi said the Government's crackdown on demonstrators was ''tantamount to a coup''.
Mr Mousavi contends the June 12 election was marred by widespread fraud and insists he was robbed of victory.
Mr Khatami scorned the Government for declaring incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner in a landslide.
Iran's ruling clerics have called the elections ''pure'' and ''healthy'' following Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's declaration that the results would stand.
Mr Mousavi said a group of politicians including himself had decided to create ''a legal political body to defend citizens' rights and votes that were crushed in the election, to publish documents about the frauds and irregularities and to start legal action''.
Iran's police chief, Esmaeil Ahmadi-Moghaddam, said 20 people were killed and more than 1000 arrested in the wave of protests over the disputed presidential vote.
''No policeman was killed in the Tehran riots but 20 rioters were killed,'' he said.
The Paris-based International Federation for Human Rights has said that more than 2000 people are in custody in Iran and hundreds more missing, while rights group Amnesty International said it was concerned that several detained opposition leaders may face torture.
Mr Ahmadi-Moghaddam said the death of Neda Agha-Soltan, who became a symbol of post-election street rallies in Iran, was a ''prearranged scenario'', state-owned English-language Press TV reported.
He accused Arash Hejazi, a doctor who says he tried to save Neda's life in her final moments, of fanning the flames of the Western media hype.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs dismissed Mr Ahmadi-Moghaddam's allegation as misinformation. ''I think the notion that the death of an innocent woman would be staged is even with them, it's shocking,'' MrGibbs said.
Mr Ahmadinejad cancelled a trip to Libya yesterday, where he was due to have addressed a summit of African leaders in the seaside town of Sirte at the invitation of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
It was impossible to know whether Mr Ahmadinejad's change of plan was connected with the opposition in Iran, which has constituted the worst crisis since the Islamic revolution in 1979.
AFP