TEHRAN – Iran Monday blocked access to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi’s house to prevent him attending a rally in support of Arab revolts and also deployed anti-riot police in parts of Tehran, reports said.
Witnesses said anti-riot police on motorbikes armed with riot shotguns, tear gas, batons, paintball guns and fire extinguishers were deployed in parts of the capital to prevent gatherings which could turn into anti-government demonstrations. Police blocked access to the house of Mousavi, who along with fellow opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi had sought to hold a rally Monday to express solidarity with the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
“Security forces have sent police vans and vehicles to the alley where the house of Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard is located” in Tehran, Kaleme.com, the website of Mousavi, reported. “From today the police have blocked the alley where their house is located…There is no possibility of coming and going” to the house, it said.
The report said all telephone lines at the house, including the mobile phone connections of Mousavi and his wife, have been severed. Kaleme.com said the latest “illegal and restrictive measures and pressures were adopted to prevent Mousavi from taking part in a rally in support of the people of Tunisia and Egypt.”
