Iran shuts down office of reformer Karoubi-report

08 Sep 2009 13:09:12 GMT
Source: Reuters
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TEHRAN, Sept 8 (Reuters) - Iran's judiciary has closed down the office of defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karoubi, a pro-reform cleric, the ILNA news agency reported on Tuesday.

ILNA quoted Esmail Gerami-Moghaddam, a spokesman for Karoubi's party, as saying judiciary officials had sealed off the premises after telling Karoubi and others to leave.

"Around 3 p.m. (1030 GMT) some judiciary officials came to Karoubi's office in northern Tehran ... and they took documents in the office such as disks, computers and films," he said.

"The judiciary officials asked Mr Karoubi and his visitors to leave the building," he said. "Karoubi's office has been sealed off upon the Tehran prosecutor's order."

Karoubi, who came fourth in the disputed June presidential election, angered hardliners last month by saying some detained opposition protesters were raped and abused in jail.

The authorities have rejected the allegation as baseless.

The cleric said on his party's website this week that he had handed over films and other material about abuse of detainees to a parliamentary committee. He said the material documented the abuse of one woman and two men, without naming them.

"I have prepared documents about detained people who were abused ... and produced films documenting the abuse and I delivered a disk to the investigative committee," he said. (Reporting by Reza Derakhshi; writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Janet Lawrence)