Iran arrests spokesperson of the reformist coalition: local media

TEHRAN: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the military, have arrested Javad Emam, the spokesperson for the main coalition of the reformist camp, local media reported on Monday.

The arrest comes weeks after authorities cracked down on a mass protest movement, with several other reformist and dissident figures also detained.

“Agents of the Revolutionary Guards went to Javad Emam’s home… in the early hours of Sunday morning and arrested him,” wrote Shargh, a reformist daily, as well as the Fars news agency.

In 2009, Emam led Mir Hossein Mousavi’s presidential campaign in Tehran. Mousavi is a former prime minister and a prominent figure in Iran’s opposition.

Mousavi’s defeat to hardline incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad triggered the 2009 Green Movement, amid allegations of vote rigging.

He has been under house arrest since February 2011 over his role in those protests.

The arrest of Reformist Front spokesman Emam follows those on Sunday of three other figures, including Azar Mansouri, who has led the coalition since 2023.

She served as an adviser to former reformist president Mohammad Khatami.

After the start of the most recent protest movement in December, initially triggered by economic stagnation, she expressed support for the demonstrators.

Authorities also arrested Ebrahim Asgharzadeh, a former member of parliament, and Mohsen Aminzadeh, a former foreign affairs official.

Mizan, the judiciary’s news agency, reported on Sunday that several arrests had been made, but without giving names.

They took place after “an investigation into the… activities of certain important political elements supporting the Zionist regime and the United States,” according to Mizan.

The reformist camp largely backed incumbent president Massoud Pezeshkian in the 2024 presidential election.

Several prominent activists have also been arrested in recent days for their contribution to a statement critical of the authorities, written in the wake of the January crackdown on protests.

Filmmaker Mehdi Mahmoudian, co-screenwriter of the film “It Was Just an Accident,” winner of the Palme d’Or at Cannes in 2025, is among them.

Iranian filmmakers Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof, as well as Narges Mohammadi, Nobel Peace Prize laureate in 2023, are also signatories to the text.