TEHRAN: Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly arrested in Shiraz for inciting unrest and more demonstrations following statements he made earlier in Bushehr, Arab media reported.
Iranian Authorities are now seeking to place Ahmadinejad under house arrest with approval of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, the Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper added, citing “reliable sources in Tehran”.
During a visit to Bushehr city late December, Ahmadinejad had said that Iran suffered from “mismanagement” and that current President Hassan Rouhani and his government “believe that they own the land and that the people are an ignorant society,” the newspaper reported.
“Some of the current leaders live detached from the problems and concerns of the people, and do not know anything about the reality of society,” he was reported to have said.
Iran’s fifth head of the judicial system, Amole Larijani, had accused Ahmadinejad of inciting more protests, the same accusation directed at prominent cleric and politician Mehdi Karroubi and former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi which also lead to their house arrest.
In a videotaped statement, Ahmadinejad spoke about Larijani sarcastically saying, “I have no children spying for the West, I have no brothers who are actively smuggling goods, and I do not steal land to raise my cattle.”
The protests currently sweeping Iran are being considered the largest challenge to the Iranian regime since the Green Movement uprising in 2009 after the re-election of former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Protests that have rocked Iran have reached the eleventh consecutive day on Sunday. Activists protested last Friday under the slogan “The Friday of Anger for our Martyrs” referring to the protesters killed by Iranian security forces, according to the opposition.
According to the government, the official number of deaths since the uprising is 22. However, opposition announced that the toll has reached 50 on Friday.
