Iran: Former Intelligence Official Nourollahian In Evin prison

Mohammad Reza Nourollahian, a cleric and advisor to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, has been transferred to Iran’s notorious Evin prison after he was arrested during a funeral procession held for Mousavi’s father on Thursday.

According to Kaleme, a website affiliated with Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, Nourollahian was arrested in a brutal fashion during the procession which was held for Mir Esmail Mousavi who passed away on Wednesday. He is currently being held in Tehran’s Evin prison.

Mousavi’s website said Mir Esmaeil’s body was taken by officials in plainclothes to an ambulance as mourners had gathered in front of his house. Mr Nourollahian was arrested and beaten up after he protested against the security forces’ interference in the procession and their violent mistreatment of mourners.

Nourollahian, a moderate cleric and former Intelligence Ministry deputy, was interrogated for five hours at the Special Clergy Court before being taken to Evin prison while insulted and handcuffed. Security forces told the cleric his charges were “disrupting public order, provoking the people to act against the country’s internal and external security, threatening government agents, and behaving against clerical dignity [and norms].” Despite the charges against Nourollahian, his only crime was to object to the authorities’ shameful disruption of the funeral of Mousavi’s father and the security forces’ maltreatment of mourners paying their respects to the deceased.

Sources from inside the court told Kaleme the presiding over Nourollahian’s case was cleric and judge Nosrat-Abadi.

Mohammad Reza Nourollahian is a former staff member at the house of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and a respected figure amongst both reformists and conservatives.

During the fraudulent 2009 presidential race, Nourollahian was a member of the Mir Hossein Mousavi election campaign and in charge of clerical affairs in the campaign.

On Thursday, security forces arrested at least seven people attending the funeral including Mousavi’s son-in-law and brother-in-law whose son Ali Mousavi was killed by state-hired assassins during opposition protests on 27 December.

Mir Esmail Mousavi, father of former prime minister and current Green Movement leader Mir Hossein Mousavi died at his home in Tehran on Wednesday at the age of 103. Mousavi and his wife Zahra Rahnavard were allowed to say their final farewells to their father on Wednesday night, though the couple were accompanied by a sizeable number of security forces. They continue to be under house arrest.

Mousavi and his wife have been under strict house arrest since February 14, when Green Movement supporters held mass-scale protests in solidarity with the uprisings in the Arab world.