CAIRO, Egypt — Iranian officials said Monday that they were holding the bodies of five slain anti-government protesters, including the nephew of the opposition leader, in what appeared be an attempt to prevent activists from using their funerals as a platform for more demonstrations.
Pro-reform Web sites and activists said the government also detained at least eight prominent opposition figures - including a former foreign minister - in an intensified crackdown that could fuel more violence of the kind that engulfed the center of Tehran on Sunday. The activity pushed the bitterly opposed camps beyond any immediate prospect of reconciliation or compromise.
Hard-liners, including clerical groups and the elite Revolutionary Guard, issued statements urging the country’s judiciary to take action against the opposition for violating Islamic principles and insulting the head of Iran’s religious leadership, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In the bloodiest protests in months, groups of emboldened demonstrators on Sunday chanted slogans against Khamenei, casting aside a taboo on personal criticism of the leader. In outbursts of fury rarely seen in past street confrontations, they burned squad cars and motorcycles belonging to security forces who had opened fire on the crowds, according to witness accounts, opposition Web sites and amateur videos posted on the Web.
“I believe we are moving toward a more militarized and repressive confrontation. Things are going to get worse,” said Ahmad Bakhshayesh, a political science professor at Tehran’s Allameh Tabatabaei University.
IRNA, Iran’s state-run news agency, said the bodies of five protesters, including the nephew of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, were being held pending autopsies. The family of the nephew, Ali Mousavi, alleged that he was shot by security forces or government-backed militiamen and his funeral would likely galvanize another outpouring of opposition anger.
The nephew’s brother, Reza Mousavi, earlier said the body was taken overnight from a Tehran hospital.
“Unfortunately, they have taken the body of my brother from the hospital, and however much we search, we can’t find the body,” Reza Mousavi had told the reformist Web site Parlemannews.ir.
Islamic tradition calls for bodies to be buried within 24 hours of death.
The opposition has alleged that Mir Hossein Mousavi’s nephew had received death threats in recent days and was shot by assassins who drove tohis house. Reformists believe that the killing was an attempt to pressure Mousavi to back down and that the government took his nephew’s body to prevent mourners gathering in the street for his funeral.
Iranian state television reported that eight people died in the violence in Tehran, a higher toll than the five deaths reported by some opposition Web sites. The television also cited the Health Ministry assaying 60 people were injured and many had been released from hospitals after treatment.
Independent confirmation of the casualties was virtually impossible because of state restrictions on media coverage of the upheaval that has gripped Iran since a disputed election in June.
Iranian authorities have said 300 people were arrested in the protests, but did not specify where they were detained. The opposition Jaras Web site said several hundred were arrested in Tehran, and a similar number were detained in the central city of Isfahan.
The Parlemannews.ir site said three Mousavi aides were detained Monday, including top adviser Ali Riza Beheshti.
Security forces also arrested two people in a raid on a foundation run by the reformist former President Mohammad Khatami, a foundation official said on condition of anonymity because of fears of police reprisal. The Baran Foundation works to promote dialogue between cultures.
Former Foreign Minister Ebrahim Yazdi and humanrights activist Emad Baghi were arrested, according to the Rahe-Sabz Web site. Yazdi, who served as foreign minister after the 1979 Islamic revolution, is now leader of the banned but tolerated Freedom Movement of Iran. One of his aides was also detained.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 12/29/2009