While 90 days have passed since the arrest of prominent political activists and journalists, and five sessions of their sham trials have been held in which they attack Mir-Hossein Mousavi, Mehdi Karoubi and Seyyed Mohammad Khatami in their forced confessions, Ayatollah Khamenei’s remarks at the Eid Fetr prayers ushered a new phase of the project to dismantle the opposition.

Many experts have condemned the trial as illegal.  Yesterday, deputy attorney general Mohammad Javad Montazeri said, “Unfortunately, because of the judiciary’s indecision in certain cases, actions that violated religious and legal norms were committed during the broadcast of confessions by media outlets.  We hope that we would not witness such actions and suffer from their negative consequences by demonstrating more wisdom and foresight in the future.”  

At his Sunday speech, Ayatollah Khamenei said, “Any defendant’s confessions in court, before cameras and millions of viewers is valid, binding and legitimate religiously, naturally, and logically.  The defendants’ remarks about other parties, however, are not religiously acceptable or legitimate, and the atmosphere should not be poisoned with accusations and suspicion.”

Leader’s Remarks; Arrests and Accusations

Ayatollah Khamenei, who is regarded by the opposition as a supporter of the fraudulent coup administration, is in effect attempting to sideline the trail proceedings and related events.  

Earlier this summer, the leader of the Islamic republic reacted to criticism against Ahmadinejad by noting, “They accused the president who is trusted by the people, of lying; they accused the person who is the country’s legal president, who is elected by popular vote, of inappropriate things.”  The leader, however, never provided a response to these accusations against the president’s critics.

In one of his later speeches, ayatollah Khamenei used the phrase “agitators” to describe the post-election protesters, and claimed that “foreigners” were supporting these them.  He also remarked that “certain individuals failed the test of this election,” which was used by pro-government media outlets to sharpen attacks against Hashemi Rafsanjani, who did run against Ahmadinejad in 2005 in the runoff race.  However, analysts noted that in response to people’s steadfast resistance, he said again, “I do not accuse leaders of the recent events of being beholden to foreign nations such as the United States and England, because that has not been proven to me.  

At one time as the leader announced in an unexpected statement that “crimes have taken place” at detention facilities, he quickly added that “These kinds of issues should not be mixed with the main issue after the election.”