Mousavi vows to keep fighting rigged vote, slams paper closure

Iran's opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi said Thursday he was determined to continue fighting against "major" presidential election rigging despite pressure to stop, his Web site said.

"I am pressured to abandon my demand for the vote annulment ... a major rigging has happened ... I am prepared to prove that those behind the rigging are responsible for the bloodshed ... Continuation of legal and calm protests will guarantee achieving our goals," Mousavi said.

The former presidential candidate also slammed the state's closure of a newspaper, saying that it strengthen foreign involvement in the country.

"I insist on the nation's constitutional right to protest against the election result and its aftermath ... I strongly criticise the closure of the Kalameh-ye Sabz daily and arrest of those who worked there...The illegal confrontation with the media opens the way for foreign interference," he said in a statement.

Mousavi was the managing-director of the Kalameh-ye Sabz daily, which was closed earlier this week.

"Such illegal behaviours [closure of the newspaper] unfortunately will lead society to get information from foreign media," he said.

About 20 people have died in demonstrations following the disputed June 12 election, of which Iran's ruling clerics declared hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the winner by a landslide. Police and militia have flooded Tehran's streets since Saturday, quelling the most widespread anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Hundreds of protesters and activists are believed to have been taken into custody since the vote. The government has also set up a special court to deal with the cases of people arrested in more than a week of unrest and threatened harsh sentences.

The unrest has exposed unprecedented rifts within Iran's clerical establishment, with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who normally stays above the political fray, siding strongly with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Mousavi supporters said they would release thousands of balloons Friday imprinted with the message "Neda you will always remain in our hearts" - a reference to the young woman killed last week who has become an icon of the protests.

But analysts say the battle has now moved off the street into a protracted behind-the-scenes struggle between powerful establishment figures, including former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, and Ahmadinejad and Khamenei.

Professors detained

Some 70 university professors were detained in Iran on Wednesday in a widening government crackdown on protesters, according to a Mousavi-affiliated Web site.

The professors were detained immediately after meeting with the opposition leader, said the Kalemeh site, which is affiliated with the opposition leader. The report said it is not clear where the detainees were taken.

The professors detained Wednesday were believed to be among a group that has been pushing for a more liberal form of government. The detentions signal that the authorities are increasingly targeting members of Iran's elite.

In recent days, demonstrators have found themselves more and more scattered and struggling under a blanket crackdown that Mousavi's wife compared to martial law.

	Opposition supporters protesting in Tehran last week.
	Photo by: (Reuters)