ALI AKBAR DAREINI and JASON KEYSER
Associated Press
November 14, 2009
EHRAN, Iran (AP) – The showdown between Iran’s clerical leaders and a resilient protest movement sharpened Saturday, as opposition leaders accused the government of becoming more brutal than the shah’s regime and authorities announced a new Internet crackdown.
Two of Iran’s top pro-reform figures said in a Web statement that police used excessive force against anti-government protesters who took to the streets last week on the sidelines of state-sanctioned rallies to mark the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover.
Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi, who lead the protest movement rejecting the legitimacy of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s June re-election, said authorities wielding batons even struck women on their heads. They called such treatment an ugly act that was not even seen during Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi’s response to the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled him.
“I can’t understand why they should treat people like this,” Karroubi was quoted as saying by several opposition Web sites.
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