Iran's judiciary has shut down the office of defeated presidentialcandidate Mehdi Karroubi. The pro-reform cleric came in fourth placein the disputed June presidential election. But post-election heangered conservative hardliners over controversialclaims that opposition protesters were abused and raped while detained in Iranian prisons.
Thedirector of the Center for Arab and Iranian Studies, Ali Nourizadeh,spoke with a journalist from Karroubi's newspaper, , whowas present when authorities entered.
"Theycame to the office and they beat some of the people who resisted. Andthey asked them to leave. But they beat them and then they sealed theoffice. They took everything away from there," Nourizadeh said.
Butthis is not the first time Karroubi has met government opposition. Last month, Iranian authorities temporarily banned his reformistnewspaper for printing his rape accusations.
Iranian authoritiesdeny the rape and abuse allegations in Iranian prisons, but authoritieshave ordered the closure of a detention center in Tehran.
Karroubi'soffice functioned as a headquarters to assist opposition protesters whohad been allegedly tortured or raped. On his party's website thisweek, he said he submitted documents about abused detainees withoutrevealing their identities.
A spokesman for Karroubi's party says Iranian authorities have confiscated files, disks and computers.
Nourizadeh says those who filed claims are very concerned.
"Theyare very concerned about all those file[s], about people who were torturedand raped so they wanted to keep their identity away from theauthorit[ies]," he said.
Nourizadeh says Karroubi is a target because he has crossed the line drawn by IranianPresident Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
"Theylooked at Mr. Karroubi as somebody whom if they allowed him to continueto have a base, have place to distribute a statement, and to beinterviewed. They thought that would be a danger to their authority," Nourizadeh said.
Iranian authorities have not commented on the opposition-office closure.