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Iranian MP attacked by unknowns, injured during assault

Politics Materials 10 March 2015 10:56 (UTC +04:00)
Unknown persons on motorcycles attacked Iranian MP Ali Motahari’s car in Iran’s southern city of Shiraz on March 9.
Iranian MP attacked by unknowns, injured during assault

Baku, Azerbaijan, March 10

By Umid Niayesh - Trend:

Unknown persons on motorcycles attacked Iranian MP Ali Motahari's car in Iran's southern city of Shiraz on March 9.

The incident occurred in Shiraz city airport, where Motahari arrived to hold a speech. Upon arrival, the mentioned people started chanting insulting slogans to the official, Iran's official IRNA news agency reported March 10.

The people reportedly attacked the official's car with stones and sticks, crushing the car's windows. Motahari's driver managed to drive the car up to the nearby police station, however the unknowns followed the car, and surrounded the police office for three hours.

Motahari allegedly got his eye injured as a result of the assault, and had to cancel his upcoming speech, and later returned to Tehran.

The MP is currently under pressure from the country's hardliner MPs and politicians due to his viewpoints on the ongoing house arrest of the opposition leaders Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, who have been held under arrest since 2011, due to 2009 post-presidential election protests.

Early in January 2015 several hardliner lawmakers interrupted Motahari's speech in the parliament, while he was talking against the opposition leaders' house arrest.

In October Motahari wrote an open letter to President Hassan Rouhani warning him that if he did not end the house arrests of the opposition leaders, he would be summoned to parliament.

Motahari also approached Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei last June, saying that the detentions were harming the Islamic Republic's reputation abroad and raising tensions inside the country.

Motahari has repeatedly criticized the leaders' house arrest without any trial or court order, while the hardliners argue that the detained opposition leaders should remain under house arrest until they "repent."

Follow the author on Twitter: @UmidNiayesh

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