Iran’s Prosecutor General has once again revisited the topic of the opposition leaders’ house arrest, saying the Green Movement leaders will not be released and adding: “They have committed a great crime and have to be held accountable for it.”

The Tasnim News Agency reports that Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Sunday July 27: “These leaders of sedition must not only be denied release, they should also be made to pay for their great sin.”

MirHosein Mousavi, Zahra Rahnavard and Mehdi Karroubi have been under house arrest since February 2011 for challenging the result of the 2009 presidential election and they have been accused of having seditious goals. The opposition leaders reject the accusations and have said that the mass protests were legitimate within the framework of the legal system.

Mohseni Ejei said his statement was in response to the efforts of “a number of groups” to end the house arrests of Mousavi, Karroubi and Rahnavard.

Conservative MP Ali Motahari has been very vocal in calling for the release of the opposition leaders.

Islamic Republic hardliners have implicitly demanded that the opposition leaders make public apologies and recant their political position regarding the events of 2009 events; the opposition leaders have clearly rejected such demands.

Radio Zamaneh