Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi will be brought to trial as soon as the necessary conditions are set, the first deputy of the judiciary told a news conference on Monday.

Mizan Khabar, the news outlet for the judiciary, reports that Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said on Monday January 5 that the public will be informed of the proceedings of such a trial; however, he did not announce any particular date for such a hearing.

Opposition leaders Mousavi and Karroubi have been under house arrest since February of 2011 without any official charges laid against them. They have been accused of sedition, but only verbally, by top figures of the establishment.

Mousavi and Karroubi accused the government of rigging the vote in the 2009 presidential election in favour of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which triggered widespread mass protests that were violently suppressed, leading to scores of deaths and thousands of arrests.

The opposition leaders have asked on several occasions to be allowed to defend themselves in an open and official court, but the authorities have simply cut them off from the public and maintain that it is not in the interest of the regime to put them on trial.

Conservative MP Ali Motahari has been a vocal critic of this policy, urging the government to give the two detained leaders the right to defend themselves in court.

Radio Zamaneh