Iran's leaders suppress election protests

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s ultimate political and religious authority, told a group of lawmakers that “neither the system nor the people will submit to bullying’’ over the election. In televised remarks, he called for the restoration of order, adding that lawbreaking would lead to dictatorship.

“Everyone should respect the law,’’ Khamenei said. “Once lawlessness becomes a norm, things will be complicated and the interests of people will be undermined. We will not step an inch beyond the law: our law, our country’s law, the Islamic Republic’s law.’’

Hours later, large numbers of security forces, some riding motorcycles, used baton charges, beatings, tear gas, and arrests to disperse several thousand people attempting to protest the proclaimed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, witnesses said. The demonstrators were trying to gather in front of the Parliament building to show support for opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who says that massive fraud in the June 12 election cheated him of victory.

Security forces - including police from all over Tehran, helmeted riot police officers, and members of a force dubbed the “Robocops’’ for their full body armor and special equipment - converged on Baharestan Square, blocked streets, and beat people to head off a planned demonstration. They were supported by members of the pro-government Basij militia and plainclothes agents who infiltrated the protesters, witnesses said.

As a helicopter circled overhead, “Robocops’’ fired handguns into the air, one witness said. He said it was unclear whether they were firing blanks. Some of the police carried paintball guns, which have been used in recent demonstrations to mark protesters for arrest.

“When people started to gather, [security forces] chased them into alleys and arrested anybody they could,’’ the witness said. In one alley, police caught three men and started beating them, and then attacked bystanders who tried to intervene, he said.

In one confrontation between protesters and Basij members, a middle-aged woman wearing a light-blue headscarf and a black coat angrily refused orders to leave. “I’m going to stay here and see how many people you kill today,’’ she defiantly told the Basij. A plainclothes agent emerged from the crowd, cursed the woman and took out a pair of handcuffs to arrest her. Other people tried to stop the agent, but Basij members rushed them and beat them with clubs, the witness said.

Bystanders were caught up in the violence.

Near a corner of Republic Street known for its printing shops, a young engaged couple fled into an alley to escape a charge by club-wielding security forces. “Why are they attacking me?’’ the woman cried. “I only came here to print my wedding cards!’’

The situation appeared to grow more violent as dusk fell.

In Twitter feeds, people who said they witnessed the crackdown described protesters with broken limbs and cracked heads, saying there was blood everywhere from the beatings. One said many people had been arrested. Another said people were being beaten like animals.

Speaking on state television, Khamenei said he insisted on implementation of the law. He vowed that Iran would not give in to pressure at any price, and appealed to lawmakers to temper criticism of Ahmadinejad, saying that the Parliament, “should help the government in such a rough journey and must not be too hard on the administration.’’

On one of Mousavi’s websites, the opposition leader’s wife, Zahra Rahnavard, a former university dean who played an active role in her husband’s presidential campaign, said people have a right to protest and that the government should not treat them “as if martial law has been imposed.’’ Saying it was her duty “to continue legal protests to preserve Iranian rights,’’ she called for the immediate release of people detained since the election, including the editor and more than two dozen employees of her husband’s banned newspaper.

Rahnavard later denied reports that she and her husband have been arrested. Mousavi has not been heard from in recent days, fueling rumors that he was placed under house arrest.