LONDON: A former Iranian president was arrested for “inciting violence” as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest against the government and rising food prices, unrest that rocked the Islamic Republic for more than a week, according to a newspaper report.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was arrested for comments he made during a Dec. 28 rally in the western Iranian city of Bushehr, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported on Sunday.
He was critical of the regime and President Hassan Rouhani. “Some of the current leaders live detached from the problems and concerns of the people, and do not know anything about the reality of society, ” Ahmadinejad said, according to the report that cited “sources in Tehran.”
He also accused the government of “mismanagement” and criticised Rouhani for believing “that they own the land and that the people are an ignorant society.”
The news of the arrest of Ahmadinejad, who was president between 2005 and 2013, came as the powerful Revolutionary Guards on Sunday said the rallies had ended and blamed the violence on the United States, Britain and Israel.
“Iran’s revolutionary people along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry have broken down the chain (of unrest),” the Guards said in a statement.
The demonstrations began in the last week of December over the rising price of food and eventually turned into protests against the ruling clerics and the lack of government support for working-class Iranians.
The discontent quickly spread across the country and led to the deaths of at least 22 people and the arrests of thousands, according to reports. The protests were the largest in Iran since 2009 when massive crowds challenged the re-election of Ahmadinejad, believing it had been rigged. Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei used the Revolutionary Guard and other security forces to brutally quashed the uprising.