Defiant Mousavi says protests in Iran are a "constitutional right"

In a statement posted to his website, defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi said those behind the country’s "rigged" election were responsible for the violent protests that followed the vote. Mousavi promised to reveal how officials who corrupted the electoral process "stood beside the main instigators of the recent riots and shed people’s blood on the ground." The reformist candidate denounced Iranian authorities attempts to stifle the protest movement, insisting Iranians have a "constitutional right to protest against the election and its aftermath." Meanwhile, the Iranian government has reportedly been trying to mollify the population with movie nights on state television. "In normal times, Iranian television usually treats its viewers to one or two Hollywood or European movie nights a week," a resident of Tehran wrote in Time. "But these are not normal times, so it’s been two or three such movies a day. It’s part of the push to keep people at home and off the streets, to keep us busy, to get us out of the regime’s hair."

Reuters

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TIME