Inside Iran/2011-03-01 - Kayhan, the most prominent hardliner newspaper in Iran with close ties to the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, dedicated its main headline to the leaders of the so-called sedition and claimed that it was just the “first step in confronting them.”

In the last ten days, security forces placed Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi, de-facto leaders of the opposition, under house arrest; cut off their means of communication with outside world; and finally transferred them to a prison in Tehran today, Feb. 28.

Kayhan quoted Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Ejehi, Iran’s chief prosecutor, as saying, “We have moved beyond sedition. Counterrevolutionaries have entered the scene now and it is natural that we deal with them differently now.” Iran’s Chief Prosecutors promised that leaders of sedition will eventually stand trial for their “crimes.”

Hossein Shariatmadari, the editor in chief of Kayhan and the Supreme Leader’s representative in that newspaper, argued in Kayhan’s editorial column that terms such as reformist, or members of the opposition, were no longer appropriate for those involved in the “sedition.” According to Shariatmadari, these individuals are now standing against the government, and the Islamic Republic is justified to use “different” means to deal with them.