TEHRAN, August 28 (RIA Novosti) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has called for severe punishments to be administered to those behind the unrest that followed the June 12 presidential election, Press TV said on Friday.
In a speech before Friday prayers, Ahmadinejad denied electoral fraud, calling the vote "healthy" and the unrest "painful," the state English-language TV channel reported. He said certain people who have been deceived by the enemy's schemes tried to shake the Islamic establishment's foundations.
"I call upon security and judicial officials to decisively and mercilessly act on those who committed inhumane acts in the guise of the friends since they inflicted damage on people and tarnished the image of the establishment, security and police forces," the president said.
Ahmadinejad also called on authorities to treat those deceived with "Islamic compassion." He lashed out at Western countries for interfering in Iran's domestic affairs, and advised them to make up for their "blunders," the channel reported.
Ahmadinejad's re-election triggered mass protests by defeated candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's supporters. At least 30 people were reported to have been killed and about 1,000 arrested in post-election violence in the capital Tehran and some other cities, in Iran's most severe unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian authorities have agreed to release around 140 prisoners detained in the riots, but around 200 people, including 50 opposition activists, remain in jail.
