Tehran - The Iranian judiciary on Tuesday shut down the office of leading opposition cleric Mehdi Karroubi, the labour news agency ILNA reported. A close aide of the moderate cleric told ILNA that the office was sealed off by orders of the Tehran prosecutor.
Karroubi, the leader of the Etemad Melli party who stood for president in the June 12 election, recently accused authorities of raping detainees in Iranian prisons.
He also refused to acknowledge President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re- election, accusing him of vote fraud.
Karroubi himself has reportedly not been arrested.
Opposition websites reported that the judiciary on Tuesday also ordered the shuttering of two other offices belonging to the Iranian opposition and the arrest of four Etemad Melli party members.
Besides Karroubi's office, at least two other offices were shut down. One of those focused on the rights of political prisoners.
Security agents confiscated documents and CDs belonging to the Etemad Melli party, the reports said.
According to the reports, four Etemad Melli members, including Karroubi's senior advisor, Morteza Alviri, were arrested.
Alviri was one of the members of a special commission investigating physical and sexual abuse in Iranian prisons.
The new arrest wave came after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday called on legal actions against the leaders of the protests against the results of June's elections. Those protests led to unrest, the death of more than 20 demonstrators and mass arrests.
Meanwhile, local opposition groups have called on their supporters to avail themselves of the annual anti-Israeli rally for protesting against the government.
Police chief Esmail Ahmadi-Moqaddam however warned the opposition not to misuse the Qods (Jerusalem) rally on September 17 for internal protests.
Hundreds of thousands usually attend the state-organized rally held on the last Friday of the fasting month Ramadan in support of the Palestinian nation and against Israeli occupation.
The opposition is led by the quartet of Karroubi, former premier Mir-Hossein Moussavi and two ex-presidents, Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani.
