Deputies poured to the front of the chamber and packed around the podium chanting “Marg bar Karrubi” and “Marg bar Musavi.”
Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani remained seated and silent.
The traditional “marg bar…” chant literally means “death to….” But it is a weak chant that actually has the meaning of “down with….” After awhile, the deputies replaced that chant with a much more explicit one that specifically called for the two men to be killed—“Musavi, Karrubi must be executed.”
The state news agency reported that 222 deputies or three-fourths of the membership has signed their names to a statement that declared Mehdi Karrubi and Mir-Hossain Musavi to be “corrupt on earth,” an offense under Islamic law that carries the death sentence.
Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossain Mohseni-Ejai said that the Judiciary would deal “firmly and swiftly” with those behind Monday’s events. But he avoided saying what would happen to Karrubi and Musavi, the losing reformist candidates in the 2009 presidential elections.
The call for the execution of the pair was not new. The first such call was issued at Tehran Friday prayers just two weeks after the protests began in June 2009. It was voiced by Ahmad Khatami, one of the leaders of the weekly prayers.
It is a call that has been repeated loudly and often by hardliners, but ignored by the government. The regime seems to fear that arresting the men would make them political martyrs and feed the protests rather than silence them.
Contrary to the fury in the Majlis, the regime’s propaganda did not put Musavi and Karrubi at the center of the protests. Officials and the state media said the protests were fomented by the United States, Israel, Britain and the Mojahedin-e Khalq. State television at one point also called the protesters “monarchists.”
Majlis Speaker Larijani did not see any anti-regime purpose in the demonstrations. He said they were fomented by Westerners “to simulate the recent events in the Middle East in Iran in order to divert attention from those countries.” The charge that foreigners seek to “divert attention” from something the Iranian regime would prefer to focus on is a standard charge by the Islamic Republic.
State broadcasting ignored the start of the demonstrations and made little mention of them as the day progressed. Many newspapers just ignored them completely.