Ahmadinejad's Office: Statements Regarding the Intention to Arrest Mohammad Khatami are 'Incorrect'

The office of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former president of Iran, described the statements made by Ismail Ahmadi Moghadam, the former commander of the police force, regarding Ahmadinejad's request for the arrest of Mohammad Khatami as 'baseless' and 'completely false and incorrect.' Ahmadi Moghadam had stated on August 31 that Ahmadinejad had called for Khatami's arrest in response to the protest march on June 25, 2009. According to the former police commander, Ahmadinejad had said in that meeting: 'It was very good. We shook the circle and the excess and garbage came out. Deal with them and gather them all and take them away. Go and arrest Khatami and the others and reduce the trouble from all of them and go.' Ahmadinejad's office, while denying Ahmadi Moghadam's statements, announced that 'individuals with his responsibilities were not in a position to provide advice to the President of the ninth and tenth governments on political and electoral issues.' The announcement emphasized that the 'context' of the statements published from Ahmadi Moghadam's remarks 'clearly indicates their baselessness.' After the protests against the results of the 2009 presidential election, some individuals close to the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, such as Hossein Shariatmadari, the Supreme Leader's representative at the Kayhan newspaper, and some other media and principlist figures, accused Khatami of siding with the protesters against the election results. Khatami participated in some of the protest marches in 2009, such as on June 25, Quds Day, and February 11, and faced attacks from forces known as plainclothes agents during some of these marches, such as on Quds Day. Reports indicate that the former president of Iran has been banned from leaving the country since 2009, and since the last months of the previous year, the publication of his images and news in Iranian media has also been banned.