Mr Mousavi said he had come under pressure to 'give up my demand for the election to be cancelled'. -- PHOTO: AFP
TEHERAN - DEFEATED Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi said on Thursday that threats and pressure would not stop him from pursuing his campaign to scrap the results of the disputed election.
REPORTS said on Thursday that Iran has jailed more than 140 political activists, journalists and university lecturers since the election.
Etemad newspaper listed 71 prominent reformist leaders, journalists and Mousavi campaign workers while Kalemeh said another 70 academics and members of Islamic associations at various universities were arrested after meeting Mousavi on Wednesday.
'I won't refrain from securing the rights of the Iranian people... because of personal interests and the fear of threats,' he said in a statement on his newspaper website, Kalemeh.
Mr Mousavi said he had come under pressure to 'give up my demand for the election to be cancelled' after he lodged a formal complaint over the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and called for a new vote.
But the 67-year-old, who was premier in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution, said he would resist the pressure.
'I can not say that white is black and black is white. We should be honest. The solution is not that I say something which I don't believe in.'
The ex-premier said he was ready to show how those who violated the election process 'stood beside the main instigators of the recent riots and shed people's blood on the ground.'
He also reiterated his call for supporters to continue protests but in a way which would not 'create tension.'
'The main strategy which will guarantee your objectives will be to continue with the protests within the framework of law and by observing the principles of the Islamic revolution,' he said.
His office said it had applied for a permission to hold a mourning ceremony for slain protestors but was yet to receive the go-ahead. The authorities have imposed a ban on all opposition demonstrations. -- AFP
