[JURIST] Iran opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi [IranTracker profile] on Saturday called for continued protests over the recent controversial election [JURIST report] in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad [BBC profile] was re-elected. Mousavi maintained his position that the election was fraudulent and urged supporters [Reuters report] to oppose the results. Mousavi's statements came just days after Ahmadinejad called for the prosecution of opposition leaders [JURIST report], including Mousavi, for allegedly conspiring to orchestrate mass protests immediately following the election.

The protests over the election and the resulting arrests have been the subject of recent debate. Last week, Iran began the fourth mass trial [JURIST report] of election protesters and reformists. Earlier in August, three UN human rights experts called on Iran's Revolutionary Court to reject protesters' confessions obtained through torture [JURIST report]. Iran's Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dorri Najafabadi acknowledged [JURIST report] last month that some protesters arrested after the election were tortured. Human rights groups have called arrests political repression [JURIST report], saying that Iranian forces are using the protests to "engage in what appears to be a major purge of reform-oriented individuals."