Mehdi Karroubi faces legal action

Top judiciary officials in Iran say defeated presidential candidate Mehdi Karroubi may face legal prosecution for making allegations of 'jail rape'.

Prosecutor General Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i on Tuesday said the Clerical Court would need to deal with Karroubi's case given that he is a clergyman.

"They [Clerical Court] have been tasked with hearing cases raised against the clergy and [you can] be sure that they will deal with this issue," he told the Keyhan daily.

The subject of 'jail rape' was first mentioned by Karroubi in a letter to Head of the Assembly of Experts Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani on July 29.

In his letter the reformist cleric claimed that a number of detainees had told him that several of the individuals arrested over the course of post-vote unrest had been 'sexually assaulted' while in detention.

The Parliament (Majlis) conducted a thorough investigation into the allegations and was not able to confirm any instances of detainee abuse.

"The issue of detainees being sexually abused is a lie," said Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani after the conclusion of the investigations.

In similar remarks Tehran's prosecutor general, Abbas Jafari Doulatabadi said a case for the cleric has been opened at Clerical Court.

"The report of the judiciary panel has been given to us and we are investigating it. Some people have been summoned in this regard," ILNA quoted him as saying.

Prosecutor Jafari added that public would be informed "as soon as we have more information."