Letter to Iran's leader: son of opposition figure harshly beaten inside mosque

The wife of one of Iran's opposition leaders accused the nation's supreme leader Sunday of allowing violence and abuses to crush opponents, including the alleged beating of her son during last week's protests.

Fatameh Karroubi claimed her son Ali was savagely attacked inside a mosque by hard-line militiamen amid a massive security crackdown during events Thursday marking the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution.

[caption id="attachment_458" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Ali Karoubi"][/caption]

"They beat him up and insulted him along with other people arrested. This occurred in a house of God," she wrote in an open letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appearing on prominent pro-reform Web sites Rahesabz and Sahamnews.

The Web sites also posted photos purportedly showing bruises across Ali Karroubi's back.

She said the country's rulers have resorted to "violence and cruelty" in attempts to wipe out dissent.

The letter reflects the anger and dismay of many opposition groups after authorities unleashed a massive security crackdown to prevent disruptions of state-backed celebrations of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. There are now questions whether the opposition can rebound with more large-scale street demonstrations.

Ali Karroubi was hauled away during an attack on the motorcade of his father Mahdi Karroubi, who was an opponent of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in last June's disputed elections. The elder Karroubi was not injured, but he abandoned plans to attend an opposition gathering.

Ali's mother claimed that her son was taken from the mosque to a security base, where he received further beatings before he was released. She wrote that one agent told Ali that "his family would receive his corpse" if he was allowed to continue the punishment for another day.

She begged Khamenei to reverse the country's direction "before more people die." Khamenei, however, has strongly backed Ahmadinejad and the nation's powerful Revolutionary Guard, which has led the assault on the opposition.