Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, former President of Iran was reportedly arrested for ‘inciting violence’ as the protests against the Tehran government and skyrocketing food prices began.
Ahmadinejad was held for comments he made during a December 28 protest in the western Iranian city of Bushehr, the London-based Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported.
Ahmadinejad, whom Iranian officials will seek to keep under house arrest with the approval of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was critical of the regime and President Hassan Rouhani.
“Some of the current leaders live detached from the problems and concerns of the people, and do not know anything about the reality of society,” Ahmadinejad said, according to the report.
He also accused the government of “mismanagement” and criticized Rouhani for believing “that they own the land and that the people are an ignorant society.”
News of the arrest of the 61-year-old Ahmadinejad, who served as president between 2005 and 2013, come as the powerful Revolutionary Guard on Sunday said the protests had ended and again blamed the violence on the United States, Britain and Israel.
“Iran’s revolutionary people, along with tens of thousands of Basij forces, police and the Intelligence Ministry, have broken down the chain [of unrest],” the Guard said in a statement.
The demonstrations erupted on Dec. 28 over the soaring cost of food and eventually turned into protests against the ruling clerics and the lack of government support for working-class Iranians.
The discontent quickly spread across the country and led to the deaths of at least 22 people and the arrests of thousands, according to the government. But its opponents said the death toll is closer to 50.
The protests were the largest in Iran since 2009, when massive crowds challenged the re-election of Ahmadinejad, believing it had been rigged. Khamenei used the Revolutionary Guard and other security forces to brutally quash that uprising.
During his presidency, Ahmadinejad referred to the Holocaust as a “myth” and told Americans, “In Iran, we don’t have homosexuals like in your country.”
