Relative: Shooting attack on Karoubi premeditated
Family members of Iranian opposition leader say attack on his vehicle during visit to city of Ghazvin a failed assassination attempt. 'I won't be deterred by attempts to silence me,' Karoubi says
Last week's shooting attack on Mehdi Karoubi was a premeditated assassination attempt orchestrated by the Revolutionary Guards, a relative of the Iranian opposition leader said Sunday.
According to the relative, the regime was trying to send a message that Karoubi would be targeted "anywhere outside his home."
Karoubi, a defeated candidate in presidential elections last June, was attacked in the city of Ghazvin, 124 km west of Tehran, on Thursday after visiting a cleric, Nasir Ghavami, opposition website Kaleme reported.
Kaleme is run by supporters of Mirhossein Mousavi, an opposition leader who also lost out to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June vote.
In the attack, Karoubi's armored car was hit by gunfire, but only the windows were damaged.
Karoubi's son Hossein was quoted as saying, "While leaving Nasi Ghavami's home the plainclothes men attacked his car with eggs and bricks as well as firing two shots which hit the car."
"One of the two shots hit the windshield and the other hit the back window. Since the car was bulletproof, the glass cover of the back window was broken and the (front) windshield was cracked," he said.
Karoubi's car after attack
The relative said members of the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij militia convened prior to Karoubi's visit to Ghazvin.
Karoubi, who was not injured in the incident, said he would not be deterred by the "attempts to silence" him.
Hossein Karoubi said that ahead of the visit the government distributed flyers calling on security forces to gather at the home where his father was scheduled to participate in a religious ceremony. The son said buses and vans packed with security officers arrived at the site.
Hossein said the shooting attack was a sign of despair on the part of the Iranian regime. "The popular protest has infiltrated all classes of society and this angers the government," he said. "After seven months (of civil unrest), people are not afraid anymore and have become more courageous."
According to other reports in Iran, the shooting attack was carried out by plain-clothes security officers. Photos published over the weekend clearly showed the bullet holes on Karoubi's car.
In late December thugs smashed the windshield of Karoubi's car outside a mosque in east Tehran. The opposition leader was not hurt. In November Karoubi was attacked with teargas and, according to reports, his car was vandalized. His bodyguard was hospitalized following the incident.
Hardline clerics and authorities have called on the judiciary to punish opposition leaders for igniting tension in Iran, saying they were 'mohareb', an Islamic term meaning warring against God which carries the death penalty.
Reuters and AFP contributed to the report
