Iran opposition leaders barred from travel abroad

Iran's opposition leaders are barred from leaving the country, a prominent conservative lawmaker said Saturday, hiking up the pressure on the reform movement.

The comments by Mousa Qorbani, a member of the Judicial Committee in parliament, were the first official word of a travel ban on the top opposition figures, Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mahdi Karroubi – who both ran in the disputed 2009 presidential elections – as well as former reformist president Mohammad Khatami. Qorbani also suggested the pressure by hard-liners to put the top leaders on trial, a step the government has so far stopped short of taking. (AP)