Tehran, Iran – Several former Iranian leaders, including some currently imprisoned or under house arrest, have issued condemning statements over the killing of thousands of people in protests across the country, drawing threats from hardliners.

The Iranian government claims 3,117 people Killed during anti-establishment protests. The government has rejected claims by the United Nations and international human rights groups that state forces were behind the killings, which mostly took place on the night of January 8-9.

Headquartered in the United States Human Rights Activist News Agency (HRANA) It said it had verified 6,854 deaths and was investigating 11,280 other cases.

“After years of escalating repression, this is a disaster that will be remembered for decades, if not centuries,” wrote former reformist presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has been under house arrest since the 2009 Green Movement.

“How many ways do people have to say they don’t want this system and don’t believe your lies? Enough is enough. Game over.”

Mousavi told the country’s troops to “lay down their guns and stay away from power so that the country itself can bring this land to freedom and prosperity,” stressing that this must be done without foreign intervention in the shadow of another war with the United States and Israel.

He said Iran needs a constitutional referendum and a peaceful, democratic transition of power.

400 activists, both domestic and foreign, supported Mousavi’s statement.

Prominent jailed former reformist politician Mustafa Tajizadeh has said he wants Iran to “free itself from the tragic situation that the tutelage of Islamic jurists and the failed rule of the clerics has brought to the country.”

In a brief statement from the prison last week, he said it would depend on “resistance, wisdom and responsible action by all civil and political actors” and called for an independent fact-finding mission to reveal the true face of the “atrocities” committed against protesters last month.

“major reform”

Other former heavyweights have harshly criticized Iran’s current approach but have avoided calling for an effective overthrow of the Islamic republic from power.

Former President Hassan Rouhani, believed by many to be considering a return to power in the future, summoned his former ministers and insiders last week to give a recorded speech and called for “big reforms, not small ones.”

He acknowledged that Iranians have been protesting for a variety of reasons over the past four decades and insisted that their views must be listened to if the country wants to survive, but did not mention internet blockades and killing protesters During his tenure in November 2019.

Rouhani added that those in power must hold public votes on major issues such as foreign policy and the struggling economy to avoid further nationwide protests and prevent people from seeking help from foreign powers.

Mohammad Khatami, a reformist cleric who was president from 1997 to 2005, struck a softer tone, saying the violence undermined protests that could have helped “expand dialogue to improve affairs in the country.”

He wrote in a statement that Iran must “return to its forgotten republicanism and to an Islamism that embraces republicanism in all its aspects and demands, placing development and justice at the heart of foreign and domestic policy.”

Another senior reformist cleric, Mehdi Karroubi, who was released from house arrest after 15 years, less than a year ago, called the protest killings “a crime beyond words and pens” and said those in power should be held responsible.

“Today’s tragic conditions in Iran are the direct result of Mr. Khamenei’s destructive domestic and international interventions and policies,” he wrote, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has been in power for nearly 37 years.

Karroubi pointed to a striking example of the 86-year-old leader’s “insistence on costly and futile approaches.” nuclear project and the serious consequences that sanctions have had on the country and its people over the past two decades.”

Political prisoners rearrested

Last week, three prominent Iranian former political prisoners were again arrested by security forces and jailed.

The Fars news agency, affiliated with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said the arrests of Mahdi Mahmoudian, Abdullah Momeni and Oida Rabbani were based on their theft of a confession given by Mir Hussein Mousavi while under house arrest.

Mahmoudian is a journalist, activist and co-writer of the Oscar-nominated political drama “It Was Just an Accident,” which won the Palme d’Or at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Momenei and Rabbani are also political activists and have been arrested by Iranian authorities many times before.

The three were among 17 human rights defenders, filmmakers and civil society activists, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Nargis Mohammadi and internationally renowned lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, who co-signed a statement last week blaming the protest killings on the supreme leader and theocratic institutions.

“The mass murder of justice-seekers who bravely protested against this illegal system is an organized state crime against humanity,” they wrote. They condemned the shooting of civilians, attacks on the wounded and the denial of medical care as “acts that endanger Iran’s security and betray the motherland.”

Activists are calling for a referendum and a constitutional assembly to allow the Iranian people to democratically determine their political future.

Hardliners are angry

In hard-line circles and their affiliated media, the mood is entirely different.

On Sunday, members of parliament donned the uniforms of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the group designated last week. “Terrorist” organization by the European Union.

They chanted “Death to America” ​​and promised to find European military attachés working in Tehran’s embassy and deport them as “terrorists”.

Nasrollah Pejmanfar, a cleric who represents northeastern Mashhad in parliament, told a public session of parliament on Sunday that former President Rouhani must be hanged for supporting engagement with the West, echoing demands that other hardliners have made in recent years.

“Today is the time for ‘big reforms’, which will arrest and execute you,” he told Rouhani.

Another firebrand lawmaker, Amir Hussein Sabeti, denounced President Masoud Pezeshkian’s government – but not Khamenei or the establishment – for engaging in mediated talks with the United States.

“Today, the Iranian people are waiting for preemptive attacks on Israeli and American bases in the region, rather than negotiating from a weak position,” he claimed.