Report: Former Iranian president Ahmadinejad arrested for anti-regime remarks

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly been arrested after criticizing the government and supporting the anti-regime unrest in the country. 

By: World Israel News Staff

Former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has reportedly been arrested after criticizing the government in remarks that were deemed as “inciting unrest.”

The Al Quds Al Arabi daily reported Saturday that it learned from “reliable sources in Tehran” that the authorities ordered Ahmadinejad’s arrest during his visit to the city of Shiraz, and that the arrest was made with the approval of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The arrest was ordered after Ahmadinejad’s recent remarks in Bushehr, where he told a crowd just as the widespread unrest in Iran began that the nation’s leadership is detached “from the problems of the people and their concerns, and [does] not know anything about the reality of society.”

“What Iran is suffering from today is mismanagement and not lack of economic resources,” he charged.

“The government of Hassan Rouhani believes that they own the land and that the people are an ignorant society,” Ahmadinejad said. “The people are angry at this government because of its monopoly on public wealth.”

Authorities have reportedly placed him under house arrest.

The Iranian people have taken to the streets in the past week to protest Iran’s dictatorial regime and the repressive financial state in which the Iranian citizens live.

The protests began because of the weak economy, unemployment and a jump in food prices. They have expanded to cities and towns in nearly every province.

Hundreds have been arrested, and a prominent judge warned that some could face the death penalty.

At least 21 people are believed to have been killed in the anti-regime protests.

This is the country’s largest wave of anti-government protests since the “Green Revolution” erupted in 2009 following a controversial presidential election.

The protesters are demanding that the regime invest in the country and its economy, and not in its foreign terrorism network and belligerent regional expansionism.

Ahmadinejad’s remarks reportedly came in response to an attack by Rouhani, who described Ahmadinejad as “walking in the path of confrontation with the regime.”

Ahmadinejad was president from 2005 to 2013, and was best known abroad for his incendiary rhetoric toward Israel, his questioning of the scale of the Holocaust and his efforts to ramp up Iran’s nuclear program.