Spokesman: Mousavi Not Allowed To Communicate

SHAYA TAYEFE MOHAJER

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Iran's opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi is not under arrest, but cannot talk with journalists, take phone calls or stand at a microphone at his rallies, his spokesman said Friday from Paris.

Faced with the limitations at rallies, Mousavi has had to speak "into a megaphone that can maybe be heard by 100 people, if everyone is quiet," Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf (moh-SEN makh-mal-BAF) told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Authorities are closely watching Mousavi because arresting him would spark further outrage among his supporters, he said, speaking in Farsi. Makhmalbaf said he is in contact with people close to Mousavi in the capital Tehran, but it's become increasingly difficult to reach them.

Government crackdowns have made communications with Tehran difficult — via Internet, telephone or satellite television — in the week since the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad resulted in mass protests by supporters of Mousavi and other opposition figures.

"They call me, but only when they can get through," which is increasingly less and less, Makhmalbaf said. He said he had not heard from the Mousavi camp since Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's Friday prayer that denounced the protests.