But the eruption of violence and popular discontent over the election also illustrate a huge rift at the highest echelons of the country's clerical leadership, between Khamenei and Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the head of a council that oversees the supreme leader.
Politicians and clergy have been huddling for days in intense discussions over ways to resolve the crisis, which has proved as divisive in the corridors of power as on the street.
On Monday, heavy contingents of anti-riot police safeguarded key downtown squares, including Haft Tir, where police using tear gas chased off a group of 200 or so demonstrators.
Black-clad anti-riot police could be seen dragging off two young men who were distributing political tracts downtown. Basiji militiamen in Haft Tir Square could be seen beating and carting off a young woman who refused to allow them to inspect her handbag.
There were signs elsewhere that the protesters' enthusiasm was tapering off. Near Tehran University, police dragged off a young man in a green shirt, the official color of the Mousavi campaign, without raising the hackles of pedestrians, who erupted in anger during similar encounters in previous days.
Ebrahim Raisi, a top official in Iran's judiciary branch, said tribunals will be set up after a preliminary investigation to process hundreds of "rioters" and "thugs" caught in security sweeps during the unrest.
"The judiciary will set up special courts for those cases which are passed on to the judiciary," he said in comments broadcast on state television. "Hopefully, they will receive their legal punishments and our dear people will be informed of their punishments."
In a pointed warning to leaders of the protest movement, he added that "any comment, any writing or any move that might provoke or encourage people to create insecurity will be considered crimes."
One Ahmadinejad supporter in parliament called for Mousavi's arrest. "Mousavi's viewpoints and his illegal statements, which have encouraged and provoked public opinion [against the system], are considered to be a crime," lawmaker Ali Shahrokhi, chair of the judiciary committee, told the Fars news agency. "This criminal action, which is against security and is religiously illegal, should be dealt with firmly."
The Tehran prosecutor's office said it had arrested at least 457 people in Saturday's unrest, but a source inside Evin Prison said nearly 1,000 had been brought in. Among those arrested in an ongoing sweep of opposition figures was Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, Mousavi's legal advisor.
Mousavi called on authorities to exercise restraint and transparency in dealing with his jailed supporters. "I expect the law enforcement forces to release the names of martyrs, wounded and arrested," he said in his statement. "Otherwise they make the gap between themselves and the people wider."
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daragahi@latimes.com
Mostaghim is a special correspondent.
