Mousavi's Kalemeh Sabz newspaper was shut down and its staff detained Monday.
"While officials of the country continuously insist on the implementation of the law, and while those who complain against the wide-scale vote-rigging are accused of breaking the law, such actions against a newspaper that holds legal permits, its officials, editors, reporters, technicians and administrators, are not understandable unless we accept that lawfulness can go only far enough to restrict the complaints of protesters and nothing else," he said.
Hundreds have been arrested for allegedly taking part in or inciting the disturbances.
President Obama and Western allies have condemned the crackdown, further straining relations between Tehran and the West as the U.S. was seeking talks with Iran over its nuclear program.
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Words of caution
Ahmadinejad, unusually silent since June 14, when his description of his opponents as "dirt" spurred a protest rally in central Tehran that drew hundreds of thousands of people, on Thursday cautioned Obama to avoid his predecessor's path.
"We do not expect anything from the British and the European countries' governments, which are not honorable and their history is known to the world," Ahmadinejad said in comments on state television. "But why has Mr. Obama been caught up in this trap while he has the slogan of change?"
Iran's power brokers have been huddling to discuss defusing the crisis. One of the Shiite Muslim establishment's most senior clerics weighed in on the controversy, in a sign of growing alarm among the country's religious leadership.
"Something must be done to ensure that there are no embers burning under the ashes, and that hostilities, antagonism and rivalries are transformed into amity and cooperation among all parties," Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi, an influential cleric, said in a statement, the Press TV website said.
Mousavi and his backer Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president, met with lawmakers Wednesday in an effort to quell the unrest, according to a Fars news agency interview with Alaeddin Boroujerdi, head of parliament's committee on national security and foreign policy.
"The lawmakers asked Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani to help solve the problems and he vowed support, and we hope that we would witness practical measures to be taken to end the current situation soon," the report quoted Boroujerdi as saying. "During the meeting, the governing board of the committee explained their expectations from Mr. Mousavi and he voiced his interest to help in solving the issues."
