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2009 Iranian Presidential Election Timeline

2009 Jun 12 Iran Holds Tenth Presidential Election, Pitting Conservative Incumbent Ahmadinejad Against Reformer, Mousavi
The 2009 Iranian presidential election was held on 12 June 2009 in Iran, the tenth presidential election to be held in the country.The President of Iran is the highest official elected by...
2009 Jun 13 Ahmadinejad's Victory Amid Allegations of Electoral Fraud Sparks Protests in Iran
Clashes broke out between police and groups protesting the election results from early morning on Saturday onward. The protests were initially mostly peaceful but became increasingly viol...
2009 Jun 14 Protestors in London Gather to Oppose Iranian Election Results
Protests were organized outside the United Nations in New York City; in front of the Iranian embassies in Paris, Berlin, London, and Iranian consulate in Sydney; and in a public square in...
2009 Jun 14 Protests in Iran Turn Violent Following Election Fraud Allegations
By June 14 the protests had grown considerably and had become more violent. Burning buses and trash cans and parked cars blocked streets and highways in Tehran and routes leading into the...
2009 Jun 15 Protestors Against Iranian Elections Dispersed by Police in Kuala Lumpur
Malaysian police have fired tear gas to disperse about 500 Iranian students who staged a protest over the results of their home country's disputed election. The demonstrators gathered ...
2009 Jun 16 Opposition Candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi Demands New Election
[Iran's leaders] received a resounding refusal [of an offer to conduct a partial recount] — first from reformist politicians who said they would accept only a new election and then on the...
2009 Jun 17 Defeated Presidential Candidate Mohsen Rezaei Writes to Interior Ministry Demanding Release of Detailed Election Results
Defeated presidential candidate Mohsen Rezaei has given the Interior Ministry an ultimatum to release the detailed election results. In a letter to Iran's Interior Minister Sadeq Mahso...
2009 Jun 17 Iranian Soccer Players Wear Protest Colors During Game in Seoul
The players wore the colour adopted by the opposition presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi in an apparent show of support. He challenging the presidential election last week, in ...
2009 Jun 17 Protests Against Iranian Election Results Continue in New York City
Demonstrators gathered in New York City's Union Square Wednesday evening in support of Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi. The rally attracted about 700 people - a far cry f...
2009 Jun 18 Protesters in London Continue Demonstration Against Iranian Election Results
Protestors are expected to gather again outside the Iranian embassy in London this evening as the political crisis in Iran continues. Presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi was def...
2009 Jun 18 Slain Protesters are Mourned as Demonstrations Against Voting Irregularities Continue in Tehran
More than 100,000 people have attended a "day of mourning" rally in Tehran to remember eight people killed while opposing Iran's election result. The rally was called by presidential c...
2009 Jun 19 Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei Blames Foreign Media for Doubts of Election Results and Warns of Violence if Protests Continue
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, sternly cut off any compromise over the nation’s disputed elections on Friday. In a long and hard-line sermon, he declared the elections val...
2009 Jun 19 Opposition Candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi Claims Headquarters Ransacked by Plainclothes Police Officers
Mousavi spokesman Mohsen Makhmalbaf said "Mousavi's headquarters was wrecked by plainclothes police officers" with many staffers arrested, and Mousavi himself ordered by the Revolutionary...
2009 Jun 20 Iranian Woman, Identified as Neda Soltani, Dies On Camera During Protests
I have just seen a very heartbreaking video footage of an Iranian girl after she was shot during a protest in Iran. Iran is in turmoil now and people would like to change the system. The ...
2009 Jun 21 Five Relatives of Ayatollah Hashemi-Rafsanjani Arrested in Tehran
A backstage struggle among Iran's ruling clerics burst into the open Sunday when the government said it had arrested the daughter and other relatives of an ayatollah who is one of the cou...
2009 Jun 21 Iran's Guardian Council Announces that Voting Irregularities Occurred
Iran's Guardian Council has suggested that the number of votes collected in 50 cities surpass the number of people eligible to cast ballot in those areas. The council's Spokesman Abbas...
2009 Jun 21 Newsweek Announces the Detainment of Reporter, Maziar Bahari, by Iranian Authorities
On Sunday morning in Tehran, Newsweek's Maziar Bahari was detained without charge by Iranian authorities and has not been heard from since. Mr. Bahari is a Canadian citizen and a renowned...
2009 Jun 22 Iranian Government Spokesman Claims West Actively Spreading "Anarchy and Vandalism" in Iran
A spokesman said foreign media were "mouthpieces" of enemy governments seeking Iran's disintegration. He spoke as Tehran remained tense but quiet amid heavy security aimed at preventin...
2009 Jun 22 Iran's Guardian Council Claims Voting Irregularities not Significant Enough to Affect Results
Iran's election authority has rejected claims of voting irregularities by a defeated presidential candidate, while acknowledging that the number of ballots cast in dozens of cities exceed...
2009 Jun 23 Four Members of the Iranian National Soccer Team "Retired" For Refusing to Remove Protest Armbands
(CNN) - Four Iranian footballers have been "retired" from the national side after protesting against the contested election result in the country during a match against South Korea, accor...
2009 Jun 23 Notorious Iranian Prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi is Charged with Investigating Detained Protestors
A notoriously abusive Iranian prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, has been put in charge of the investigation of detained reformist leaders and party officials amidst a widening security crackdo...
2009 Jun 23 President Obama Denounces Violence Against Protesters in Iran
President Obama's latest remarks on Iran, in which he said the U.S. and the world are appalled and outraged by the Iranian government's crackdown on dissent, have met with praise but also...
2009 Jun 24 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Declares Iranian Election Result Final as Protests Continue
Hundreds of protesters clashed with waves of riot police and paramilitary militia in Tehran on Wednesday, witnesses said, as Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, insisted that t...
2009 Jun 24 In An Effort to Pacify Protesters, Iranian State TV Shows Lord of the Rings Trilogy
On June 23, Iranian security forces, reportedly using live ammunition, clashed with protesters numbering in the hundreds in the area of the country's parliament in Tehran. At the same tim...
2009 Jun 24 Iranian Officials Suggest Neda Agha-Soltan's Death May Be Related to Anti-Government Agents
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran said the gunman who killed Neda Agha-Soltan may have mistaken her for the sister of an Iranian "terrorist," the Islamic Republic News Agency reported Wednesday...
2009 Jun 25 Mir Hossein Mousavi Reasserts That The 2009 Iranian Presidential Election was "Rigged"
Iran protest leader Mir Hossein Mousavi says he holds those behind alleged "rigged" elections responsible for bloodshed during recent protests. In a defiant statement on his website, h...
2009 Jun 25 Over 180 MPs Refuse Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's Invitation to Celebrate Electoral Party
More than 180 Iranian MPs appear to have snubbed an invitation to celebrate President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election win, local press reports say. All 290 MPs were invited to the victo...
2009 Jun 25 Speculation Rises Regarding Strikes at Bazaars in Tabriz and Saqqez
Photos surfaced Thursday of what appear to be widely shut down stands in bazaars located in Tabriz and Saqqez. The organizations or individuals behind the events were not immediately cle...
2009 Jun 26 Demonstrators Attack Iranian Embassy in Stockholm
Angry demonstrators broke into the Iranian Embassy outside Stockholm on Friday, climbing in through shattered windows and injuring one embassy worker, police said. More than 150 people...
2009 Jun 27 San Francisco-Based Cyberactivist Distributing USB Drives with Anti-Filter Software to Iranian Protesters Gets Major Media Coverage
Austin Heap, one of the leading Western hackers who helped Iranian dissidents and protesters get their videos and reports to the outside world following last month's disputed presidential...
2009 Jun 28 International Tensions Increase as 8 UK Embassy Staff Members Detained in Iran
Iranian media earlier reported that eight local staff at the mission had been detained for their "considerable role" in post-election riots. UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband called ...
2009 Jun 29 Iran's Guardian Council Certifies Election Results After Partial Recount
While many remain dissatisfied by Iran's partial recount in its contested presidential election, supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (ah-muh-DEE'-neh-zhahd) are celebrating. Ir...
2009 Jul 1 Critics Allege Vote Fraud in Iranian Election with New Photographic Evidence
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called off a trip to Libya today as his regime continued to face heavy criticism over the disputed Iranian elections. In the latest development, images have emerge...
2009 Jul 1 European Union Officials Consider Removing All 27 Ambassadors from Iran
PARIS — Iran courted new levels of post-election isolation from the European Union on Wednesday as European diplomats pondered whether to withdraw the ambassadors of all 27 members nation...
2009 Jul 4 Leading clerics defy Ayatollah, declare election results illegitimate
An important group of religious leaders in Iran called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate on Saturday, an act of defiance against the country’s supreme...
2009 Jul 6 Ayatollah Khamenei Decries Western 'Lies' DepictiIng Iranian Protesters as 'Rioters'
(CNN) -- Iran's supreme leader blamed enemies and outsiders on Monday for the turmoil that followed last month's presidential elections, according to an Iranian news agency. To a gat...
2009 Jul 6 Iran's Revolutionary Guard Acknowledges Taking a Bigger Role in Nation's Security
The top leaders of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard publicly acknowledged they had taken over the nation's security during the post-election unrest and warned late Sunday, in a threat aga...
2009 Jul 7 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Announces Plans to Address Iranian Nation
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose re-election last month spurred massive protests, plans a televised speech Tuesday night to discuss domestic and foreign ...
2009 Jul 7 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Vows Reform in New Iranian Government
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad vowed on Tuesday to change his team and show respect for Iran's youth as opposition leaders made a joint plea for the release of hundreds of people held in e...
2009 Jul 9 Protesters Gather in Tehran to Commemorate the 10th Anniversary of a Student Uprising
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian pro-government Basij militia members dispersed crowds of protesters in Tehran Thursday -- sometimes with force -- according to a journalist on the scene. ...
2009 Jul 17 Hashemi Rafsanjani Decries the Unlawful Imprisonment of Iranian Protesters, Calls for Their Release
TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- One of Iran's most powerful clerics, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, has called on the Iranian government to release those people arrested following last month's dispu...
2009 Jul 18 Several Prominent Iranian Conservative Figures Criticize Rafsanjani for Questioning Election Results in Speech
Several prominent Iranian conservative figures and hard-line newspapers offered sharp criticism on Saturday of former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who delivered a speech on Fri...
2009 Jul 20 Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Warns Against Destabilizing Security
July 20 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned leading opposition politicians to avoid undermining the country’s security in the dispute over the June 12 re-...
2009 Jul 23 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Speaks Out Against Vice President Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei for Voicing Moderate Stance Toward Israel
A top aide to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who had voiced a moderate stance toward Israel came under heavy pressure to resign Sunday as government-controlled news outlets issued ...
2009 Jul 23 Opposition Candidate Mousavi's Wife Claims Brother Jailed in Protest Crackdown
The wife of Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi says her 62-year-old brother was among those detained after last month's disputed election in what she called a futile attempt to ...
2009 Jul 23 Protestors Stage Hunger Strike at UN Headquarters in Support of Iranian Political Opposition
Hundreds of protesters, some wearing green sashes to indicate they're on hunger strike, have gathered in tents across from U.N. Headquarters for the start of a three-day event in support ...
2009 Jul 25 Day of Global Solidarity with Iranian Protesters
Human rights organizations have set aside July 25 as a global day of action to show solidarity with Iranians who have been peacefully protesting last month's presidential elections, organ...
2009 Jul 30 Iranian Police Break Up Mourning Ceremonies for Neda Soltan, Sparking New Protests
NY Times - Riot police officers ordered the Iranian opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi to leave a contentious mourning ceremony on Thursday commemorating those killed in the unrest af...
2009 Jul 31 France Calls on Iran to Release Filmmaker Jafar Panahi
France on Friday called on Iran to allow peaceful protests, a day after police clashed with demonstrators in Tehran, and to release filmmaker Jafar Panahi and others arrested this week. ...
2009 Aug 3 Ayatollah Khamenei Officially Endorses Ahmadinejad's Contested Second Term
Iran's Supreme Leader endorsed the presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a ceremony boycotted by leading moderates in protest at a disputed poll that plunged Iran into its worst crisis sin...