Iran’s former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, who was the focus of a 2009 mass protest movement and has spent the last 15 years under house arrest, has been hospitalized after his health deteriorated, an adviser said on Friday.

Mousavi, the last person to serve as Iran’s premier before the post was abolished in 1989, had claimed to be the rightful victor of the disputed 2009 presidential elections against incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He argued that the hardliner’s victory was rigged and was the focus of vast protest rallies in his support, known as the Green Movement. Ahmadinejad remained in office despite the protests.

Most recently, Mousavi urged Iran’s clerical leadership to step down because of its deadly crackdown on protesters in January, in which rights groups said tens of thousands were killed.

Last week, “he suffered a health crisis and was transferred to a hospital,” his advisor Ardeshir Amir Arjomand, who is based outside Iran, told BBC Persian.

“He is now hospitalized, although his condition has improved since today,” he added.

Arjomand said Mousavi’s condition had been affected........

© The Times of Israel