Mir-Hossein Mousavi

Mir-Hossein Mousavi is a leading opposition leader in and former Prime Minister of Iran. An ethnic Azeri, he is related to Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. In the 1970s, he became involved in Islamist politics and is considered the "architect" of the Islamic Revolution, having acted as political secretary of Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Republican Party and edited its newspaper. He was Iran's Prime Minister throughout the 1980s, before the position was abolished and he retired from politics.

Leaving retirement to contest the 2009 presidential election, Mousavi placed second behind Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, leading to suspicions of electoral fraud because pre-election polls had indicated Mousavi was leading. Protestors voiced their concerns in what became known as the Green Revolution, which was violently suppressed by state security forces. In response to the specter of Arab Spring protests, Mousavi was placed under house arrest in February 2011, where he is believed to remain.

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