Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other government officials have compared Iran's human rights record favorably to other countries, particularly countries that have criticized Iran's record. In a 2008 speech, he replied to a question about human rights by stating that Iran has fewer prisoners than the US and "the human rights situation in Iran is relatively a good one, when compared ... with some European countries and the United States."
Timeline of the 2009 Iranian election protests
The Guardian Council, the body in charge of supervising and certifying the elections in Iran, declared the incumbent President Ahmadinejad winner after dismissing the vote challenges, according to a front-page report on CNN.com. The report said that PressTV, a semi-state run television network in the nation announced the decision via a spokesperson for the group. They said that while they agreed that in up to 50 cities votes were higher than those eligible to vote, but that it was not enough to result in anything beyond further investigations.Speaking at a news conference on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi accused Western governments of explicitly backing violent protests aimed at undermining the stability of Iran's Islamic Republic. He said the West was acting in an "anti-democratic" manner, instead praising Iran's commitment to democracy and stressing once again that the results of the presidential election were unimpeachable. Iran has strongly criticised the US and UK governments in recent days, and Mr Qashqavi reserved special scorn for the BBC and for the Voice of America network, which he called "government channels". He spoke as Tehran remained tense but quiet amid heavy security aimed at preventing new protests against the result of Iran's presidential election. Mr Mousavi has told his supporters, who have taken to the streets in their tens of thousands for more than a week, to continue their protests but not to put their lives in danger.