Anti-government groups in Iran are calling for Iranians to attend protest rallies on 20 February in Tehran and other major cities to mark the deaths of two protesters one week ago.

The opposition website kaleme.com says the rallies will be a “fight against religious dictatorship” in Iran.

The rallies come after conservative members of Iran’s parliament called for opposition leaders Mir Hossein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi to be executed for being “corrupt on earth” (MEED 16:2:11).

Moussavi and Karroubi have been under house arrest to prevent them from attending protests. The defeat of both men in the 2009 elections triggered weeks of violent protests in Tehran two years ago. The protests drew the largest crowds since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that protests seen across central Iran since 14 February are going nowhere and he has pledged to punish the organisers.

Thousands gathered in Tehran’s Azadi Square on 14 February spurred on by uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia. Two people were killed and many more wounded during clashes with police.