In that role, he suddenly shares the limelight with figures such as Syria's hardline president, Bashar Assad.
Since then, the order from hardline President Alvaro Uribe has been to find something to put him back behind bars.
Karrubi, along with opposition candidate Mir Hossein Moussavi, ran against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election.
He backed Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi in the presidential election, in which hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the overwhelming winner.
CNN: Iranian reformist demands investigation into treatment of detainees
Karrubi and Moussavi, who both ran against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have criticized the government, saying remnants of the "tyranny" and "dictatorship" that prevailed under the shah's regime persist today.
The authenticity of the information could not immediately be established, but its posting coincided with growing unrest by demonstrators, who complain that hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's election victory was rigged.
CNN: Chaos prevails as protesters, police clash in Iranian capital
Larijani's fiery response was to accusations made by opposition candidate Mehdi Karrubi who, along with opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi, ran against hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 12 election.
Iran's hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, under pressure at home over allegations that his re-election in June was rigged, has championed the nuclear programme as evidence that the Islamic republic had joined the ranks of the world's most scientifically advanced nations.
Moussavi and Karrubi ran in the presidential election on June 12, in which hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the overwhelming winner.
CNN: Top Iranian general: Let's prosecute opposition leaders
Iran's election authority declared hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the winner of the presidential race, sparking outrage in supporters of popular opposition leader Mir Hossein Moussavi.
CNN: Feared Basij militia has deep history in Iranian conflict
But Rafsanjani -- a key politician in the Islamic republic -- has become increasingly vocal about the elections results that gave hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an overwhelming victory.
CNN: Rafsanjani doubts Iranians 'satisfied' with election aftermath
The weekly magazine was the latest casualty of a hardline backlash against reformist President Mohammad Khatami's cultural liberalisation policies.
They say the president needs hardline support against the reformist opposition who continue to maintain that his re-election was fraudulent.
Tension has been growing between hardline Islamists and secularists since the overthrow of President Ben Ali's autocratic rule.
On 2 December, in an unambiguous indication of solidarity with hardline military, KGB and Party elements, President Gorbachev fired Interior Minister Vadim Bakatin a man deemed reasonable by reformers.
The election last week of a hardline anti-capitalist as Iran's new president has added to fears of a disruption in supply.
Then there was the emergence of Thein Sein, a former general who became the new president in March 2011, succeeding the hardline General Than Shwe.
Over the past four years, the Obama administration's posture on North Korea was also dictated by former South Korean president Lee Myung-bak's hardline stance towards the North.
As the Obama administration's treatment of Israel to date shows clearly, the president and his advisers have no intention of compromising their hardline positions on Israel.
When asked by the then-Mayor of Moscow Gavril Popov to inform Yeltsin during a U.S. visit that a hardline coup was in the offing, the White House decided instead to divulge this information to President Gorbachev, for whom the plotters worked.
Another Iranian newspaper, hardline Qods, chose to focus on Moscow's plan for Syria, which involves power-sharing between President Assad and the rebels.
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