Iran Official Calls ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Arrests a Human Rights Violation, Plans Lawsuit

May 7, 2011: Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, left, greets former Judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, right, as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sits at center, during a religious ceremony, in Tehran, Iran. (AP/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader)

Iran's judiciary chief told the country’s official news agency Wednesday that he ordered a top prosecutor to gather evidence proving that the United States committed human rights crimes in Iran and within its own country.

"We must open a special case for America's crimes in which there is an indictment for the crimes it has carried out in this country and other Islamic states," Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, a cleric who heads the country's judicial system, told the country’s official news agency, Reuters reported.

The official said Iran plans to sue the U.S. for committing crimes against both Iranians and American citizens. He cited the arrest of Occupy Wall Street protesters as a U.S. "human rights violation."

The statement by Larijani, a cleric who heads the country's judicial system, come days after the U.S. accused Iranian government agents of plotting to kill the Saudi ambassador in the United States. Iran has dismissed the charges as absurd.

Larijani claims that Washington has employed terms like “war on terrorism” to gain power and cover up its own internal problems, Reuters reported.