An Iranian judiciary panel yesterday called for action against key opposition figure Mehdi Karroubi, even as he kept up the heat by issuing a fresh challenge to the outcome of the June 12 election.

The panel, according to the Fars news agency, accused 72-year-old Karroubi of harming the regime with his allegations that jailed protesters had been raped.

The panel said its members had met Karroubi and concluded "that there is no proof that people whom Karroubi alleged were raped have been raped.

"These allegations have been made without any proof, and all the documents given by Karroubi are baseless. These allegations were aimed at distracting public opinion."

The report recommended that action be taken against Karroubi and those airing rape allegations.

"This commission proposes... sending its report to the judiciary so it can act with determination against those who are responsible for spreading such allegations which harm the regime," it said.

Karroubi has been the most vocal in alleging that protesters picked up during demonstrations called by the opposition to protest what it claimed was the rigged re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been sexually abused and beaten in police custody.

In remarks published yesterday in the Italian daily La Stampa, Karroubi kept up the pressure, claiming that the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who led the 1979 Islamic revolution, would have annulled the election results.

In an interview, he said Khomeini would have recoiled at the bloodshed that followed Ahmadinejad's disputed re-election.

"If the Imam Khomeini was alive, he would have annulled these elections (and) condemned the violence and murders," Karroubi said.

"What happened immediately after the elections, the arrests of thousands of members of the opposition, the murder of dozens of people and the acts of violence... constituted a veritable coup d'etat," he added.

Tehran's military prosecutor, meanwhile, said yesterday 90 former inmates of an Iranian detention centre closed over allegations of excesses during the post-election crackdown have formally complained of abuse.

Shokrollah Bahrami, quoted by the Mehr news agency, did not give any details on what kind of abuse allegedly occurred.

"Ninety people who suffered harm have come forward to lodge complaints," he said.

"Seven suspects, all of them members of the security forces, have been arrested," Bahrami said, adding that the warden of the Kahrizak detention centre south of Tehran is also in custody.

He said the case would not go to trial until an investigation had been completed.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ordered the closure of the centre at the end of July.

Three people arrested amid the wave of mass protests that followed the disputed presidential election reportedly died at the Kahrizak centre.

Officials have never detailed the circumstances of their deaths, but press reports and opposition figures say the three were beaten or tortured to death.

They were among a total of 36 people who lost their lives during the unrest, a senior commander of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards was quoted last Thursday as saying.

The opposition says 72 people died.

At least 4,000 people were arrested during the protests. Most have since been freed but around 140 have been put on mass trials.