TEHRAN (AFP) – An Iranian court has banned two leading reformist parties which backed opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi in last year’s presidential poll, a judiciary spokesman said Monday.

Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said that the Islamic Iran Participation Front and Islamic Revolution Mujahedeen Organisation had been “dissolved.”

“Their case was sent to the court which dissolved both parties and they are not allowed to have any activities,” said Ejeie, cited by the ILNA new agency.

He did not say whether the ruling could be appealed.

In April, a hardline political watchdog affiliated with the Interior Ministry accused the two parties of undermining national security and suspended their activities.

The two political groups had strongly supported Mousavi, the main challenger to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June 2009 presidential election.

After the disputed re-election of Ahmadinejad, several high-ranking members of both parties were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms in a major crackdown on reformists, political activists and journalists.