Iran - Montazeri

Mourners arrested after clashes with police in Istafan

Article published on the 2009-12-23 Latest update 2009-12-23 13:44 TU

An opposition supporter holds up a picture of Montazeri
(Photo: Reuters)

At least 50 people have been arrested in Istafan after Iranian police clashed with mourners at a memorial service for dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri who died on Saturday.

According to opposition websites, early in the morning hundreds of police and security force members surrounded the Seyed mosque in Isfahan where the service was to be

held and prevented mourners from entering, sparking fierce clashes.

The website Rahesabz.net said mourners were shouting slogans in support of Iran's opposition Green Movement and police fired tear gas to disperse them.

"Security forces are beating people including women and children with batons, chains and stones," it said, adding that "so far several have been arrested and many were injured."

Parlemannews.ir, the website of Iran's reformist minority faction in parliament, said that "over 50 people, including four reporters, were arrested in clashes."

Montazeri, who was 87, was a fierce critic of the clerical regime he helped create and a vocal backer of the opposition.

His funeral in the holy city of Qom on Monday saw hundreds of thousands of mourners pour onto the streets, effectively turning the ceremony into a massive anti-government protest which ended in clashes between police and mourners.

Wednesday's memorial service in Isfahan, where Montazeri had many followers, was to be led by prominent reformist cleric Ayatollah Jalaledin Taheri.

Another opposition website, Kaleme.org, said that an unnamed governmental body had ordered the memorial cancelled late Tuesday night and that the mosque doors had been closed and guarded by security forces.

The latest crackdown on the opposition comes a day after its major leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was sacked from his post as president of the Academy of Art, which the architect and painter had headed for 10 years.

Mousavi ran for president in 12 June elections which he lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad amid claims that the election was rigged, triggering sporadic protests since then.