Montazeri supporters nabbed
Sunday, December 27, TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Eight supporters of a moderate
religious leader who challenged the clergy's right to rule Iran have been
arrested, the weekly paper Aban reported Sunday.
Seven of the supporters of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri were
detained for distributing pamphlets calling for his release from house
arrest, the paper said. It did not specify why the other was arrested.
All eight are clerics, the paper said. It did not say when they were
detained.
In November 1997, Montazeri was publicly repudiated after he questioned
the legitimacy of rule by the clergy, including Iran's powerful spiritual
leader Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei accused him of treason and, days later, hard-liners attacked
Montazeri's home and office in Qom, forcing him to flee under police protection.
Montazeri has been confined to his house in the holy city of Qom since
the middle of last year. He is allowed no visitors, and in February, a
court ordered the freezing of his bank account.
Montazeri was once heir apparent to the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini,
the leader of the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But he fell from grace for being
too critical of Khomeini's hard-line policies.
