Religious court bans mention of Montazeri
TEHRAN, March 4 (AFP) - Iran's Islamic hardliners launched a fresh crackdown
on a prominent liberal dissident as pressure mounted Thursday for the release
of one of his jailed associates.
A special religious court barred Iran's newspapers from citing Ayatollah
Hossein-Ali Montazeri, a leading dissident who has regularly denounced
the conservatives' stranglehold over the Iranian regime, press reports
said.
The court, in an offical ruling submitted to the ministry of culture
and Islamic guidance, warned that any paper which even mentions Montazeri
will be prosecuted.
Montazeri, who has been under police surveillance for years, was once
tipped as successor to become the nation's next supreme leader after Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomenei, founder of the Islamic republic.
But his liberal views alienated him from the regime and after Khomeini's
death he was passed over in favour of current supreme leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei.
The special court, which operates independently of the judicial system
and reports directly to Khamenei, last week ordered the arrest of liberal
cleric and close Montazeri associate Moshen Kadivar.
Editors of several moderate papers sent reformist President Mohammad
Khatami a joint letter condemning the "convulsive and devastating"
attitudes behind Kadivar's detention, the English-language Iran News reported
Thursday.
They said Kadivar's arrest was "a blow to the realm of freedom
of expression" in Iran, adding that he had been detained for "no
reason."
A leading Islamic scholar said the arrest was a warning to other dissident
clerics not to challenge the religious court's authority as students and
journalists pressed for Kadivar's release.
"Kadivar is an Islamic cleric and thus free to express his theological
views, whatever they are. But his treatment is a warning for other clerics
that their opinions should not go against the views" of the court,
Emadeddin Baqi told the Neshat newspaper.
Kadivar was reportedly detained for issuing pro-Montazeri "propaganda"
and "insulting" Khamenei though he has not been officially charged.
The case has preoccupied the nation's press following the Islamic republic's
first-ever municipal elections last Friday.
Kadivar's sister Jamileh seems assured of a seat on Tehran's municipal
council once vote-counting in the capital is completed in the next few
days.
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