TEHRAN, Iran – Iran’s most senior dissident cleric on Wednesday criticized the ruling system under Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as a dictatorship in the name of Islam, the most serious attack on the country’s top official following the disputed presidential election.
Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri said the ruling system showed its true nature with the violent crackdown against the hundreds of thousands who protested President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election and the torture of detainees that led to at least three deaths.
“The biggest oppression … is despotic treatment of the people in the name of Islam,” Montazeri said in a written response to some 300 activists that was posted on his Web site. “I hope the responsible authorities give up the deviant path they are pursuing and restore the trampled rights of the people.”
