Senior Iranian Cleric Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami: Punish "Leaders Of The Riots, Who Were Supported By Israel And The U.S., Strongly And With Cruelty"

ABC reports on "the latest sign that the regime is not bending," reporting that "Ayatollah Ahmed Khatami, a senior cleric, said during nationally broadcast Muslim sermon on Friday that the government should punish 'leaders of the riots, who were supported by Israel and the U.S., strongly and with cruelty.' In his sermon at Tehran University, Khatami also accused foreign journalists of false reporting on post-election Iran. He alleged that an icon of the protests, Neda Agha Soltan, was killed by protesters, not Iranian security forces quelling unrest... Basij militiamen have broken up even small groups of people walking together to prevent any possible gathering. Still, dozens of friends and relatives of Soltan managed to pay tribute Friday, arriving at Tehran’s Behesht-e Zahra cemetery in groups of two and three, uttering brief prayers, placing flowers on Soltan’s grave and then leaving, witnesses said."

Khatami, a member of the powerful Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading “rioters” as “mohareb” or one who wages war against God. “They should be punished ruthlessly and savagely,” he said. Under Iran’s Islamic law, punishment for people convicted as “mohareb” is execution.
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