IRAN: Cleric says protesters should be ‘savagely’ punished
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Pressure is intensifying on supporters of opposition leader Mir-Hossein Mousavi as Iranian authorities deemed the recent election as the ‘healthiest’ in decades and a hard-line cleric told worshipers at Friday prayers that anti-government protesters should be punished ‘ruthlessly and savagely.’
The Guardian Council, which oversees elections, announced that it had found no major violations in the June 12 vote, which the government says fairly delivered President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a second term. The council’s assessment is a significant obstacle to Mousavi’s attempt to have the election annulled on allegations of fraud, and it was unclear what strategy his supporters would take to overcome a sweeping crackdown on demonstrations.
The tenor of the government’s attitude toward Mousavi’s opposition was reflected in a sermon by Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, who told worshipers at Tehran University that protesters were waging war against God, an offense under Shiite Muslim law as punishable by death. He said: ‘I want the judiciary to . . . punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson.’
-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo
