The authorities of the Islamic Republic of Iran recently launched an unprecedented series of coordinated attacks against two of the highest religious authorities in the land, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri and Grand Ayatollah Ahmad Azari-Qomi.
On November 19, armed thugs supported by agents of the regime's Ministry of Information & Security - the intelligence service - burst into the house of Grand Ayatollah Montazeri in Qom, ransacking his office and physically beating the 75-year old cleric, then carried him off to an undisclosed detention center. Grand Ayatollah Azari-Qomi was also arrested.
On November 26, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ali Khamene'i, announced in a televised speech that the two had " committed treason against the people, the revolution and the country," and commanded the Judiciary Branch to ensure they were "punished according to the law."
Under current Iranian law, treason is punishable by death. Convictions on charges of treason are most frequently handed down in closed tribunals.
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is concerned that Grand Ayatollah Montazeri and Grand Ayatollah Azari-Qomi may be prisoners of conscience, since their crime was to have publicly questioned the religious credentials of the regime's Supreme Leader, and to have called for democratic changes in Iran's system of government. We have asked United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan to intervene on their behalf. The Foundation believes that the recent mob violence, carried out on the orders of the ruling faction, is only the beginning of a much wider crackdown against the traditional clergy, who are becoming increasingly vocal in their opposition to the regime's doctrine of "Velayat-e faghih," or absolute clerical rule. That opposition was demonstrated yet again today by Grand Ayatollah Sadegh Rouhani, who has been under house arrest in Qom since 1985, in a fatwah he faxed to Foundation board member Mehdi Rouhani in Paris, condemning the Velayat-e faghih doctrine as "contrary to Islamic law."
The violent attacks by brown-shirted thugs is also be intended to deliver a lesson to the twenty million Iranians who voted for freedom this past May by massively rejecting the regime's hand-picked candidate for President and supporting the candidacy of a more moderate cleric, Hojjat-ol eslam Mohammad Khatami. As a prominent student leader in Tehran, Mr. Fatohollah Moradi, told an exile radio station in Los Angeles shortly after the attack, "We are afraid [Montazeri] might have been killed. We are afraid for our lives."
The Foundation believes that with these attacks against the clergy a battle royal has been joined, which could shake the regime to its core.
The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is a private, non-profit corporation registered in the State of Maryland. Contact: Kenneth R. Timmerman, Executive Director. Tel: (301) 946-2918. Fax: (301) 942-5341. FDI materials, including the FDI Newswire, are available free-of-charge via the Internet at http://www.iran.org