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Top Iranian cleric lashes out at rioters
TEHRAN - A top cleric Friday called on Iran's hardline judiciary to treat "rioters" arrested during 10 nights of anti-regime protests as "enemies of Allah" - a charge that carries the death penalty. "I ask the head of the judiciary and public prosecutors across Iran not to treat these people with compassion as they endangered the country's security. Islamic Sharia and our laws are explicit on what we should do with them," Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi said in a Friday prayers sermon. "The judiciary should deal with these people as Moharebs (those who fight Allah) and not as Mokhalef (those who oppose Allah)," he added, urging the courts to handle the detainees "quickly, meticulously, seriously and ruthlessly".
| "Yes, yes! We must kill them! Kill them all!" he said, spraying spittle into the ninth row... |
The charge of being a Mohareb carries the death penalty in Iran. After student riots in 1999, one protestor was convicted of that charge and condemned to die, but the punishment was later commuted to 15 years imprisonment. Ayatollah Yazdi is a nut an ultra-conservative former head of Iran's judiciary - a bastion of the religious right - and currently a prominent jurist sitting on both the Guardians Council and Expediency Council, Iran's two top political oversight bodies.
| Yasss... I think I might see what the problem is... |
Posted by: Fred Pruitt 2003-06-20 |
