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Iran poll result invalid, say clerics

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-06 08:50

TEHERAN: A pro-reform Iranian clerical group said Sunday the outcome of last month's presidential vote was "invalid", even though Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has upheld the result.

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In a sign of a deepening rift among Shi'ite clerics, the Assembly of Qom Seminary Scholars and Researchers also called for the release of Iranians arrested in protests after the hardline president was declared winner of the June 12 vote.

"Other candidates' complaints and strong evidence of vote-rigging were ignored ... peaceful protests by Iranians were violently oppressed ... dozens of Iranians were killed and hundreds were illegally arrested," said a statement published on the Assembly's website.. "The outcome is invalid."

Qom is Iran's center of Shi'ite learning, about 125 km south of Teheran. The assembly has little political influence but its statement is a significant act of defiance since Qom is the power base of the clerical establishment.

It follows calls by hardliners for leaders of the protests, the most striking display of dissent in Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, to be put on trial.

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards Sunday accused opposition leaders of "trying to overthrow the Islamic establishment".

"We had forecast a velvet revolution. But it was neutralized by our vigilance," the official IRNA news agency quoted General Yadollah Javani as saying.

Iran's police chief said on Wednesday 1,032 people had been detained during the protests in Teheran but most had been freed.

Journalist released

Iran said Sunday it had released a Greek journalist covering the election for the Washington Times, while British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said one of two British embassy employees detained in Iran would be freed later in the day.

There was no immediate comment from the Iranian Foreign Ministry on the embassy employees, whose arrest led to the summoning of Iranian envoys to European Union countries.

"Because of the humanitarian efforts made by Iran's envoy to Greece ... the Greek journalist was released today," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi told state television.

Iranian officials deny the election was rigged, saying it was the "healthiest" since the 1979 revolution. They have clamped down on the protests, but opponents say they will not give up.

While some clerics, such as Ayatollah Mohammad Mesbah Yazdi, are aligned with hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at least two grand ayatollahs, dissident Hossein Ali Montazeri and moderate Yusof Saanei, had already criticized the authorities.

"With all these problems, how can the result be recognized as legitimate? How can the next government be recognized as legitimate," the Qom assembly statement said.

Two losing candidates, Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi, have also said Ahmadinejad's next cabinet would be illegitimate.

Reuters