TEHRAN: In apparent defiance of Iran’s supreme leader, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani declared the Islamic Republic in crisis after a disputed election, and tens of thousands of protesters used Friday prayers to stage the biggest show of dissent for weeks.
Clashes erupted in central Tehran between police and followers of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, who still contests official results that showed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been re-elected by a wide margin. “Police fired tear gas and beat supporters of Mousavi in Keshavarz Boulevard,” a witness said, adding that protesters were carrying hundreds of green banners — Mousavi’s campaign color — and chanting “Ahmadinejad, resign, resign.”
One witness said policemen smashed the windows of several cars whose drivers were sounding their horns, a tactic adopted by protesters.
In his sermon broadcast live on radio nationwide, Rafsanjani said many Iranians had doubts about the official result of the June 12 vote.
“I hope with this sermon we can pass through this period of hardships that can be called a crisis,” said the influential politician, leading prayers for the first time since the poll.
Rafsanjani did not go as far as Mousavi and reformist candidate Mehdi Karoubi in denouncing the conduct of the vote, but his remarks still posed a clear challenge to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has upheld the election result and accused foreign powers of fomenting the unrest.
Some religious leaders also support Ahmadinejad, but others, including Grand Ayatollahs Yusof Saanei and Hossein Ali Montazeri, have criticized the authorities.
Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts — a powerful body that can in theory dismiss the supreme leader — attacked the way authorities had handled the poll and its aftermath. “When people are not in the scene and their votes are not there, that government is not Islamic,” he said, referring to opposition charges of vote-rigging. “Today is a bitter day.”
Rafsanjani also demanded the immediate release of people detained in the unrest and called for press curbs to be relaxed. Some of his own relatives, including his daughter Faezeh, were arrested briefly for joining pro-Mousavi rallies.
Karoubi came under attack from men in plainclothes on his way to the prayers, according to his son Hossein and Fars news agency.
Among those arrested was leading lawyer and women’s rights campaigner Shadi Sadr. “Shadi called me from an unknown location and said she was arrested by plainclothes officials who forcefully got her into a car,” Hossein Nilchian, her husband, said.
