TEHRAN: An Iranian preacher called yesterday for the execution of leading “rioters” to teach a lesson to the thousands who have protested against the June 12 presidential election result as the country’s top legislative body, the Guardian Council, said it had found no major violations in the election but agreed to recount 10 percent of the votes.
“The Guardian Council has decided to set up a special commission of political figures and representatives of candidates who have been protesting (poll results) to draft a report on the election,” its spokesman Abbasali Kadkhodai said.
“Ten percent of the votes will be recounted in the presence of this commission and a report for the public will be published,” ISNA quoted him as saying.
The council has already rejected a call for the annulment of the vote by former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, who has led mass protests since he was declared a distant second in the election behind incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Kadkhodai earlier said the reviews of defeated candidates’ election complaints showed that the election was the healthiest since the revolution. There were no major violations,” he added. Leading preacher Ahmad Khatami, meanwhile, told worshippers at Tehran University, “I want the judiciary to punish leading rioters firmly and without showing any mercy to teach everyone a lesson.”
Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, said the judiciary should charge the leading rioters as being “mohareb” and that they should be punished ruthlessly and savagely. Under Iran’s law, punishment for people convicted as “mohareb” is execution.
Khatami in his sermon yesterday said Neda Agha Soltan — the young woman killed last week and became an icon of protests — was killed by government opponents for propaganda purposes. “By watching the film, any wise person can understand that rioters killed her,” he said. Britain’s Times newspaper quoted Dr. Arash Hejazi, an Iranian who appeared on Internet videos helping Neda, as echoing opposition charges the 26-year-old music student was killed by a government militiaman. “She was just a person in the street who was against the injustice going on in her country, and for that she was murdered,” he said. Khatami also called on the government to impose tighter controls on the foreign media. “How can they be allowed to wander across the country with their satellite phones giving information that provokes people to take to the streets?” he asked.
Iranian state television said on Thursday eight Basij militiamen were killed by “rioters” during the protests. State media previously said 20 people were killed in the marches.
The Group of Eight foreign ministers, meeting in Italy, said they “deplored” the post-election violence, while also urging Tehran to accept an offer of negotiations over its disputed nuclear program.
“The crisis should be settled soon through democratic dialogue and peaceful means on the basis of the rule of law,” said a statement by the G-8 ministers. “We call on the Iranian government to guarantee that the will of the Iranian people is reflected in the electoral process.”
The authorities have used a combination of warnings, arrests and the threat of police action to drive large demonstrations off Tehran’s street since Saturday with small gatherings dispersed with tear gas and baton charges.
Russia, which along with China congratulated Ahmadinejad on his re-election earlier this month, said yesterday it was seriously concerned by the use of force in Iran. “We naturally express our most serious concern about the use of force and the death of civilians,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on the sidelines of the G-8 meeting. Russia was among G-8 countries anxious not to slam the door on possible talks with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.
