Thirty people arrested at funeral of Ayatollah Montazeri's wife

Thirty people were arrested yesterday at the funeral of Mahsoltan Rabani, wife of late dissident cleric Ayatollah Montazeri in Qom.

Kalameh website reports that participants were arrested as they returned from the cemetery by security forces which had been deployed in the area since the early hours of the day.

Mahsoltan Rabani passed away two days ago and her funeral was carried out yesterday under strict state security measures.

Her son, Saeed Montazeri told Jaras yesterday that the security forces and forces in plain clothes impeded the family from carrying out the customary prayers and rituals.

He added that his mother’s remains were held in strict control of the forces who did not allow any access to it by the people or even her family.

Ayatollah Montazeri was one of the most outspoken critics of the Islamic Republic up to his death last December.

Ayatollah Montazeri had pronounced Mahmoud Ahmadinejd's government illegitimate claiming Ahmadinejad had been elected through fraud. His funeral in December was attended by hundreds of thousands of election protesters in Qom.

The government has been cracking down on election protesters in the past nine months arresting over five thousand people.

Most recently Ahmad Miri, executive member of Islamic Iran Participation Front was arrested in Mazandaran. He was summoned to Babol Court before Norooz and arrested by the Ministry of Intelligence.

Reportedly Samieh Farid, a women’s rights activist and Sasan Aghai, a journalist were released yesterday from Evin prison.

Samieh Farid was arrested two weeks ago and was released on a $60 thousand bail.

Sasan Aghai was released after 120 days in prison. Aghai has collaborated as a journalist with various reformist newspapers.

While the government has released some of the post-election detainees, still scores of them remain in custody.