Iranian authorities arrest more followers of dissident cleric

Ayatollah Dastgheib

Islamic Republic authorities arrested another 39 of supporters and seminarians of senior dissident cleric, Ayatollah Dastgheib in Shiraz.

The opposition website, Kaleme reports that these 39 followers of the dissident cleric have been arrested in the course of last week.

Earlier, they also arrested 13 of Ayatollah Dastgheib’s seminarians, five of which were released on bail, leaving 42 of the dissident cleric’s followers in prison at the moment.

Ayatollah Dastgheib is one of the staunch critics of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s government who has repeatedly condemned the violent confrontation of protesters that claim the re-election of Ahmadinejad was secured through vote-rigging.

Ahmadinejad supporters have attacked the dissident cleric on many occasions. Most recently assailants attacked his mosque in Shiraz and caused many injuries on September 3.

While hardliners in Shiraz have called for his resignation from the Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Dastgheib boycotted yesterday’s session in protest to the Assembly’s indifference to the demands of election protesters and political prisoners.

He issued a letter on his website condemning false accusations against the opposition leaders and questioning the Assembly of Experts’ course of action in the past year.