Iranian professor buried in security-laden ceremony

Iranian physics professor, who was assassinated on Tuesday in Tehran, was buried today in a funeral which according to opposition website, Jaras, was guarded heavily with forces in plain clothes.

The report adds that a number of photojournalists at the site were arrested. According to Jaras the arrested photojournalists were all women and three of them belong to foreign news agencies.

Massoud Ali-Mohammadi was killed on Tuesday after a booby-trapped motorcycle exploded near his home in an affluent area of Tehran.

In an allusion to the government’s claim that the US and Israel are behind this assassination, some people chanted anti US and Israeli slogans during the ceremony.

State media has described Ali-Mohammadi as a nuclear scientist and his death is portrayed as a act to stifle Iran’s nuclear activities.

However, his acquaintances have rejected this, claiming that he was in fact a protester of the June presidential election and the following events, and that he had in fact participated in the June 15 demonstrations which was in condemnation of the alleged fraud that secured Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s second term at presidency.

Opposition leaders, Ayatollah Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami have both condemned the assassination of Massoud Ali-Mohammadi in a message of condolence.

Former president Mohammad Khatami writes that: “The evil hand that has committed this crime is, no doubt, the enemy of Iran and the nation, looking to widen the crisis which is detrimental to all of us.”