Tehran: Several people have been arrested
after Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and
revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini were
insulted in anti-government protests, the prosecutor general
said on Monday.
Opposition supporters staged protests during the
annual Student Day rally on December 7, when a poster of
Khomeini was reportedly torn up, sparking angry
counter-demonstrations by regime loyalists.
"One culprit was arrested on that day. He is in jail
and the case is due to be sent to court soon," Abbas Jafari
Dolatabadi was quoted as saying by the ILNA and Mehr news
agencies.
Asked if anyone had been arrested for insulting
Khamenei, he said that "those arrested are from both groups,"
without elaborating.
"We are sure about some of them -- their offence is
proven and they have confessed," he added.
The opposition, which charges that President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's re-election in June was fraudulent, has faced
mounting pressure since state television aired footage of the
torn poster of Khomeini.
Main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has
condemned the act, but has also accused hardliners of
provocation.
PTI
First Published: Monday, December 14, 2009, 20:13