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President"s supporters stage demonstrations in Iran
Published in Saudi Press Agency on 30 - 12 - 2009

Hundreds of thousands of supporters of Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Wednesday staged state-sponsored
demonstrations throughout the country against the opposition, according to dpa.
State television showed footage of the demonstrations in several
Iranian cities, where people shouted slogans against the opposition
and in favour of the president after unrest at the weekend in which
police clashed with opposition protestors.
Tens of thousands also gathered in Tehran to counter the anti-
Ahmadinejad protests held Sunday during the Shiite mourning
ceremonies of Ashura.
"Death to Moussavi" was the main slogan heard at the Tehran
demonstration, in reference to Mir Hossein Moussavi, one of the main
opposition leaders who lost to Ahmadinejad in disputed June
elections.
There were unconfirmed reports that Ahmadinejad supporters planned
to stage a sit-in in front of one of Moussavi"s offices until he is
arrested.
Iran"s deputy police chief, however, said Wednesday that were no
plans to arrest Iranian opposition leaders, for fear of turning them
into heroes.
"The arrests of the opposition leaders are not on the police
agenda, as we do want to overexpose them by arresting them," Ahmad-
Reza Radan told the Mehr news agency.
Several hardliners, including President Ahmadinejad, have called
for the arrest of the opposition leaders, especially after unrest on
Sunday left eight dead and 500 to 800 demonstrators imprisoned.
The crowd in Tehran also criticized cleric Mehdi Karroubi, who
heads the opposition party Etemad Melli (National Trust).
The demonstrators urged the judiciary to allow them to take
revenge on opponents for having marred the holy day of Ashura.
"There should be a difference between the Hezbollah "party of God"
and Hezb"e Sheytan (party of the devil)," Ayatollah Mehdi Aalamolhoda
said in a speech at the main gathering in Enqelab square in central
Tehran.
Aalamolhoda, who is the Friday prayer leader in the religious city
of Mashad and a supporter of Ahmadinejad, termed those undermining
the Islamic system as blasphemous and enemies of God.
"The Iranian judiciary should declare a deadline for the
opposition leaders to repent their actions, or otherwise, they would
be branded enemies of God and face the relevant consequences," said
the ayatollah, referring to the death sentence, the punishment for
such offenders.
The crowd shouted its approval of the ayatollah"s demand and
cried, "Moussavi and Karroubi should be executed."
Aalamolhoda added that Ahmadinejad"s supporters and the
establishment should no longer only react to the opposition groups"
moves, but take the initiative.
The demonstration in Tehran was broadcast live on four state
television channels, which have this week devoted most of their
programming to criticizing the opposition as mercenaries of foreign
states.
Local media reported that millions attended the pro-government
demonstrations. The Fars news blamed Western media for having
downplayed the number of demonstrators and calling the gatherings
state-run.
Iran"s police chief said the authorities would adopt a harsher
posture with protestors.
"During last Sunday"s protests, 120 police were injured, with 60
of them still hospitalized, and two police cars and several
motorbikes were burned by the protestors," General Ismaeil Ahmadi-
Moqaddam told reporters Wednesday.
"Nowhere in the world are police beaten up by protestors," he
said. "From now on, both police and the judiciary will more harshly
confront them."
The general denied that government authorities had driven a police
car into a crowd on Sunday, hitting several protestors and killing at
least two of them, as purportedly shown on video posted on the
internet.
"During the unrest, one car that had previously been stolen hit
two people and killed them, and police are investigating the case,"
he said.
He said 500 protestors were arrested by the police and separate
arrests were also carried out by the Ministry of Intelligence and
Security.
Opposition websites had reported that at least 800 protestors were
arrested, including 300 in Tehran, during the latest unrest to rock
Iran since the presidential election. At least 18 dissidents close to
Moussavi"s Green Movement were detained Monday and Tuesday.
At least eight people were reported killed Sunday, including
Moussavi"s 35-year-old nephew, who, according to the police chief,
was shot dead by unknown perpetrators in a stolen car.
Iran"s Intelligence Minister Heydar Moslehi was quoted by Fars
Wednesday saying that Moussavi was probably killed by members of the
Iranian opposition group People"s Mujaheddin of Iran (PMOI).
Iran regards PMOI as a terrorist group after implicating it in the
assassinations of several high-ranking Iranian officials, including
the president and prime minister in 1980.
The United States has also listed the PMOI as a terrorist group,
but it was removed from the European Union"s terrorism list this year
after a legal battle.
Moussavi, whose body was examined by the coroner office to clarify
the case of death, was buried Wednesday in a hastily organized
ceremony at the Behesht Zahre graveyard in southern Tehran to avoid
another protest demonstration by the opposition.


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