Iran cleric calls for release of protesters


Powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on Friday called for the release of hundreds of people rounded up during a crackdown on opposition protests and said last month's disputed presidential vote had broken the trust of Iranians.

Addressing thousands of people, mainly supporters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, during Friday prayers at Tehran university, Rafsanjani said events since the election had thrown the Islamic republic into crisis.

Iranian authorities have jailed hundreds of people amid a crackdown to stifle protests which erupted following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's disputed June 12 re-election.

"What should we do?" Rafsanjani asked, in his first public comments on the divisive election. "Our key issue is to return the trust which the people had and now to some extent is broken.

"It is not necessary that in this situation people be jailed. Let them join their families. We should not allow enemies to rebuke and ridicule us because of detentions. We should tolerate each other," said Rafsanjani, a backer of the defiant opposition, especially Mousavi.

He said he had formulated a possible solution to the situation which he had discussed with members of two key institutions which he heads, the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts.

"A large group of ... people of the country say they have doubt" about the result of the election, the cleric said. "We should work to address these doubts.

"These are bitter times. I don't think anybody from any faction wanted it to end like this. We have all lost. We need unity more than ever," he added.

"If we can provide a consensus, then this sermon will be the beginning of a change in the future. We will leave behind this problem which we can say is a crisis."

Soon after he finished speaking, several thousand supporters of Mousavi held a demonstration near the university, witnesses said.

The demonstrators shouted "Ya Hossein, Mir Hossein!" and "Allahu Akbar" God is Greatest as riot police attempted to disperse them, a witness told AFP, adding that several demonstrators were quickly arrested by riot police.

Mousavi had been expected to attend the prayers which would have marked his first public appearance since his supporters last month staged the anti-Ahmadinejad protests in Tehran.

However, witnesses said they could not confirm Mousavi's attendance. Mousavi has charged that the June vote was rigged and has dismissed the next government as "illegitimate."

The foreign media was banned from covering the prayers.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie had earlier expressed concern over the prayers.

"Iranian people must be careful that the Friday prayers are not turned into a venue for unpleasant scenes," he said on Thursday.

The post-election anti-Ahmadinejad protests saw hundreds of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets of Tehran and other cities, triggering the worst crisis in the Islamic republic since the 1979 revolution.

Rafsanjani had come under attack from Ahmadinejad during a prime-time television debate in the run-up to the vote, with the hardline incumbent accusing Rafsanjani's family of corruption.





A baby killer whale and his mother perform at Kamogawa Sea World in Japan. AP Photo/Itsuo Inouye

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