Senior Iranian cleric says rioters should be severely punished

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami says those involved in 'destructive acts' during post-election protests are enemies of God and 'should receive the severest of the punishments.'

By Borzou Daragahi

8:54 AM PDT, June 26, 2009

Reporting from Dubai, United Arab Emirates — A senior cleric who is close to Iran's supreme leader said in a prayer sermon that rioters involved in protests alleging fraud in the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad should receive the "severest of punishments," according to state broadcasting.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami, a confidant of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, described the unpermitted public gatherings and rallies as against Islamic law.

In the Friday prayer sermon, he described anyone taking part in "destructive acts" as muharib, enemies of God whose annihilation by true believers is religiously sanctioned.

"Anyone who takes up arms, be it guns or knives, is a muharib and Islam has said that muharib should receive the severest of the punishments," said Khatami, who shares a last name with a popular former reformist president but has opposite political views.

After refusing to grant demonstrators permission to protest the election results, the government has increasingly cast those who massed in the streets for a series of peaceful rallies as extremists opposed to the government or dupes of antagonistic foreign governments.

Khatami did not directly equate peaceful protesters with rioters, but most observers say that distinction may be lost on the club-wielding pro-government Basiji and Ansar-e Hezbollah vigilantes who have allegedly been beating demonstrators in what many critics regard as an attempt to terrorize dissidents into submission.

Instead, he thanked the Basiji forces for their help in quelling days of unrest. Khamenei last week appeared to give such militiamen sanction to crack down violently on protesters, sparking fiery riots through central Tehran the following day.

Khatami also urged the courts to come down hard on those arrested in connection with the protests. "I call on officials of the judicial branch to deal severely and ruthlessly with the leaders of the agitations whose fodder comes from America and Israel so that everyone learns a lesson from it," he said.

Around Iran today, small groups of people released green and black balloons in symbolic acts of protest meant to honor defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi and those killed in the election aftermath.

Most independent analysts and Iran experts regard the results of the election, which Ahmadinejad claimed to win in a landslide, as highly suspicious.

Western officials and the United Nations have decried a broad crackdown on dissidents and activists. Diplomats at a meeting of wealthy Group of 8 countries in Italy today issued a statement condemning the violence in Iran. "We deplore post-electoral violence which led to the loss of lives of Iranian civilians," the foreign ministers said in a draft statement, according to news agencies.

But Khatami blasted Western leaders and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as hypocrites. "You are a miserable fellow," he said, addressing Ban. "In Gaza, 400 children were killed and you were not worried then?"

Deteriorating relations between Iran and the West could affect the outcome of anticipated negotiations over Tehran's nuclear program, condemned in multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions and the subject of scrutiny by international arms inspectors.

Russia, often a backer of Iran, today joined the West in expressing "serious concern" over the Iranian government's reaction to the unrest.

"Naturally, we express serious concern over the use of force, the death of civilians," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Trieste, Italy, according to Interfax news agency. "We do not interfere in the internal affairs of Iran, and we base our position on the principle that all issues that have arisen in the context of the election will be resolved in accordance with democratic procedures."

But Khatami said today that the election, which reportedly drew 85% of eligible voters, showed the "power and grandeur" of Iran's Islamic system and urged Iranians still divided over the election to let bygones be bygones.

"We should put aside the preelection resentments and act brotherly," he said. "We are one nation and one country. Let us not institutionalize grudges and instead institutionalize brotherhood and friendship against the foreigners who have prepared their sharp satanic teeth to loot the legacy of your martyrs."

daragahi@latimes.com

A special correspondent in Tehran contributed to this report.