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Iran's top leader, Khamenei , betraying revolution --

By Dan De Luce

Iran's top leader 'betraying' revolution

Dan De Luce in Tehran
Wednesday February 18, 2004
The Guardian


Reformist MPs in Iran yesterday launched an unprecedented attack on the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing him of abusing people's rights and freedoms by allowing a ban on more than 2,000 moderate candidates in this week's parliamentary elections.

In a letter addressed to the ayatollah and signed by more than 100 MPs, the reformists said the spirit of the 1979 Islamic revolution had been betrayed by a theocracy that was seeking to rig Friday's vote through an electoral blacklist.

"The popular revolution brought freedom and independence for the country in the name of Islam, but now you lead a system in which legitimate freedoms and the rights of the people are being trampled on in the name of Islam," the MPs said.

The letter, which was read out to dozens of MPs sitting on carpets in the parliament's lobby, blamed the ayatollah for presiding over a system that had repeatedly vetoed the parliament's initiatives and barred most reformists from appearing on the ballot.

"Institutions under your supervision, after four years of humiliating the elected parliament and thwarting [reform] bills, have now deprived the people of the most basic right - the right to choose and be chosen," the letter said.

The reformists have been reduced to making symbolic gestures after the guardian council, a constitutional body of appointed clerics and Islamic lawyers, refused to reinstate more than 2,000 prospective candidates in the parliamentary polls.

Reformist MPs, who won a majority in a general election four years ago, held a sit-in for more than three weeks after the council issued its decision last month.

Hopes were raised of a possible compromise when Ayatollah Khamenei suggested the ban be reviewed. But the council reinstated only one-third of the original black list of 3,600 prospective candidates, saying that those disqualified had failed to display sufficient loyalty to Islam and the theocracy.

"The hardliners have been playing chess and losing," said Jalil Sazegarnejad, a reformist blocked from seeking re-election. "So they just changed the rules so they can win."

Ministers in the reformist cabinet, who serve under the moderate president, Mohammad Khatami, had threatened to resign or to refuse to administer the election. But those threats went unfulfilled and student leaders this week castigated Mr Khatami for choosing to stay in office.

The largest reformist party - the Participation Front, led by the president's brother - and other reformists have said they will boycott the election. They say a low voter turnout will prove that the regime lacks legitimacy.

"It is a cry of agony for what's happening to our country," said Reza Yousefian, a parliament member who has joined appeals for a mass boycott of the balloting. "We may see a strong social backlash."

The Nobel peace prize winner Shirin Ebadi, a human rights lawyer, is supporting a boycott. She told Reuters news agency: "The first principle of democracy is that people should have the right to vote for who they want."

The letter accused the ayatollah of speaking up for free elections publicly while directing the guardian council to orchestrate the outcome of the vote. It appeared on pro-reform web sites, but was not mentioned by state-run media. Newspapers have reportedly been warned not to publish it.

The crisis has failed to trigger a mass popular reaction, as ordinary Iranians have become disillusioned with the reformists for failing to confront the theocratic leadership when newspapers were shut and protesters assaulted.

Some 80 MPs are among those barred from the ballot, including the president's younger brother, Mohammad Reza Khatami, who leads the Participation Front. Criticism of the supreme leader is taboo under Iran's theocratic system, but frustrated reformists have begun to cross the line.

Iran's constitution places final political and religious authority in the office of the supreme leader, whose power over the armed forces, state TV and appointed bodies resembles that of a monarch.

He appoints the guardian council and has the power to confirm or reject the election of the country's president. Enshrined in the constitution is the principle of velayat-faqih or the guardianship of the Islamic jurisprudent, which asserts that only the leader possesses the moral wisdom and virtue to govern.

Some members of the Shia clergy and prominent Iranian academics have been punished for criticising the concept as undemocratic and an inappropriate interpretation of Islam.

One university professor, Hashem Aghajari, was sentenced to death in 2002 for questioning the clergy's divine right to rule and urging a "reformation". His death sentence was later lifted, but he remains imprisoned for his remarks.



    
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