Iranian leader says quesfioiñng elecfion a crin'c: TV Reutersoom lttp://wwwreuterscom /articlePrint?articleld—USTRE59R2KX2009 1028
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Iranian leader says questioning election a
crime: TV
Wed Oct29, 2009 9:17am EDT
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah A u Khamenei said Dfl
Wednesday it was a crime to cast doubt on the June election, Which the
opposition says was rigged in favor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad,
state television reported.
Khamenei endorsed Ahmadinejad's victory in the June 12 election, Which
was followed by opposition protests and plunged Iran into its deepest
internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
Khamenei said the election was held and there was a big voter turnout but
that some people had “unfairly” ignored this.
“The leader ... termed questioning the basis of the election the biggest
crime,” state television said in a report from Khamenei's meeting with
leading scientists in Tehran.
It quoted him as saying: “The day after the election, some people called the
glorious election a lie. Is this a minor crime?”
The authorities have portrayed the post-election street demonstrations,
which were quelled by the elite Revolutionary Guards and an allied Islamic
militia, as a foreign-backed bid to undermine the Islamic Republic.
“Of course some people inside (Iran) may not be aware that they are
moving in line with the enemies' threats, but this issue will not change the
truth,” said Khamenei, who has final say on all matters of state.
Thousands of people were arrested after the presidential election, which the
authorities have described as the “healthiest” vote Iran has held in the last
three decades.
Most of the detainees have since been released, but more then 100 senior
reformers, activists, journalists and others, have been put on trial accused
of fomenting unrest.
(Reporting by Reza Derakhshi and 1-lossein Jaseb; writing by Fredrik DahI;
editing by Janet Lawrence)
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