Several hundred people held a rally at Tehran University yesterday to denounce a Shia Muslim cleric who has challenged Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Demonstrators shouted slogans against Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, once a designated heir to the late Ayatollah Khomeini, after prayers at the university. "Death to Montazeri," they chanted.
Demonstrations have already taken place in the holy cities of Qom and Mashhad to protest at recent comments by the disgraced ayatollah attacking Ayatollah Khamenei.
Ayatollah Montazeri (75) was sacked in 1989 after he criticised the Islamic republic for its severe treatment of dissidents. He has since lived in Qom under police surveillance.
On Wednesday, hard-liners ransacked his school and clashed with police.
Hard-liners also attacked another senior cleric and theologian, Ayatollah Ahmad Azeri Qomi, after he raised questions about the constitutional legitimacy of the leader.
In a speech before prayers in Tehran, the head of the justice department, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, launched a scathing attack on Ayatollah Montazeri and described recent events as a "plot" against the Islamic republic. He made a thinly veiled death threat to "those who write or make speeches" raising questions about the supreme leader's authority. He warned that the election of President Muhammad Khatami last May did not mean Iranians could say whatever they liked.