http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=132098&d=30&m=1&y=2010
Saturday 30 January 2010 (14 Safar 1431)
Iran hard-liner demands more executions
Agencies
TEHRAN: A powerful hard-line Iranian cleric on Friday called for the
execution of more opposition activists to silence anti-government protests,
praising the hanging a day earlier of two men caught up in the leadership's
postelection crackdown.
Speaking in a Friday prayer sermon, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said the wave
of street demonstrations sparked by the disputed June presidential election
would not have lasted until now if protesters had been executed early on.
"Whatever we suffered was because of our weakness. How many did the
judiciary execute on July 9?" he said, referring to one of the particularly
large protest days.
"We showed weakness, so then we had Ashura," he said, referring to a
major protest on Dec. 27.
Iran's judiciary is stepping up death sentences as the leadership
intensifies its campaign to eliminate the challenge from the pro-reform
opposition movement.
Authorities announced Thursday that nine people accused of involvement in
protests have been sentenced to death - including five who allegedly had a role
in the Dec. 27 protests.
The two men executed Thursday were arrested before the June 12 election
on charges of belonging to an armed group aiming to topple the government. But
authorities lumped them in with opposition activists arrested during the
postelection crackdown.
In his sermon, Jannati thanked Iran's judiciary chief, Sadeq Larijani,
for Thursday's executions and urged more, saying: "Stand up courageously for
the sake of God, the same way you executed these two persons very quickly."
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