Authorities clamp down on a memorial service for Ayatollah Montazeri in the central Iranian city. Security forces beat women and children with batons, chains and stones. Council for the Cultural Revolution sacks Mousavi as head of Arts Institution.

Tehran (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Police and mourners clashed in Isfahan (central Iran) at a memorial service for dissident cleric Hossein Ali Montazeri, who died on Saturday at the age of 87, the dissident Iranian website Rahesabz.net reported. Police fired tear gas, beat up women and children and arrested at least 50 people.

“This morning before the ceremony began hundreds of police, security forces and plainclothes [agents] gathered around the mosque which led to severe clashes with people," the webzine said. In addition to a number of arrests, some people were hurt. “Security forces are beating people including women and children with batons, chains and stones," it also said.

The memorial in honour of one of the harshest critics of the clerical regime was held in Isfahan's Seyed Mosque and was to be led by prominent reformist cleric Ayatollah Jalaledin Taheri.

Never the less, the reported incidents have not been independently verified because of tight government censorship on local and international media.  

On Monday, thousands of people took part in Montazeri’s funeral in Qom. The ceremony eventually turned into a mass protest against the regime and its Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was particularly vilified when people chanted “death to the dictator”.

In the meantime, the Council for Cultural Revolution, a high-level body chaired by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday night sacked defeated presidential candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi as head of the Arts Institution, a post he had held since it was set up in 1999.

• iran
• islam
• human
• rights
• montazeri
• ahmadinejad
• mousavi
• elections
• demonstrations
• clashes
• arrests