Iran funeral ends with anti-govt slogans

Opposition supporters chanted anti-govt slogans in Iran’s holy city of Qom after the funeral of top dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a website reported.

Ayande website, seen as close to conservative politician Mohsen Rezaie, said: “The burial ceremony has come to an end and the crowd are in the streets around the shrine (in Qom) demonstrating and shouting anti-government slogans.”

The report could not be independently verified. as foreign media have been banned from travelling to Qom for the event.

Mousavi arrives in Qom

Iranian opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi has arrived in the holy city of Qom to take part in the funeral of the country’s leading dissident cleric on Monday, the reformist Kaleme website said.

Kaleme said Mousavi had visited the home of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri in Qom, about 125 km (80 miles) south of Tehran, to express condolences to the cleric’s family.

The funeral ceremony for Montazeri, a fierce critic of the Islamic Republic’s present hardline leadership, was expected to get under way at around 0530 GMT, Iranian media reported.

Kaleme said other reformist figures were also on their way to Qom for the funeral, which analysts believe could become a rallying point for the moderate opposition in Iran.

Supporters arrested

Iranian security forces stopped a bus carrying opposition supporters on their way to the funeral of the country’s leading dissident cleric and arrested some of them, the reformist Kaleme website reported on Monday.

Kaleme said the incident occurred in Tehran late on Sunday. The funeral of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri was scheduled to take place in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, at around 0530 GMT on Monday.

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