Top Iran clerics decry election, defy supreme leader

The most important group of religious leaders in Iran has called the disputed presidential election and the new government illegitimate, an act of defiance against the country's supreme leader and the most public sign of a major split in the country's clerical establishment.

The statement by the Association of Researchers and Teachers of Qom represents a significant, if so far symbolic, setback for the government and especially the authority of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, whose word is supposed to be final. The government has tried to paint the opposition and its top presidential candidate, Mir Hussein Mousavi, as criminals and traitors, a strategy that now becomes more difficult — if not impossible.

Crack in establishment

"This crack in the clerical establishment and the fact they are siding with the people and Mousavi in my view is the most historic crack in the 30 years of the Islamic republic," said Abbas Milani, director of the Iranian Studies Program at Stanford University. "Remember they are going against an election verified and sanctified by Khamenei."

But the clerics' decision to speak up is not itself a game changer and could fizzle under pressure from the state. Some seminaries in Qom rely on the government for funds, and the supreme leader and the man he has declared the winner of the election, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have powerful backers there. They also retain the support of security forces and the Revolutionary Guards.

But the association's statement does give a tactical boost to Mousavi, former President Mohammad Khatami and the former speaker of Parliament, Mehdi Karroubi, who have been the most vocal in calling the election illegitimate and have been hindered in their attempts to force change by the jailing of so many of their influential backers.

While the government could continue trying to paint the three as traitors, analysts say it would be highly unlikely the leaders would use that same tactic against the clerical establishment in Qom.

On Saturday, right-wing newspaper Kayhan called for Mousavi and Khatami to be treated as criminals and foreign agents. The article was written by the paper's editor, Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of the supreme leader.

"An open court, in front of the people's eyes, must deal with all the terrible crimes and clear betrayal by the main elements behind the recent unrest, including Mousavi and Khatami," the editorial said.

Mousavi responded Saturday by releasing his most detailed account yet of what he maintains was vote-rigging and irregularities in last month's election, including an allegation that only the incumbent's allies were allowed to witness vote-counting election day.

"None of the (opposition) candidates' representatives were allowed to go in," the three-part report states.

The report includes allegations of misuse of official power, mobilization of government employees, cash payouts to militiamen and improper use of broadcast media as well as accusations that millions of extra ballots without serial numbers were printed up at the last moment while some pro-Mousavi districts ran out of ballots on election day. Mousavi alleges that government officials violated their own rules by sending ballot boxes directly to be counted without campaign observers present.

Mousavi also alleged that the Interior Ministry, which organized the election, is controlled by an Ahmadinejad ally who purged longtime employees and hired the president's loyalists. He charged that the Guardian Council, which oversaw the vote and a limited recount, was dominated by Ahmadinejad supporters

The Qom clerics' statement called not only for the election results to be thrown out, but also chastised the leadership for failing to adequately study complaints of vote rigging and lashed out at the government's use of force in crushing public protests.

Powerful imagery

Perhaps more threatening to the supreme leader, the committee called on other clerics to join the fight against the government's refusal to reconsider the charges of voter fraud. The committee invoked powerful imagery, comparing the 20 protesters killed during demonstrations with the martyrs who died in the early days of the revolution and the war with Iraq, effectively casting the government as betraying the ideals of the revolution.

"The complaints of other candidates were ignored and people's protest, which was expressed peacefully, was violently crushed under a complete security circumstances," the statement said.

Also Saturday, Milani of Stanford said, former President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani met with families of those arrested, another sign that he was working behind the scenes, to keep the issue alive.

"I don't every remember in the 20 years of Khamenei's rule where he was clearly and categorically on one side and so many clergy were on the other side," Milani said. "This might embolden other clergy to come forward."