Iran makes arrests over torn ayatollah photo

December 14, 2009 04:30 pm | Updated December 16, 2016 02:55 pm IST - Tehran

This photo released by an official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office shows Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivering his speech during a meeting with clerics, in Tehran on Sunday.  Photo: AP.

This photo released by an official website of the Iranian supreme leader's office shows Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivering his speech during a meeting with clerics, in Tehran on Sunday. Photo: AP.

Iranian state radio is reporting that authorities have arrested several people accused of involvement in destroying photos of the country’s supreme leader and the revered founder of the Islamic Republic.

In student demonstrations last week, supporters of Iran’s pro—reform opposition movement burned and trampled on pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. They oppose him for backing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed June re—election.

But the opposition denies tearing up a photo of the leader of Iran’s 1979 revolution, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who remains a widely respected figure in Iran.

They accuse the government of staging video of someone destroying Khomeini’s picture to discredit their protest movement.

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