Dissident ayatollah says freedom lacking in Iran

0 Comments | AFP, February, 2008

TEHRAN (AFP) — Iran's most prominent dissident cleric has complained freedom is being "sacrificed" in the Islamic republic, pointing to the mass disqualification of candidates for March parliamentary elections.

Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, once seen as the successor as supreme leader to revolutionary founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, also denounced "wrongdoings" which he said were giving Islam a "violent image".

"People who have paid dearly for the slogans of independence and freedom are being snubbed," the reformist Etemad newspaper quoted Montazeri as saying.

"We have succeeded in achieving independence. But freedom, which is advocated by Islam and the constitution, has been sacrificed."

"A clear and deplorable example of that is the...