Rafsanjani bows out of leading Friday prayers to avoid protests

Aug 10, 2009, 10:25 GMT

   Tehran - Iran's ex-president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani will not lead the Friday prayer ceremony at Tehran University as earlier scheduled, to forestall anti-government protests, Fars news agency reported Monday.

   Reza Taghavi, in charge of coordinating the Friday prayers in Tehran, told Fars that in order 'to prevent any political misuse of the prayer occasion,' Rafsanjani decided to leave the prayers to another cleric.

   Rafsanjani's last appearance in the prayer ceremony on July 17 led to widespread protests in several parts of Tehran against alleged fraud in the June 12 presidential election which led to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election.

   The Friday prayer ceremony in Tehran has four prayer leaders and this week was Rafsanjani's scheduled turn.

   Besides former premier Mir-Hossein Moussavi and former president Mohammad Khatami, Rafsanjani is one of the main opposition leaders.

   The three have not yet acknowledged Ahmadinejad's re-election and demonstratively boycotted both the endorsement and swearing-in ceremony of the president.

   Rafsanjani, who was president from 1989-97 and is still a major political figure, caused anger within the country's clergy when he said Iran was in a crisis.

   The moderate cleric also called on the government to release all political prisoners as the first step to tackle the crisis.

   While referring to former Iranian officials jailed due to their criticism against the president, he accused Ahmadinejad and the government 'not to have even tolerance with our own people.'

   Following the criticism by Rafsanjani and other opposition figures and even conservative circles, some demonstrators were released but the former officials are still detained and facing trial.