Clashes in Iran ahead of Montazeri mourning ceremony (1st Lead)

Dec 23, 2009, 9:06 GMT

Tehran - Iranian police and opposition supporters clashed again Wednesday ahead of a planned mourning ceremony for Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, opposition websites reported.

The Fars news agency reported that the ceremony for Montazeri in Isfahan was cancelled after some of the mourners started to shout slogans, apparently aimed against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

After fighting broke out Monday in Qom during the funeral ceremony, police and opposition supporters clashed again before the mourning ceremony in Isfahan which is near Najafabad, the hometown of the late ayatollah.

Several opposition supporters were injured and others arrested, according to unconfirmed website reports. Fars said that in return Ahmadinejad supporters staged a spontaneous rally and shouted slogans in favour of the Islamic republic's establishment, but the news agency did not report on the clashes and arrests.

Montazeri died on Saturday night aged 87 in his sleep at his home in the religious city of Qom.

He had been banished from politics since the late revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, dismissed him as his designated heir in March 1989 for criticizing the Islamic system.

Montazeri was a fierce critic of Ahmadinejad and accused his government of dictatorship after his disputed re-election in June.