Combatant Clerics react to Iran state media accusations

Iranian reformist organizations, that in addition to numerous arrests, are the target of incessant verbal attacks from the state media and conservative public figures, consistently counter the attacks by publishing condemnatory announcements in their websites.
The Association of Combatant Clerics published an announcement today in reaction to the many accusations that Iranian media have been making about their leader, Ayatollah Mousavi Khoveiniha.

In the past months, publications such as Iran, Keyhan, Javan, Panjareh Magazine and IRNA News Agency have accused Mousavi Khoveiniha of “ties to KGB, involvment in the assassination of prominent Iranian cleric Morteza Motahari, contention against Velayat-e Faghih which gives full power to the supreme leader, attempts at staging a coup and harbouring Marxist ideas.”

The statement condemns the judiciary for its silence against such "slanders." It maintains that the accusations against Mr. Khoveiniha are akin to accusations against Ayatollah Khamenei and Ayatollah Khomeini who in the past have charged this prominent cleric with many important duties in the Islamic Republic.

Mohammad Mousavi Khoveiniha, the Iranian cleric and politician, is a prominent figure in Iran’s reform movement. He was an intimate of Ayatollah Khomeini and the spiritual leader of the “Followers of Imam Muslim University Students” who took over the US embassy in 1979.

During Ayatollah Khomeini’s leadership, he was deputy speaker of the first parliament of the Islamic Republic, member of the supervisory council of the national radio and television broadcasting, Seda va Sima, and Prosecutor-General of Iran.

His opponents accuse him of harbouring communist ideas and ties to the Soviet Union and have given him the title: “Godfather of Reform.”