Dissident cleric's wife laid to rest in Iran

MahSoltan Rabani, wife of the late dissident Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Montazeri was laid to rest today under strict security measures in Qom.

Their son Saeed Montazeri told Jaras website: “Security forces and forces in plain clothes created such a security atmosphere that we were basically unable to carry out the special prayers and mourning ceremony.”

He added: “Tens of government vehicles brought the body without allowing any access to it even by her family. They made a small stop at the shrine and quickly removed her form the premises.”

Saeed Montazeri maintained that the actions of the Islamic Republic reveal that “they are even scared of a corpse and its burial.”

He went on to say: “They not only did not allow us to hold the ceremony, they did not even let us bury her in the location that we had in mind.”

Ayatollah Montazeri was one of the most outspoken critics of the Islamic Republic and most recently, he pronounced the current Ahmadinejad government “illegitimate” because of “fraud” in the elections.

Last December, Ayatollah Montazeri was also laid to rest in Qom while hundreds of thousands of election protesters attended his funeral.