Iran police clashes with opposition at memorial service

PanARMENIAN.Net - Iran police clashed with mourners at a memorial service in Isfahan on Wednesday for dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, arresting more than 50 and beating women and children, reports said.



Hundreds of police and security force members early morning surrounded the Seyed mosque in Isfahan where the service was to be held and prevented mourners from entering, sparking fierce clashes, opposition websites said.



The mourners were shouting slogans in support of Iran's opposition Green Movement and police fired tear gas to disperse them, website Rahesabz.net. said.



The latest crackdown on the opposition comes a day after its major leader Mir Hossein Mousavi was sacked from his post as president of the Academy of Art, which the architect and painter had headed for 10 years.



Montazeri, a fierce critic of the clerical regime he helped create and a vocal backer of the opposition, died aged 87 on Saturday.

His funeral in the holy city of Qom on Monday saw hundreds of thousands of mourners pour onto the streets, effectively turning the ceremony into a massive anti-government protest which ended in clashes between police and mourners.