Iran’s top Islamic judge calls for harsher crackdown

Iran Focus:

Tehran, Iran, Sep. 29 – Iran’s Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Seyyed Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi called for a “decisive” crackdown on “trouble-makers”, state media reported on Thursday.

Speaking at the first joint conference of Iran’s judiciary and State Security Forces, Shahroudi said, “We must act decisively against trouble-makers”, a term commonly used by authorities to refer to dissidents or ordinary Iranians deemed to act un-Islamic ways.

In an allusion to a spate of anti-government protests in the impoverished suburbs of Tehran and provincial capitals in recent months, Shahroudi said police presence in these areas must be strengthened.

“The insecurity that exists in the suburbs of major cities is not befitting the Islamic Republic”, the judiciary chief said. “We need more powerful police stations and more police and security agents in these areas”.

Referring to a recently-extended crackdown on dissenters in Tehran by police and Iran’s judiciary, the senior cleric added, “We are carrying out the punishments as part of the national security scheme”.

On Monday, Tehran’s Islamic Revolutionary Prosecutor, Saeed Mortazavi, announced that a 20-day plan to fight trouble-makers in the Iranian capital was to be extended by one month.

Speaking to reporters, Mortazavi said that the plan had been “very successful” and State Security Forces had been able to make many arrests.