An imprisoned Iranian cleric who fell foul of the authorities after advocating the separation of religion and state is in poor health condition, activists have warned.
Ayatollah Hossein Kazemeyni Boroujerdi was sentenced to 11 years in jail in June 2007 following a trial behind closed doors that found him guilty of 30 charges including acting against national security and having links with anti-revolutionaries and spies.
His supporters say the charges stemmed from his opposition to the involvement of religious clerics in politics and his public criticism of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Boroujerdi, an outspoken Shia cleric has repeatedly called the concept of political leadership by the clergy unlawful and has described Tehran's regime as a "religious dictatorship".
Boroujerdi was arrested along with hundreds of his followers in Tehran in October 2006 after clashes between security officials and his supporters.
The 53-year-old scholar, who is currently held in Tehran's Evin prison in a ward designated for dissident clerics, was initially given a death sentence before an appeals court reduced it to 11 years in jail. He was found guilty of insulting the supreme leader, spreading propaganda against the regime and moharebeh or waging war against God, a charge that carries the death penalty under Iranian law. » | Saeed Kamali Dehghan | Monday, October 10, 2011
