| NEWS ARCHIVES |
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| 50 people arrested during anti-gov't demonstrations in Iran |
| 23 Dec 2009 |
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Iran police clashed with mourners at a memorial service in Isfahan for dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri.
More than 50 people were reportedly arrested.
Opposition websites said hundreds of police and security force members surrounded the mosque in Isfahan where the service was to be held and prevented mourners from entering.
This sparked fierce clashes.
The mourners were shouting slogans in support of Iran's opposition Green Movement and police fired tear gas to disperse them.
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, died last Saturday at the age of 87.
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.
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