Khamenei backs crackdown on protesters

TEHRAN (AFP/Reuters) - Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged the authorities on Saturday to carry out their duties against the corrupt ones and the rioters, after a Dec 27 anti-govt protest in which eight people were killed.
The ensuing pro-government rally was a last warning for everyone, he told a number of Iranians from the Islamic republics clerical nerve centre of Qom.
He was referring to a December 30 rally in which hundreds of thousands of hardliners took to the streets calling for the punishment of the protesters and opposition leaders.
However, Khamenei insisted that the rules be followed in confronting the protestors.
Everything should take place within the law and everyone should refrain from taking matters into their own hands, he advised. Meanwhile, Iran has released a German citizen arrested during anti-government riots on December 27 and plans to free a detained Syrian journalist, an Iranian news agency reported on Saturday.
The semi-official Fars news agency quoted Tehran General Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi as saying the German national was released on Friday night while the Syrian journalist will be freed later on Saturday.
Eight people were killed in clashes between security forces and supporters of opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi on Ashura, a day of ritual Shiite mourning that fell on December 27.
It was the worst violence since protests in the immediate aftermath of a disputed presidential election in June. Opposition protesters say the vote was rigged in favor of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which the government denies.
The opposition website Rahesabz said on Wednesday that more than 180 people, including 17 journalists, 10 Mousavi aides and some members of the outlawed Bahai faith, were arrested in the aftermath of the December 27 protests.
A European diplomat was held for 24 hours.
Dolatabadi said that an unspecified number of Bahais, whose faith is outlawed in Iran, will face trial this week. He did not give details.
The German national was released last night and the Syrian reporter of Dubai Television will be released today, he said. He did not give any further information.