Supporters of dissident Iranian cleric Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri, who is under house arrest, are working to create their own political party, press reports said Sunday.
A group including other clerics and at least one former MP has filed a formal application with the interior ministry for approval of the political grouping, the Jomhuri-Eslami paper said without giving any names.
The controversial 79-year-old Montazeri was once in line to succeed the founder of Islamic Iran, the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, as the nation's supreme leader.
But he was pushed aside in favor of the current leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was elected in 1989 by the Experts Assembly, which is charged with electing -- or removing -- Iran's supreme official.
Montazeri, who has been under long-term house arrest, published his memoirs on the Internet in December, providing insider testimony to some of the most dramatic moments of the Iranian revolution and the war with Iraq.
He notably claimed that in 1988 he tried to prevent the summary execution of thousands of opponents to the Khomeini regime.
His son Said was jailed last month for allegedly distributing a report about the 1998 assassinations of several dissidents that were blamed on "rogue" intelligence agents. The trial in the case is currently underway.
Iran's parliament is set in the coming weeks to debate an article in President Mohammad Khatami's latest budget which would for the first time provide public funds for the use of political parties -- TEHRAN (AFP)
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
