Iran makes arrests over torn Khomeini picture

Iran has arrested several people over the tearing up of a picture of the Islamic Republic's late founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini during anti-government protests in Tehran last week, a senior official said on Monday.

"Those people who were at the site (of insulting Khomeini) have all been identified," Tehran prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadai told reporters, according to ISNA news agency.

He said arrests had been made, including one on the day of the Dec. 7 student rallies, without giving names or numbers.

"They are all in detention and one of them has confessed," Jafari Dolatabadi added.

The prosecutor also said there would be "no mercy towards those who insulted the founder of the revolution," the official IRNA news agency reported. Khomeini spearheaded the 1979 Islamic revolution and remains revered in Iran. He died in 1989.

Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned opposition leaders on Sunday to distance themselves from protesters he accused of acting against the Islamic regime's late founder.

"Those who shout slogans in the name of these people (opposition leaders), hoist their pictures and speak of them with respect are in a point which is the exact opposite of the Imam (Khomeini), revolution and Islam," Khamenei said on state television.

"When you see this, step aside," he said to opposition leaders and defeated presidential candidates Mirhosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, describing them as his "former brothers."

Those who shout slogans in the name of these people, hoist their pictures and speak of them with respect are in a point which is the exact opposite of the Imam, revolution and Islam

Ayatollah Khamenei

Tension increased

Tension has increased in Iran since student backers of the opposition a week ago clashed with security forces armed with batons and tear gas in the largest such anti-government demonstration in months.

State television has broadcast footage of what it said were opposition supporters tearing up and trampling on a picture of Khomeini during the protests.

The opposition has accused the authorities of planning to use the reported "desecration" of Khomeini's picture as a pretext for measures to uproot the reform movement.

Opposition supporters and their leaders have defiantly vowed to continue protesting against the June 12 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in what they say was a massively rigged poll.

On Sunday, some moderate websites suggested Mousavi, who came second in a disputed June election which plunged the Islamic state into turmoil, may be arrested.

Jafari Dolatabadi said, according to IRNA: "If some people think that they have some supporters and that they will not be summoned (by the judiciary), it would be wrong thinking."