GRAND AYATOLLAH MONTAZERI REFUSED MEDICAL VISIT
QOM 6 Jan. (IPS) The Clergymen’s Special Tribunal refused Monday a medical team to visit Grand Ayatollah Hoseynali Montazeri, Iran’s and the Shi’a Muslim’s highest religious authority, one of his sons, Hojjatoleslam Ahmad Montazeri said.
"A medical team conducted by the Deputy Health Minister and composed of several doctors and experts arrived here, but the Guards and special units posted around the residence of Mr. Montazeri refused to let them in", he told the newly launched Persian-language Radio Farda.
The Grand Ayatollah, who was considered as the successor of Grand Ayatollah Roohollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic before he was dismissed in 1989, is living under house arrest since October 1997, after he denounced Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, the present leader of the Iranian regime, for lack of religious and political credential to rule over the Islamic Republic.
Ayatollah Montazer suffers from heart trouble and blood pressure, but it is the insomnia that worries his doctors, the younger Montazeri explained, adding that he does sleep sometimes for more than 16 hours.
The cabinet of President Mohammad Khatami and the National Security Council had agreed to the medical visit, but the Clergymen’s Special Tribunal (CST) that is controlled by Mr. Khameneh'i and deals with offences committed by the clerics, refused to cooperate with the government and ordered the guards not to let the doctors getting into the residence and visit Mr. Montazeri.
Asked if the CST has agreed for any new date for the medical team to visit the Grand Ayatollah, Mr. Ahmad Montazeri said so far there no indication from the CST.
Ayatollah Montazeri infuriated the ruling conservatives after, in his memories, pulished on the internet a year ago, he revealed that the basic concepts of the Islamic Republic were not the idea of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, whom he also accused of having ordered the mass executions of political prisoners in 1996. ENDS MONTAZERI TREATMENT 6103