Jailed reformist Abolfazl Ghadiyani has called on Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Kahmenei to step down from his all-powerful position for the sake of the system.
The senior reformist, who was recently slapped with another three years in jail for “insulting the leader,” issued a letter addressed to Ayatollah Khamenei, writing: “The system can be cured if you step down from power.”
He writes that the leader of the Islamic Republic has been using his absolute power to silence the opposition.
The 66-year-old political veteran writes: “We did not sacrifice our lives, livelihoods and freedom so that Ali Khamenei could reign for three decades. Our people did not suffer so much from the Constitutional Revolution to the Islamic Revolution in order that an individual under the name of Velayat Faqih would turn the law into his tool to force his absolute power.”
He warns Iran’s Supreme Leader that the “Islamic Revolution is on the verge of collapse” and its only salvation lies in the leader’s resignation.
Ghadiyani holds Ayatollah Khamenei responsible for protesters being killed in the streets during the post-election demonstrations of 2009, as well as for the “torture and rape of the detainees in Kahrizak prison and other detention centres.” He also blames Ayatollah Khamenei for the recent bank fraud that saw $3 billion stolen through falsified letters of credits from financial institutions.
Ghadiyani writes: “Unemployment, inflation, widespread sanctions, the ominous spectre of war and shipping sanctions are the outcome of the despotic rule in Iran.”
Ghadiyani, a senior member of the reformist organization Mojahedin of the Islamic Revolution, was arrested in the widespread post-election protests that challenged the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. In court, he has accused Iranian authorities of carrying out “an election coup d’etat.”
