Shabtabnews In this dark night, I have lost my way – Arise from a corner, oh you the star of guidance.
iranwire – A senior Iranian cleric warned on Tuesday that anyone who threatens Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will be charged with “waging war against God” and face execution.
Ahmad Khatami, a member of the Assembly of Experts, made the statement during a speech in Kerman, two days after the death of Omid Sarlak, a young man whose body was found hours after he posted a video burning an image of Khamenei.
“Whoever threatens [Khamenei] has committed moharebeh, and a death sentence will be issued for them,” Khatami said, using the Islamic legal term for “waging war against God,” a capital offense under Iranian law.
Sarlak’s family has said he was killed, but state media and officials described his death as a suicide following a “romantic failure.”
His body was found on Saturday in his car with a gunshot wound and a weapon nearby.
At his funeral Monday, mourners chanted anti-government slogans, including “Death to Khamenei.”
In his speech, Khatami also directed criticism at the United States, claiming “the answer to America is only resistance” and saying Iranians would stand “until the last breath” against what he called “the criminal tyrant.”
Khatami blamed the U.S. for the exile of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic, and for student deaths in 1979, referencing Iran’s official narrative of events surrounding November 4 – a date marking the 1979 U.S. Embassy takeover.
