A senior Shia Muslim cleric who has challenged Iran's clerical rulers has been arrested after his supporters clashed with police in Tehran. Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi was detained with several of his followers, Iran's student news agency ISNA quoted Abdollah Rowshan, the deputy governor of Tehran, as saying.Etemad-e Melli newspaper said an estimated 200 protesters formed a cordon around Boroujerdi's house to call for the release of several of Boroujerdi's followers. Police used teargas to disperse the crowd in southern Tehran, newspapers said on Sunday. Seday-e Edalat reported that the crowd lit fires to stop police from approaching the house.
A picture showed police in riot gear lined up near a crowd of people in the street. "All the people, including Boroujerdi, who ... caused this issue, were arrested," Rowshan, who is in charge of security and political affairs, was quoted as saying. Police arrested some of the protesters for carrying knives and guns, the Tehran governor's office said in a statement.
The Iranian authorities are wary of challenges, particularly from senior clerics, to the system of clerical rule that was established after the 1979 Islamic revolution by Ayatollah Khomeini.