The daughter of a prominent veteran Iranian dissident died yesterday after a scuffle broke out with security forces at his funeral, opposition Web site Kaleme reported.
Haleh Sahabi, 54, herself an opposition activist and women’s rights campaigner, had been allowed out of prison to attend the funeral of her father Ezatollah Sahabi. She fell to the ground in the scuffle and died of a cardiac arrest, Kaleme said.
The semi-official Fars news agency confirmed Sahabi’s death, but denied there had been a clash with police and accused the opposition movement of seeking to politicize the incident.
“Fars reporters present at the funeral service said there was no clash between the mourners and security forces,” it said.
Reuters was unable to verify the events independently.
Sahabi’s death was likely to anger women’s rights campaigners and supporters of Iran’s opposition movement whose massive street protests after the re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 were crushed by the government and whose leaders have been put under house arrest.
She was arrested during the post-election crackdown and was given a two-year jail sentence.
“Security forces tried to interfere in the carrying of the body, she objected and security forces confronted her and other people present,” Kaleme said, adding that Sahabi was pushed to the ground.
Another opposition site, Sahamnews, said security forces punched her in the stomach.
Kaleme said she was holding a picture of her father to her chest and fell when security forces tried to take it from her.
“She fell and did not get up,” it said.
Meanwhile, Iran’s parliament said the president acted illegally by declaring himself caretaker oil minister and referred the case to the judiciary, increasing pressure on him to quit the post.
The legislature, which has repeatedly clashed with Ahmadinejad over key policy issues, voted to approve a report by its energy committee which found his move an “obvious violation of law,” the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.
Last month Ahmadinejad sacked oil minister Massoud Mirkazemi as part of a plan to merge several ministries to cut their number to 17 from 21, alarming his rivals within the conservative ruling elite.
The president has the power to remove ministers and put caretakers in place for up to three months before having to consult parliament, and he says no one should be surprised by the reshuffle which has been on the cards for some time.
Iran’s constitutional watchdog body, the Guardian Council, has already said Ahmadinejad’s takeover of the oil ministry was illegal.
However, he has given no sign of backing down other than saying he would not attend an OPEC meeting in Vienna next week and would send a minister instead, most likely Iranian Economy Minister Shamseddin Hosseini, according to Mehr.
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