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SENIOR CLERIC DIES IN IRAN.

One of Shi'a Islam's senior clerics and an opponent of Iran's theocratic system (Vilayat-i Faqih; rule of the supreme jurisconsult), the 84-year old Ayatollah Seyyed Ismail Marashi, died last week in Tehran, Radio Farda reported on 25 August. The cleric's passing went unnoticed in the Iranian media, and the security forces prevented his interment at the Hazrat-i Masumeh Mosque in Qom, the cleric's relatives told Radio Farda (for a similar example of state interference with the funeral of a dissident religious figure, see "RFE/RL Iran Report," 31 December 2001). Ayatollah Seyyed Abolqasem Dibachi told Radio Farda that many in Iran are saddened by Marashi's death, and Dibachi said he wonders why the cleric's death went unreported.

source: RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 8, No. 163, Part III, 26 August 2004