Countless images have been shown on Iranian television of anonymous hands of student protesters burning a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini, and now students in Iran are protesting further, saying that the image was faked by government agents as an excuse to prosecute protesters. Under Iranian law, insult to Khomeini is punishable with a two-year prison sentence, and following the Dec. 7 protests a statement from the nation’s Revolutionary Guard said, “The Revolutionary Guard... won't tolerate any silence or hesitation in the immediate identification, trial, and punishment of those carrying out this ugly insult and the agents behind them.” Reformists, who say President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election this summer was fraudulent, maintain that no protesters took part in the burning of the picture, though many have spoken out against Khomeini.
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