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Iranian grand ayatollah faces threats for meeting with Reformists

Iran’s seminary and social media have been stunned by a letter threatening a grand ayatollah over his personal meetings.

Head of Iran's Assembly of Experts, Mohammad Yazdi, attends a session of Iran's Assembly of Experts, on September 1, 2015 in Tehran. Iran's Assembly of Experts, its top clerical body in charge of appointing, supervising and dismissing the supreme leader, kicks off a two-day meeting. AFP PHOTO / ATTA KENARE        (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)
Head of Iran's Assembly of Experts, Mohammad Yazdi, attends a session of Iran's Assembly of Experts, in Tehran, Iran, Sept. 1, 2015 — ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images

The normally closed world of Iran’s Shiite seminary has been stunned by a scandal after a grand ayatollah was threatened about his personal meetings with those deemed not supportive of the Islamic Republic.

Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, current chairman of the Assembly of Experts and former head of the judiciary for 10 years, wrote a public letter to Grand Ayatollah Mousa Shubairi Zanjani on Oct. 27 about “pictures of meetings with problematic individuals who do not have respect for the Islamic Republic and the Supreme Leader [Ayatollah Ali Khamenei].” Yazdi did not mention names, but the incident he was referencing was a meeting Zanjani had with former Reformist President Mohammad Khatami and Ayatollah Mohammad Mousavi Khoeiniha.

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