Iran’s Top Judge Denies Split on Rushdie Order
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NICOSIA, Cyprus — All Iranian leaders, including the president, support an order for Muslims to kill British author Salman Rushdie, the country’s top judge said in remarks reported Wednesday by Tehran Radio.
Comments by President Hashemi Rafsanjani in a Friday prayer sermon Feb. 16 that the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s decree ordering Rushdie’s killing could be disputed and debated by senior Islamic scholars led to speculation that he was seeking to weaken the order.
Tehran Radio, monitored in Nicosia, said Iran’s head of judiciary, the Ayatollah Mohammed Yazdi, told a meeting of senior judges Tuesday that Western media reports of splits over Khomeini’s order were wrong.
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