Jailed Iranian Cleric Appeals to Pope : Kenneth R. Timmerman

PARIS -- A senior Iranian cleric, jailed for opposing the Islamic regime in Iran, has appealed to the Pope in a letter smuggled out of Iran by his supporters and made available to NewsMax.
"Time is running out for me as I have been sentenced to death," wrote Ayatollah Hossein Kazemini Borujerdi in the letter, obtained this week from sources close to the jailed cleric in Europe. "This is my last plea for help." In addition to the Pope, Borujerdi addressed his appeal to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the president of the European Parliament and to international human rights organizations, asking them to intervene with the Iranian authorities to prevent his execution. Borujerdi was placed under house arrest in July 2006 after addressing a massive gathering of his followers inside Iran. Last October, anti-riot troops stormed his family compound, using water cannons to overpower demonstrators who had gathered in his defense. He was then taken to Section 209 of Tehran's notorious Evin Prison, which is reserved for political prisoners. Since then, he has been beaten and tortured repeatedly, supporters in Europe told NewsMax. He has been denied the right to a lawyer or visitation rights. The senior cleric fell afoul of the authorities for refusing to acknowledge the role of Islam in politics, and for speaking out against the doctrine of velayat-e faqih, absolute clerical rule. In his letter, he called the Iranian regime "unlawful." In a clear attack on Iran's ruling clerics, he wrote, "People who use religion for their own benefits and create their own rules are blasphemous and are destroying the people's belief in their God." Borujerdi belongs to the "quiestist" school of Shia Islam, which rejects the role of Islam in government. Associates say he has received support from Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Iraq, and from Grand Ayatollah Sadegh Rouhani, who has been under house arrest in Qom, Iran since 1986 for similarly rejecting the authority of the Islamic regime.