Ahmadinejad under fire from Iran judiciary chief

Tehran : Iran's judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani has hit out at President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for criticising a court verdict against the former head of state news agency IRNA, media reports said today.

Ahmadinejad used a meeting yesterday with prayer leaders to denounce as "strange" a court's decision to hand Mohammad Jafar Behdad, who is also the deputy chief of the presidency office, a suspended seven-month jail sentence.

"Such remarks from the president of the country in an official meeting is not justifiable... it is not right," Iran's Shargh newspaper quoted the justice chief as saying.

The outburst was the latest example of souring ties between Ahmadinejad and the powerful conservative camp behind him.

Behdad received the suspended jail term from a judge for writing an article against Ali Larijani, who is the parliament speaker and the judiciary chief's brother.

His article criticised the speaker for congratulating opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi on "winning" last year's presidential election before Ahmadinejad was declared the official victor.

The parliament speaker, who often criticises Ahmadinejad, especially over his handling of the economy, has previously denied congratulating Mousavi.

The article accused the speaker of "strengthening the will (of Mousavi) to provoke riots and insurgency" by making the congratulatory telephone call to the opposition leader.

Ahmadinejad criticised the verdict, which he said was given despite the jury finding Behdad not guilty.

"A strange incident happened recently. Although the jury with an absolute vote said the writer of this article was not guilty, the judge, going against the jury, suspended him for seven months," Ahmadinejad said.

The justice chief dismissed Ahmadinejad's statement.

"The main issue is should we allow anyone to talk any way he wants to? Why do we have laws then? The laws are written so that the people abide by them. So that nobody can insult or accuse others," Larijani said.