Tehran - Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani called on the government to be more tolerant of its critics, the ILNA news agency reported Monday. "Those responsible should have more tolerance and listen to critical voices as well," Rafsanjani said Sunday.
Rafsanjani, a moderate cleric, is one of four main opposition leaders, next to former premier Mir-Hossein Moussavi, former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi and former president Mohammad Khatami.
The opposition quartet has not yet acknowledged President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's re-election in the fraud-tainted June 12 presidential election.
"The Islamic Republic had been successful as long as it was moving alongside the people and if we take the people away from the establishment, then the whole system would be weakened," Rafsanjani said.
Since the post-election unrest the government has suppressed protests, arrested thousands of demonstrators and charged over a hundred dissidents, including journalists and former reformist officials, with plots to overthrow the Islamic establishment.
Besides jail terms ranging from six months to 15 years against 81 dissidents, the courts also issued death sentences against five dissidents for alleged links to Iranian opposition and terrorist groups.
Former vice president Mohammad-Ali Abtahi, a deputy of Khatami, has been sentenced to a six-year jail term for his involvement in the unrest.
After Abtahi confessed in court and also in a televised interview in which he expressed regret for trying to weaken the establishment and even praised prison investigators and conditions, many believed he would receive a lenient sentence.
