Ayatollah Jalaledin Taheri, a reformist cleric and former prayer leader in the city of Esfahan, criticized state-controlled television, which is widely seen as a mouthpiece of Khamenei and Ahmadinejad.
In an indication that the rift over the election continued to sharply divide the religious and political establishment, Taheri accused the country's leadership of abusing the legacy of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who founded the Islamic Republic.
"Did imam [Khomeini] believe that those who should remain impartial during election can take sides publicly in favor of a particular candidate?" Taheri said in a statement issued Tuesday.
"Did imam permit using the public treasury for a particular candidate without any limitations?"
Meanwhile, the pro-Ahmadinejad Fars news agency reported that Iranian Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari, a correspondent for Newsweek who was arrested in the recent unrest and held in Tehran's Evin Prison without access to a lawyer, made a videotaped confession in which he admitted being part of a "velvet revolution" meant to overthrow the Islamic Republic.
The report could not be confirmed.
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daragahi@latimes.com
