Iranian dissident arrested

GENERAL Azizollah Amir Rahimi, the dissident Iranian general who had called on the country's clerical leadership to step down, was briefly arrested yesterday on orders from the armed forces prosecutor, writes Safa Haeri.

The retired general, a former commander of the Iranian military police, had been summoned by a revolutionary prosecutor but had refused the injunction, protesting that the summons was a deliberate insult to both the Iranian armed forces and the honour of the Iranian officers, since it did not mention his army rank and referred to him as being without proper domicile.