A group of former Iranian MPs has appealed to a powerful clerical panel to investigate if Supreme¹ Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is fit to rule.

一组前伊朗议会成员恳请成立一个专门小组来调查最高领导人Ayatollah Ali Khamenei是否适合掌权。

Analysts² say the letter is a direct challenge to Ayatollah Khamenei" width="203" border="0" src="/upimg/090815/4_004613_1.jpg" />
Analysts say the letter is a direct challenge to Ayatollah Khamenei

The call was made to the Assembly of Experts, which under Iranian law has the power to remove the supreme leader.

In a letter, the group denounces（告发，突然抨击） the crackdown（压迫，镇压） on protests after June's disputed poll and the resulting trials.

Meanwhile a senior cleric（牧师，教士） has said a reformist leader should be prosecuted³ for alleging⁴ protesters had been raped⁶.

Ayatollah Ahmad Khatami said defeated election candidate Mehdi Karroubi's remarks boosted Iran's enemies, particularly the US and Israel.

Mr Karroubi has alleged⁷ that some protesters - male and female - were raped while detained in prison. He has also said that some were tortured to death.

Officials have denied the rape⁵ allegations, but have admitted that abuses have taken place.

During his sermon（布道，说教） at Friday prayers in Tehran, Ayatollah Khatami said Mr Karroubi's claims were "full of libel（诽谤，中伤）, a total slander⁸（中伤，毁谤） against the Islamic system" and he demanded he be prosecuted.

"We expect the Islamic system to show an appropriate response to this," Ayatollah Khatami said.

In earlier remarks reported by the Iranian ILNA news agency, he said: "If someone libels the system by saying that rape takes place in prisons, then he must either prove it or, if he cannot, then the system must press charges and the public prosecutor⁹ must act."

Former MPs' letter

The content of the letter from the group of former MPs appeared on several opposition¹⁰ websites. The reports did not name any of the group, nor say how many had signed the letter.

Addressed to former Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts, it demands "a legal probe on the basis of Article 111 of the constitution, which is a responsibility of the Assembly of Experts".

The article says that if the supreme leader "becomes incapable¹¹ of fulfilling his constitutional duties" he will be dismissed.

The letter denounced the recent trials of protesters held in Tehran as a "Stalinesque court".

It also said Kahrizak prison near Tehran, where much of the alleged abuse of detainees took place, was worse than the US facilities at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

There has so far been no response from the assembly to the letter.

However, correspondents say that even if the call is ignored, it is the most direct challenge to Ayatollah Khamenei so far.

The letter breaks a taboo¹²（禁忌） among Iran's political classes against openly challenging the supreme leader, whose position has long been unquestioned, analysts say.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won June's poll, but opposition leaders and their supporters claimed the election had been rigged（作弊的，非法操纵的）. Security forces crushed the mass protests that followed.

Hundreds were arrested and opposition leaders say 69 protesters died - more than double the official figure of about 30 fatalities¹³.