Monday, June 14, 2010

June 12 - Film projected onto facade of Islamic Republic's London embassy

Protesters projected a short film documenting the unrest and crackdown following the disputed election onto the facade of the Islamic Republic's embassy in London, south of Hyde Park, on the evening of June 12, 2010.

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Footage of the operation was posted on YouTube. The group placed the video projector on the roof a car which was parked across the street from the embassy building. After a few minutes, embassy staff turned on a spotlight situated on the front of the building. 'This is a new form of attack we can wage against the embassy,' the cameraman says at the end of the video:


Earlier in the day, hundreds of demonstrators had gathered in front of the embassy to mark the first anniversary of the disputed election, chanting, 'Neda [Agha Soltan] is not dead. It is the Leader [Ali Khamenei] who is dead.'

Another slogan called out by the crowd was, 'Mesbah, you're dreaming if you think you'll become the supreme leader,' referring to Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, a hard-line mentor of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has been a key leader of a faction within the regime which is inspired spiritually by the Hojjatiyeh Society and aims to radicalize the system even more. He has been accused by reformists in the Majlis of seeking to replace Khamenei as the country's next supreme leader.

Two weeks ago, reformist Hadi Khamenei, none other than the brother of Leader Ali Khamenei, blasted the Hojjatiyeh Society for trying to divert and endangering the values of the revolution and its founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. The Hojjatiyeh is increasingly called the Mesbahiyeh because of Mesbah Yazdi's influence within the Shiite adventist organization which opposes religious minorities and adheres to a totalitarian interpretation of the position of supreme leader.

Footage of the London protest earlier in the day was also posted to YouTube: