Iran’s censors remove ayatollah from Top-10 dictators

Iran Focus London, Feb. 25 – Iranians were surprised to see that the Persian translation of this year’s “The World’s 10 Worst Dictators” published in the New York-based weekly Parade contained only nine names. Who was missing?

Iran’s state-run news agency ILNA carried a report on the list of authoritarian rulers published by the magazine, but the agency deliberately removed the name of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, from the list.

Parade’s list says that Khamenei has “shut down the free press, tortured journalists and ordered the execution of homosexual males”.

“Over the past four years, the rulers of Iran have undone the reforms that were emerging in the nation”.

Khamenei was a new entry in the Top 10, up nine points from his previous standing.

In a report on Khamenei’s role in the Iranian theocracy in December 2004, the U.S.-based Committee on the Present Danger wrote, “In addition to its peace-threatening nuclear program, Iran under Khamenei continues to be the world’s foremost state supporter of terrorism… He is seeking regional hegemony, both ideologically and militarily. His growing oil wealth increases his capacity for wreaking havoc on his own people and the region”.