Ayatollah calls Ahmadinejad a “bastard” who will “destroy Shiism”

“What will destroy Shiism is saying in front of millions of people that the clerics and their children are thieves who have been stealing for thirty years,” Sane’i said, in a video posted to YouTube apparently taken at a sermon in Gorgan.
In a televised debate preceding the presidential election, Ahmadinejad had accused Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and his family of fiscal corruption.Sanei added, “What kind of a Shia government is this? There’s been thievery for 30 years and they have just found out about it? Meanwhile, billions are transferred to Turkey and the report is rejected.”

“Calling someone a thief means tarnishing someone’s image and is punishable under Islamic law,” he said. But Sanai admitted corruption does exist among officials. ”Yes, some people in this establishment are guilty of thievery.”“The person who makes such accusations, if he has taken an oath in Majlis to protect the honor of the people, breaks his oath. As the oath is sworn on the Quran, breaking it has a pecuniary punishment as well as a mortal sin.”

“He lies because he is a bastard or else he would have seen the hidden Imam,” Sanei said, as laughter rippled through his audience.