E-Paper
Iran dissident Grand Ayatollah Montazeri dies: news agencies
Leading Iranian dissident the Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, once tapped to become Iran's undisputed number one, has died, news agencies reported on Sunday.
Leading Iranian dissident the Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, once tapped to become Iran's undisputed number one, has died, news agencies reported on Sunday.
"Montazeri, 87, died of an illness last night (Saturday)," the ISNA news agency said.
Montazeri, once designated as the successor to the founder of the 1979 Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was a strong critic of the Iranian regime.
He was also a vocal backer of the Iranian opposition which has rejected the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in June.
The cleric had been critical of the concentration of power in the hands of the supreme leader and called for changes to the constitution which he helped draw up after the Islamic revolution, to limit the leader's authority.
The grand ayatollah became an inspiration to rights advocates and pro-reform groups and was considered by his followers as the highest living authority of Shiite Islam in Iran.
