Iranian dissident cleric Montazeri dies at 87

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer

TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has died, his grandson said Sunday. He was 87.

Nasser Montazeri said his grandfather, who was seen as the spiritual father of Iran's reform movement, died in his sleep overnight.

Montazeri had been designated to succeed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late founder of Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, but the two had a falling out a few months before Khomeini died of cancer in 1989.

Iran's current Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, succeeded Khomeini instead and has been the target of escalating criticism by Iran's opposition movement since June's disputed presidential vote.

Montazeri had repeatedly accused the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam.

In 1997, Montazeri was place under house arrest in Qom, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Tehran, after saying Khamenei wasn't qualified to rule.

The penalty was lifted in 2003, but Montazeri remained defiant, repeatedly accusing the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam. He said the liberation that was supposed to follow the 1979 revolution never happened.

Montazeri was one of just a few Grand Ayatollahs — the most senior theologians of the Shiite Muslim faith.

After he was placed under house arrest, state-run media stopped referring to Montazeri by his religious title, describing him instead as a "simple-minded" cleric. Any talk about Montazeri was strongly discouraged, references to him in schoolbooks were removed and streets named after him were renamed.

Montazeri was still respected by many Iranians, who observed his religious rulings or supported his calls for democratic change within the ruling establishment.

On Saturday, after months of denials, Iran acknowledged that at least three people detained in the country's postelection turmoil were beaten to death by their jailers.

The surprise announcement by the hard-line judiciary confirmed one of the opposition's most devastating and embarrassing claims against authorities and the elite Revolutionary Guard forces that led the crackdown after the vote in June.