38 Facts About Hussein-Ali Montazeri

Grand Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazeri was an Iranian Shia Islamic theologian, Islamic democracy advocate, writer, and human rights activist.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri was once the designated successor to the revolution's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khomeini; they had a falling-out in 1989 over government policies that Montazeri claimed infringed on people's freedom and denied them their rights, especially after the 1988 mass execution of political prisoners.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri was known as the most knowledgeable senior Islamic scholar in Iran, a grand marja of Shia Islam, and was said to be one of Khamenei's teachers.

For more than two decades, Hussein-Ali Montazeri was one of the main critics of the Islamic Republic's domestic and foreign policy.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri was a staunch proponent of an Islamic state, and he argued that post-revolutionary Iran was not being ruled as an Islamic state.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri became a teacher at the Faiziyeh Theological School.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri was sent to prison in 1974 and released in 1978 in time to be active during the revolution.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri was known as an Islamic jurist who was made to pay for his liberal-leaning beliefs.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri supported a democratic republic as the best form of government; however in his ideal model for government, an Islamic jurist acts as a supervisor and advisor, what he, along with Ayatollah Khomeini, termed as velayat-e faqih.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri was the author of Dirasat fi wilayah al-faqih, a scholarly book advocating the supervision of the administration by Islamic jurists.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri believed in the independence of the government and did not accept any executive and policy making role for the Islamic jurist.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri asserted that the rule of the jurisprudent should not be an absolute rule; instead, it should be limited to the function of advisor to the rulers, who are elected by the people.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri was one of the leaders of the movement to replace the democratic and secular draft constitution proposed for the Islamic Republic with one where the supervision of Islamic jurists was recognized.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri distributed "a detailed commentary and alternate draft" for Iran's new constitution.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri initially rejected Khomeini's proposal to make him his successor, insisting that the choice of successor be left to the democratically elected Assembly of Experts.

Later, Hussein-Ali Montazeri relented, and following a session of the Assembly of Experts in November 1985, he was officially appointed Khomeini's successor as Supreme Leader.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri fell short of the theological requirements of the supreme Faqih.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri's troubles became further evident due to his association with Mehdi Hashemi who ran an organization out of Hussein-Ali Montazeri's office which sought to export the Islamic revolution.

In November 1987, Hussein-Ali Montazeri created more controversy when he called for the legalization of political parties, though under strict regulation.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri followed this by calling for "an open assessment of failures" of the Revolution and an end to the export of revolution, saying that Iran should inspire by example, not train and arm allied groups.

Things came to a head following the mass execution of political prisoners in late summer and early autumn 1988, when Hussein-Ali Montazeri gave a series of lectures in which he indicated support for a "far more open" policy.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri's promotion was accepted by many Shi'a, among the exceptions being Montazeri.

In October 1997, after openly criticizing the authority of Khamenei, Hussein-Ali Montazeri was placed under house arrest under the pretext of protecting him from hardliners.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri was freed from house arrest in 2003 after more than 100 Iranian legislators called on President Khatami to free him.

Some thought that the government lifted the house arrest to avoid the possibility of a popular backlash if the ailing Hussein-Ali Montazeri died while in custody.

On 22 January 2007, Hussein-Ali Montazeri criticized former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his nuclear and economic policies.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri again spoke out against Ahmadinejad on 16 June 2009 during the protests against his reelection.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri stated that "No one in their right mind can believe" the results were fairly counted.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri further declared that the then current ruling government was neither Islamic nor a republic, but military.

In November 2009, on the day before the 30th anniversary celebration of the Iran hostage crisis, Hussein-Ali Montazeri said that the occupation of the American embassy in 1979 had been a mistake.

In late 1960s, Hussein-Ali Montazeri gained influence and popularity in Isfahan Province after his speeches criticizing the Shah, moving SAVAK to banish and subsequently imprison him.

In 1980s, Hussein-Ali Montazeri was known by the pejorative nickname Gorbeh Nareh after the Cat, a character in the Pinocchio animated series.

One of his sons, Mohammad Hussein-Ali Montazeri, died in a bomb blast at Islamic Republican Party headquarters in 1981 which was carried out by the People's Mujahedin of Iran; another, Saeed Hussein-Ali Montazeri, lost an eye in the Iran-Iraq war in 1985.

On 19 December 2009, Hussein-Ali Montazeri died in his sleep of heart failure at his home in Qom, at the age of 87.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri's funeral was said to have marked "a new phase" in Iran's 2009 uprising.

Hussein-Ali Montazeri interrupted a visit to Shiraz to return to Tehran and remove Mir Hossein Mousavi, the main opposition leader he defeated in the presidential election, as head of the state Academy of Arts and Culture- a post he had held for ten years.

Meanwhile, the police in Zanjan, a city of mostly Turkish speakers, tried to prevent a mourning ceremony for Hussein-Ali Montazeri by locking the mosque where the ceremony was to be held and attacking mourners who chanted outside it.

In 2010, the office of Hussein-Ali Montazeri that had been run by his son Ahmad was closed on the orders of Ali Khamenei.