He died of natural causes at the age of 87.
Ayatollah Montazeri’s office announced that the funeral procession will be held on Monday morning and will travel from his house to the Holy Shrine of Hazrat Masoumeh (SA), where he will be buried in the courtyard.
Montazeri was a close ally of the late Imam Khomeini from the 1960s and was jailed several times by the police of the deposed shah.
During a session of the Assembly of Experts in 1985, Montazeri was designated as Imam Khomeini’s successor as Supreme Leader.
However, in 1989 it was decided that he should no longer be Imam Khomeini’s successor due to his viewpoints on political events at that time.
After Imam Khomeini’s demise, Ayatollah Montazeri was placed under house arrest for several years due to his views on Iran’s Islamic establishment.
Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami and Expediency Council Chairman Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani also issued condolence messages on Sunday.
Grand ayatollahs Yusof Saanei, Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani, Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili, Mohammad Saeed Shobeiri Zanjani, and Ibrahim Amini visited Montazeri’s office on Sunday to express their condolences.
Following is the text of the Supreme Leader’s message:
We have become informed that the sublime jurisprudent Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri has departed this life. He was a competent religious authority and a prominent expert and many students attended his classes. A long portion of his life had been dedicated to the movement of the revered and great Imam (Khomeini), and he strived and suffered hardships on this path. In the last years of the Imam’s life, he (Montazeri) was faced with a difficult test. I ask Almighty God to forgive him through His mercy and to accept the hardships suffered during his life as atonement. I extend my condolences to his bereaved wife and children and ask God to bestow forgiveness and mercy upon him.
AM/SJ/HG
END
MNA
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