Ayatollah Montazeri passes away

Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a leading clerical figure, has passed away at his home in the Iranian holy city of Qom.

His son, Ahmad, told ILNA news agency on Sunday that his 87-year-old father who was suffering from an illness passed away late on Saturday.

Montazeri, who was born in 1922 in the Najafabad city of the Esfahan Province, served as Friday prayers leader and a member of the Revolutionary Council in the early years of the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

He was once designated as a successor to the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Rouhollah Khomeini and was instrumental in instituting Iran’s new constitution.

However, in 1989 Montazeri was relieved from his posts and focused the rest of his life on religious writings and teaching at his home in the holy city of Qom.