Senior dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Montazeri reported dead
(20 Dec 2009) SHOTLIST
++AP Television is adhering to Iranian law that stipulates all media are banned from providing BBC Persian TV Service or VOA Persian TV any coverage from Iran. Under this law, if any media violate this ban, the Iranian authorities can immediately shut down that organisation in Tehran.++
FILE: Qom - 17 September 2003
1. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri entering class
2. Various of Montazeri before his lecture
3. Montazeri starting his lecture
4. Montazeri addressing those assembled
5. People leaving after the lecture
6. Montazeri leaves the class
7. Ayatollah Montazeri's office
8. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, dissident cleric
"The high-ranking authorities should finally decide to increase their tolerance a little and pay more attention. At the moment there are some hopeless and unfortunate people who have been imprisoned innocently. In the beginning of Islam there was no political prisoner."
9. Interior of office
10. Montazeri speaking to other clerics while sitting at his desk
STORYLINE
Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has died at the age of 87.
Iranian media reports and the cleric's grandson said Montazeri died in his sleep overnight.
The cleric was widely seen as the spiritual father of Iran's reform movement.
He 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 he has been the target of escalating criticism by Iran's opposition movement since the disputed presidential vote in June.
Montazeri had repeatedly accused the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam.
In 1997, he was placed under house arrest in Qom, 130 kilometres (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.
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++AP Television is adhering to Iranian law that stipulates all media are banned from providing BBC Persian TV Service or VOA Persian TV any coverage from Iran. Under this law, if any media violate this ban, the Iranian authorities can immediately shut down that organisation in Tehran.++
FILE: Qom - 17 September 2003
1. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri entering class
2. Various of Montazeri before his lecture
3. Montazeri starting his lecture
4. Montazeri addressing those assembled
5. People leaving after the lecture
6. Montazeri leaves the class
7. Ayatollah Montazeri's office
8. SOUNDBITE (Farsi) Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, dissident cleric
"The high-ranking authorities should finally decide to increase their tolerance a little and pay more attention. At the moment there are some hopeless and unfortunate people who have been imprisoned innocently. In the beginning of Islam there was no political prisoner."
9. Interior of office
10. Montazeri speaking to other clerics while sitting at his desk
STORYLINE
Iran's most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, has died at the age of 87.
Iranian media reports and the cleric's grandson said Montazeri died in his sleep overnight.
The cleric was widely seen as the spiritual father of Iran's reform movement.
He 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 he has been the target of escalating criticism by Iran's opposition movement since the disputed presidential vote in June.
Montazeri had repeatedly accused the country's ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam.
In 1997, he was placed under house arrest in Qom, 130 kilometres (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.
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: Twitter: AP_Archive
Facebook: Facebook: APArchives
Instagram: Instagram: APNews
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...
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