Iran's Ayatollah Montazeri dies gather in Tehran later Sunday to pay respects to Montazeri (3rd Roundup)

Dec 20, 2009, 15:40 GMT

Tehran - Iranian dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein- Ali Montazeri, has died at the age of 87 after a long illness, state media reported on Sunday.

Montazeri died on Saturday night in his sleep at his home in the religious city of Qom, the reports said.

He had been banished from politics since the late revolutionary leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, dismissed him as his designated heir in March 1989 for criticizing the Islamic system.

Montazeri was also a fierce critic of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and accused his government of dictatorship after his disputed re-election in June.

In 2001, the ayatollah suffered a severe heart attack just after he was released from a five-year period of house arrest and was hospitalized for a long time.

Despite political isolation and house arrest for more than 10 years, Montazeri remained a respected religious figure and one of Iran's most acknowledged marjae taqlids, to whom Muslims refer for religious guidance.

While reformist circles supported Montazeri, the hardliners branded him as secular and condemned his critical approach toward Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who succeeded Ayatollah Khomeini as the country's supreme leader in June 1989.

Montazeri criticized the election system several times and said under these conditions and without genuine and fair competition, elected officials could not respond to the people's needs.

The ayatollah also criticized the Ahmadinejad's foreign policies.

He said the errors committed by the Islamic Republic and the provocations of the Ahmadinejad government brought about an international cohesion that led to the sanctions against Iran with worrying consequences for the population.

Despite his religious status in Iran, Montazeri was regarded by the system as a dissident and as a result Iranian state television has not paid any special attention to his death.

According to the Fars news agency, so far only Grand Ayatollah Yussef Sanei, himself an Ahmadinejad critic and close to the reformist opposition, has been one of the few high-ranking clerics to have expressed his condolences in the morning hours.

Later Sunday, also Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei expressed condolences over Montazeri's demise, Fars reported, although Montazeri was one of the harshest opponents of the Iranian leader.

'The ayatollah (Montazeri) was an outstanding cleric and jurisprudent and a major part of his was spent for the movement (against the Iranian monarchy) of the late Imam (Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the late supreme leader of the 1979 Islamic revolution),' Khamenei said in his condolence message.

He also referred to the time when Montazeri turned against the Islamic system and said: 'At the final phase of the Imam's gracious life, there had been a difficult and challenging test which I hope will be covered by God's lenience,' Khamenei added in the message.

Meanwhile informed sources close to the Montazeri family said the first funeral ceremony would be held in Qom on Monday.

It is however unclear whether the ayatollah would eventually be buried in Qom or in his hometown of Najafabad near Isfahan, central Iran.

Opposition websites reported that a large crowd of people would attend the funeral ceremony.

Observers said that due to Montazeri's opposition to Ahmadinejad, many dissidents are likely to be among the mourners at the ceremony, which could turn it into a political gathering.

Meanwhile opposition websites reported that there had been some mourning ceremonies in several parts of Tehran.

The websites also called on opposition supporters to gather later Sunday at a square in northern Tehran to pay their last respects to the ayatollah.