Ayatollah Montazeri to be buried in Qom; protests expected

Dec 21, 2009, 7:20 GMT

Tehran - Iranian dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hossein- Ali Montazeri, who died at the age of 87, is to be buried Monday in Qom.

A large number of local opposition figures were expected to attend the funeral, and it was expected to turn into a political event.

Witnesses in Qom said there was a massive police deployment in the religious city, 130 kilometres south of the capital, Tehran.

According to opposition websites, Mir-Hossein Moussavi, the leader of the opposition Green Movement, has already arrived in Qom for the funeral.

Former parliament speaker Mehdi Karroubi was also due to attend, but it was unclear whether the other two opposition leaders, former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, would be present.

Other unconfirmed reports on reformist websites said a group of opposition supporters was blocked by police on their way from Tehran to Qom.

Montazeri, who died Sunday, was the designated heir of the leader of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, but was dismissed in March 1989 for criticizing the Islamic system.

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