Middle East News
Iranian opposition activist Sahabi dies of stroke at age 81
May 31, 2011, 8:25 GMT
Tehran - Opposition activist Ezatollah Sahabi died of stroke Tuesday in a Tehran hospital at the age of 81, the official news agency IRNA reported.
Born in 1930 in Tehran, Sahabi followed his father into Yadollah, a nationalist-religious group opposed to the ruling clergy system.
After the 1979 Islamic revolution, he was appointed budget chief by Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and was also member of parliament from 1980-84.
He then joined the opposition and urged democratic reforms within the political system of the Islamic republic.
He was jailed on several occasions and spent a total of 15 years in prison on numerous charges, ranging from violating national security to working to overthrow the Islamic administration.
In order to prevent a political gathering, the government ordered Sahabi's family to bury him in a suburb of the capital rather than in a Tehran cemetery.
