Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, Iran’s senior dissident cleric, dies at 87

Iranian dissident cleric dies at 87

TEHRAN, Iran — The grandson of Iran’s most senior dissident cleric, Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, says he has died at the age of 87.

Nasser Montazeri says the grand ayatollah died in his sleep early Sunday.

Montazeri 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.

Montazeri had repeatedly accused the country’s ruling Islamic establishment of imposing dictatorship in the name of Islam.