Hussein-Ali Montazeri

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Hussein-Ali Montazeri Najafabadi (24 September 1922 – 19 December 2009) was an Iranian cleric, politician, theologian, writer, human rights activist and democracy advocate who served as the only deputy supreme leader of Iran from 1985 to 1989. A Grand Ayatollah and reformist, he was one of the major leaders of the Iranian Revolution, the spiritual leader of the Iranian Green Movement, and one of the highest-ranking authorities in Shia Islam. Born in Najafabad to a poor family, he began his religious education at Isfahan Seminary and began studying the Quran and Arabic from a young age. He opposed the White Revolution and supported anti-Shah leaders, more notably Ruhollah Khomeini. After Khomeini's exile in 1964, Montazeri "sat at the center of the clerical network", which Khomeini had established to oppose the Shah's rule. After gaining popularity in the late 1960's, the SAVAK arrested him and he was sent to Evin Prison in 1974 but was released amid the Iranian Revolution in 1978. After...

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