Moderate ayatollah freed

last updated 8 January 2015

Qom, Iran

Dissident Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, 81, has been released from house arrest after strong lobbying by reformist lawmakers. Once a close ally of the country’s first “supreme leader,” Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, he fell out of favor in 1989, when Khomeini said he feared Montazeri would “hand over this country to the liberals.” He had been confined to his home and his teachings banned since 1997, when he questioned the competence of Khomeini’s successor, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But he still enjoys huge support in parts of Iran, particularly among reformers. Conservatives had feared riots if Montazeri died while still under arrest.