They were heady times for Khomeini's heir apparent: icon of Islamic revolution, scourge of the Shah. A founding father of the Islamic Republic.
Now he's scourge of the regime he founded.
Iran's Rebel Ayatollah.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"Until the government rethinks what it's doing to this country, the situation is really dangerous. God willing, they will reassess things and won't use Islam or the name of Ayatollah Khomeini as a justification for their deeds."
The mighty Montazeri's fall from grace was brutal. He had dared to question his old friend Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the direction their revolution was taking. For that, he was stripped of his interheritance, branded a traitor and -- worse, a heretic.
When Khomeini died in 1989, Montazeri, the idealist, was no longer in the picture and another -- pragmatic, but some say less qualified -- ayatollah inherited Khomenei's mantle. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to this day, Iran's Supreme Leader.
Banished to a backstreet in the holy city of Qom, today Ayaytollah Montazeri, now a frail 84-year-old man with Parkinson's Disease, remains fearless.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"It makes me laugh when I hear that the president says that we respect human rights in Iran. It's a joke. When they even deprive me of my rights how can I believe that they respect other people's rights? "
In 1998, Montazeri's office was ransacked by a violent mob after he had again questioned the Supreme Leader's authority. "No government can rule by the stick," he had said. Montazeri wasn't harmed but his attackers sought to prove him wrong.
"Death to Montazeri" these graffiti read, casting him as an infidel. "Execute the American spy," another one says.
Montazeri, was held under house arrest for five years.
He remains under surveillance but despite constant harrassment of his followers and his family, he's now able to hold weekly classes for a small group of acolytes. He continues to rail against the government's crushing of dissident voices -- among the most prominent, that of Akbar Ganji, a journalist, who, like the ayatollah, called the Iranian government an unIslamic dictatorship that's betrayed the revolution.
***************NEEDS ASTON ACROSS STILLS OF GANJI: Akbar Ganji's prison hunger strike, 2005
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
(U/LAY) "I've heard that he has lost so much weight and his blood pressure is really low." (IN VIZ) "There were no political prisoners during the rule of our Prophet. But look at the situation now. Mr Ganji has simply expressed certain opinions and never took up arms against the government but they have put him in solitary confinement and deprived him of any human rights. They have deprived me of my political rights, confiscated my property and no newspaper dares to print a word I say. Is this what they call freedom?"
In 1988, an armed opposition group, based in Iraq, launched an incursion aimed at toppling the Iranian government. It failed, but the attack gave Ayatollah Khomeini a pretext to purge thousands of jailed opponents; executed on his orders.
Montazeri, whose own son, Mohammed, had been killed in a bombing by the very opposition group being targeted, wrote a series of letters to Khomeini describing the killings as "genocide, incompatible with Islam."
This, a copy of one of the letters, with which, his own fate was sealed. His downfall, swift.
Today the old man regrets many things -- but not his defence of human rights.
Once, holding a gun at Friday prayers, he'd led the chant "Death to America." Now such slogans just irritate. As with many old Iranian revolutionaries, he's questioning his past. The USA, he says, is not "The Great Satan." And the hostage drama that conferred pariah status on the theocratic republic? A mistake.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"I think it's wrong that we don't have any diplomatic relations with such a powerful country as America. I even think that taking over the embassy was wrong even though I supported it back then. Occupying the embassy meant that we occupied part of that country. I'm out of power now but those who are in power should try to find a diplomatic solution to these problems."
But the diplomatic arts an apparent anathema to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yet for all Montazeri's disagreement with the current regime, he agrees with Ahmadinejad's views on Israel and his denial of the holocaust.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"Even if six million Jews were killed, they were not killed by the Palestinians. I've said exactly the same thing before. But maybe Mr Ahmad-dee-Nejad expresses himself more harshly. It's the United Nations' responsibility to compensate everyone in Palestine -- both Muslims and Jews. There should be a referendum in which they can decide their destiny and not have Israel force its will on people."
And as to the explosive issue of Iran's nuclear intentions -- well, the Grand Ayatollah sees eye to eye with the leadership on this one too -- sharing the popular belief that Iran's being bullied by hypocrites, America chief among them.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
(U/LAY) "Iran says it has a peaceful program -- and if so, that's legitimate.
We have an expression that when someone savours a date he cannot forbid others to enjoy it. America killed so many people in Hiroshima and Nakasaki with nuclear bombs -- and many other countries like Russia, Israel and Pakistan also have nuclear bombs. But now everyone says that Iran should not have it.
Montazeri turned his back on the revolution he started because he saw his Islamic Utopia drenched in blood. Now, he says, he rejects as un-Islamic all violence: political killings; suicide attacks, nuclear bombs.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"Of the 114 chapters in the Koran, 113 of them start with the words "In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful." In the Koran, God tells the Prophet: "People follow you because of the merciful nature of God and that if you are harsh with people they will turn their backs on you.""
Hussein Ali Montazeri believes they've been too harsh and as he rejected his interitance, so now he sees the children of his revolution rejecting theirs, turning their backs on what they'd been bequeathed.
Now he's scourge of the regime he founded.
Iran's Rebel Ayatollah.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"Until the government rethinks what it's doing to this country, the situation is really dangerous. God willing, they will reassess things and won't use Islam or the name of Ayatollah Khomeini as a justification for their deeds."
The mighty Montazeri's fall from grace was brutal. He had dared to question his old friend Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the direction their revolution was taking. For that, he was stripped of his interheritance, branded a traitor and -- worse, a heretic.
When Khomeini died in 1989, Montazeri, the idealist, was no longer in the picture and another -- pragmatic, but some say less qualified -- ayatollah inherited Khomenei's mantle. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to this day, Iran's Supreme Leader.
Banished to a backstreet in the holy city of Qom, today Ayaytollah Montazeri, now a frail 84-year-old man with Parkinson's Disease, remains fearless.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"It makes me laugh when I hear that the president says that we respect human rights in Iran. It's a joke. When they even deprive me of my rights how can I believe that they respect other people's rights? "
In 1998, Montazeri's office was ransacked by a violent mob after he had again questioned the Supreme Leader's authority. "No government can rule by the stick," he had said. Montazeri wasn't harmed but his attackers sought to prove him wrong.
"Death to Montazeri" these graffiti read, casting him as an infidel. "Execute the American spy," another one says.
Montazeri, was held under house arrest for five years.
He remains under surveillance but despite constant harrassment of his followers and his family, he's now able to hold weekly classes for a small group of acolytes. He continues to rail against the government's crushing of dissident voices -- among the most prominent, that of Akbar Ganji, a journalist, who, like the ayatollah, called the Iranian government an unIslamic dictatorship that's betrayed the revolution.
***************NEEDS ASTON ACROSS STILLS OF GANJI: Akbar Ganji's prison hunger strike, 2005
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
(U/LAY) "I've heard that he has lost so much weight and his blood pressure is really low." (IN VIZ) "There were no political prisoners during the rule of our Prophet. But look at the situation now. Mr Ganji has simply expressed certain opinions and never took up arms against the government but they have put him in solitary confinement and deprived him of any human rights. They have deprived me of my political rights, confiscated my property and no newspaper dares to print a word I say. Is this what they call freedom?"
In 1988, an armed opposition group, based in Iraq, launched an incursion aimed at toppling the Iranian government. It failed, but the attack gave Ayatollah Khomeini a pretext to purge thousands of jailed opponents; executed on his orders.
Montazeri, whose own son, Mohammed, had been killed in a bombing by the very opposition group being targeted, wrote a series of letters to Khomeini describing the killings as "genocide, incompatible with Islam."
This, a copy of one of the letters, with which, his own fate was sealed. His downfall, swift.
Today the old man regrets many things -- but not his defence of human rights.
Once, holding a gun at Friday prayers, he'd led the chant "Death to America." Now such slogans just irritate. As with many old Iranian revolutionaries, he's questioning his past. The USA, he says, is not "The Great Satan." And the hostage drama that conferred pariah status on the theocratic republic? A mistake.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"I think it's wrong that we don't have any diplomatic relations with such a powerful country as America. I even think that taking over the embassy was wrong even though I supported it back then. Occupying the embassy meant that we occupied part of that country. I'm out of power now but those who are in power should try to find a diplomatic solution to these problems."
But the diplomatic arts an apparent anathema to Iran's new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Yet for all Montazeri's disagreement with the current regime, he agrees with Ahmadinejad's views on Israel and his denial of the holocaust.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"Even if six million Jews were killed, they were not killed by the Palestinians. I've said exactly the same thing before. But maybe Mr Ahmad-dee-Nejad expresses himself more harshly. It's the United Nations' responsibility to compensate everyone in Palestine -- both Muslims and Jews. There should be a referendum in which they can decide their destiny and not have Israel force its will on people."
And as to the explosive issue of Iran's nuclear intentions -- well, the Grand Ayatollah sees eye to eye with the leadership on this one too -- sharing the popular belief that Iran's being bullied by hypocrites, America chief among them.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
(U/LAY) "Iran says it has a peaceful program -- and if so, that's legitimate.
We have an expression that when someone savours a date he cannot forbid others to enjoy it. America killed so many people in Hiroshima and Nakasaki with nuclear bombs -- and many other countries like Russia, Israel and Pakistan also have nuclear bombs. But now everyone says that Iran should not have it.
Montazeri turned his back on the revolution he started because he saw his Islamic Utopia drenched in blood. Now, he says, he rejects as un-Islamic all violence: political killings; suicide attacks, nuclear bombs.
SYNC
Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri
"Of the 114 chapters in the Koran, 113 of them start with the words "In the Name of God the Compassionate, the Merciful." In the Koran, God tells the Prophet: "People follow you because of the merciful nature of God and that if you are harsh with people they will turn their backs on you.""
Hussein Ali Montazeri believes they've been too harsh and as he rejected his interitance, so now he sees the children of his revolution rejecting theirs, turning their backs on what they'd been bequeathed.