Hussein-Ali Montazeri

Hussein-Ali Montazeri Najafabadi (24 September 1922 – 19 December 2009) was an Iranian cleric, politician, theologian, writer, and activist who served as the first and only deputy supreme leader of Iran from 1985 to 1989. A reformist, he was one of the major leaders of the Iranian Revolution 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 the Shah's fall, he served major positions such as the Speaker of the Assembly of Experts for Constitution in 1979 and rose the ranks to then being elected deputy supreme leader by the Assembly of Experts in 1985.