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Iran's opposition leaders have called for a day of mourning following the death of Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, a senior cleric who was a fierce critic of the current government.

Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, two of the defeated candidates in June's disputed presidential poll, urged their supporters to attend the funeral on Monday, according to a statement on Mousavi's Kaleme.org website.

87-year-old Montazeri was an architect of the 1979 Islamic revolution but fell out with the present leadership.

He lived in the city of Qom, which lies south of Tehran, and was referred to as the spiritual leader of the opposition after the country's recent disputed election.

"Following a call by some grand ayatollahs to mourn the death ... we announce tomorrow, Monday, December 21, a day of public mourning," Mousavi and Karroubi said in a joint statement.

"We invite all saddened religious people mourning the death of this pride of the Shia world to take part in the funeral of this legend of endeavour, jurisprudence and spirituality."

Burial ceremony

Montazeri will be buried in the shrine of Masoumeh, a revered Shia figure, in Qom, his office said.
Foreign media are banned from covering the ceremony.

"Thousands of people from Isfahan, Najafabad, Shiraz and other cities have left for Qom to take part in his funeral," Parlemannews.ir, the website of the parli... >>>