Dismissal of Montazeri as Supreme Leader Successor

On 28 March 1989, Ruhollah Khomeini formally stripped Hossein-Ali Montazeri of his position as designated successor to the Supreme Leadership. The dismissal followed Montazeri's sustained opposition to the 1988 mass executions of political prisoners and his public criticisms of the revolutionary establishment. Ahmad Khomeini, who controlled access to his father, and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, then Speaker of Parliament, played key roles in Montazeri's isolation. In his letter of dismissal, Khomeini accused Montazeri of being manipulated by 'hypocrites' — the regime's term for the Mojahedin-e Khalq. With Montazeri removed, the 1989 constitutional revision dropped the requirement that the Supreme Leader be a marja-e taqlid, enabling Ali Khamenei — then only a Hojatoleslam — to assume the position after Khomeini's death in June 1989.