CNN 's Reza Sayah and Richard Allen Greene contributed to this report . People chant anti - government songs at Ali 's funeral . Senior Iranian dissident , Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri died recently . Montazeri was one of several prominent clerics who publicly criticized the presidential elections last June . He was once heir apparent to late Ayatollah Imam Ali , architect of Iran 's 1979 Islamic revolution .
People chant anti - government songs at Ali 's funeral . Senior Iranian dissident , Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri died recently . Montazeri was one of several prominent clerics who publicly criticized the presidential elections last June . He was once heir apparent to late Ayatollah Imam Ali , architect of Iran 's 1979 Islamic revolution .