Hossein Ali Montazeri

Mideast Iran Mass Execution Revisited.JPEG-279a9.jpg

In this November 23, 1979, file photo, then President of Iran's Ruling Revolutionary Council, Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri holds a rifle as he addresses a large rally at Tehran University. In August, 2016, a website run in Montazeri’s honor by his family released a tape recording of Montazeri that has rekindled memories of the Islamic Republic’s mass execution of prisoners in 1988. The tape appears to have Montazeri, who at one time was in line to become Iran’s supreme leader, criticizing the executions. Rights groups suggest as many as 5,000 people were executed in 1988. (AP Photo, File)