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ONCE AGAIN a funeral has become a lightning rod for popular anger against the Iranian regime. This time, that of a cleric who was once very much one of its own. Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri (87) was a Trotsky to the Iranian revolution’s Lenin, a veteran of the struggle to overthrow the brutal Pahlavi regime in 1979, and later the purged expected successor to the revolution’s architect and first leader of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Tens, perhaps hundreds, of thousands turned out in the holy city of Qom chanting anti-government slogans. Clashes with the police were reported by dissident websites – western reporters were banned from the city. Opposition leaders Mirhossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi extended their condolences at Montazeri’s home, where mourners chanted “Oh Hussein, Mirhossein”.