Ahmad Azari Qomi

Grand Ayatollah Ahmad Azari-Qomi-Bigdeli (Persian: احمد بیگدلی آذری قمی; 1925 – February 1999) was an Iranian cleric. After the 1979 Iranian Revolution he served on the Special Clerical Court and Assembly of Experts, and founded the conservative Resalat newspaper. He was arrested in November 1997 after an open letter by him was published in Britain criticizing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei for allowing torture and "moral corruption" among officials and clerics. Shortly after Khamenei denounced him in a televised speech for allegedly committing "treason against the people, the revolution and the country." His renewed candidacy for the Assembly of Experts was rejected by the Guardian Council the next year and he died in 1999.