A dissident Iranian journalist has questioned whether a "criminal" will succeed Ali Khamenei as Iran's supreme leader . Writing in the Huffington Post this week, Akbar Ganji spotlighted former prosecutor general and member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, Ebrahim Raeisi. "There have been widespread rumors regarding Khamenei's health ... Undoubtedly, Khamenei himself would play a leading role in choosing his successor," Ganji wrote. "While former and current judiciary chiefs, as well as Khamenei's son, have been mentioned as possible successors, Raeisi ... has emerged not only as one of the possible candidates, but also as a more likely one." But Ganji questioned what he described as criminal activity. An audio tape of a conversation involving Raeisi has "hurt him very badly," wrote Ganji. "Last August, Montazeri's oldest son, Ahmad Montazeri, who is a cleric himself, put on his website an old audio tape of a meeting between his father and a committee that was in charge of the 1988 execution of political prisoners. The committee is known in Iran as the "death committee." The tape quickly spread and became a most discussed subject in Iran, so much so that almost every senior official had to take a position regarding its contents." Raeisi was a member of this "death committee." Ganji added: "The executions of 1988 were also horrible crimes. But, by publicizing the 1988 audio tape, Ahmad Montazeri tried to warn the Iranian people, political factions and the world at large that Iran's hardliners are trying to elevate a criminal to be Khamenei's successor."
