Ahmad Khomeini

Sayyid Ahmad Khomeini (‎ 14 March 1946 – 17 March 1995) was the younger son of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and father of Hassan Khomeini.

He was the "right-hand" of his father before, during and after the Iranian Revolution.

He was a link between Ruhollah Khomeini and officials and people.

He had several decision-making positions.

He died of heart disease and was buried next to his father.

Ahmad Khomeini was born in Qom on 15 March 1946 (although several sources have given his birth year as 1945), where he did his primary and secondary education in Owhadi and Hakin Nezami school, respectively and then started seminary studies and accomplished primary and secondary hawza courses.

He secretly joined his father, Ruhollah Khomeini, after his father was exiled to Najaf.

Ahmad was regarded as Khomeini's "right-hand man", the "torch-bearer for his father's anti-Western radicalism" and was close to his father, the leader of the Iranian Revolution of 1979.

He helped coordinate affairs during and after the Iranian Revolution, in Khomeini's office in Najaf, Paris and subsequent to the ayatollah's return to Iran in February 1979.

Ahmad participated in the trials of the Shah's army officers and politicians by the Islamic Revolutionary Court.

In one case he said Nader Jahanbani, who had been deputy chief of the Imperial Air Force that he was a foreigner.

Jahanbani replied: "No, all my ancestors were Iranians."

Ahmad visited the deprived areas to learn their shortages and reported his findings to Imam Khomeini.

His letters containing the issues he had encountered is available.

He was among the officials went through Fatah training.

His political life career commenced after death of his brother, Mostafa.

In the 6 years after the death of his father, he had several decision-making positions.

From the summer of 1988 to 1989, death of Khomeini, he was one of the decision-makers in all official issues along with Rafsanjani and Khamenei.

He was a member of Iran's Supreme National Security Council without assuming any executive position.

He was a member of Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution by Ali Khamenei's official order.

He became the overseer of the Mausoleum of Khomeini.

He spoke against America, Israel and what he called "exploitative Iranian capitalists," on several occasions.

During the Iran hostage crisis, he had a "prominent role" and made "tough anti-American statements".

According to the hostages, after Ahmad's visit to the then taken over embassy, he greeted the students and congratulated them for their action.

Emphasizing on that some of the hostages were CIA agents based on the discovered documents, he repeated his father's threat "to put some of the captives on trial for spying" if the recently toppled Shah was "not returned to Iran."

During the war, he had an important role reporting government general issues to his father and relaying the Imam's messages to officials and others.

He also used to act as counsel for his father and other high-ranking officials.

He served as his father's chief of staff until his father's death in 1989.

On 29 April 1989, Ahmad Khomeini wrote a "more than three pages" letter addressing Ayatollah Montazeri saying that he was regretful for Montazeri's being heedless of "Imam's calls."

Producing a list of accusations, Ahmad Khomeini tried to show that Montazeri's leadership would be harmful to the revolution.

"Was it not because of your affection for Mehdi Hashemi that you created so many problems for Islam and the revolution?"

said Ahmad Khomeini in a part of the letter.

In response, Montazeri defended Mehdi Hashemi, an Iranian Shia cleric who was defrocked later, and said that he would "stay away from politics."

His wife was Fatemeh Soltani Tabatabai, daughter of Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Bagher Soltani Tabatabai Borujerdi, niece of Imam Musa Sadr, the Shia religious leader of Lebanon.

She was the sister of Sadegh and Morteza Tabatabai.

According to pro-government media, Ahmad Khomeini suffered a cardiac arrest on 12 March 1995, and went into a coma.

He died five days later, on 17 March 1995, hours after being connected to life support machinery.

Iran government announced two days of national mourning after Ahmad Khomeini's death.

Ahmad Khomeini is entombed next to his father in a grand shrine south of Tehran, where his son, Hassan Khomeini, is the superintendent.

At least one author regarded his death as suspicious, stating that "he died in his sleep", without mentioning the heart attack five days prior and subsequent coma.