SECURITY FORCE LINKS
The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Mojtaba Khamenei in 2019 during President Donald Trump’s first term, saying he represented the supreme leader “despite never being elected or appointed to a government position aside from work in the office of his father”.
Ali Khamenei had “delegated a part of his leadership responsibilities” to his son, “who worked closely” with Iranian security forces “to advance his father’s destabilising regional ambitions and oppressive domestic objectives”, the Treasury said.
US diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks in the late 2000s began referring to the younger Khamenei as “the power behind the robes”.
One recounted an allegation that Khamenei actually tapped his own father’s phone, served as his “principal gatekeeper” and had been forming his own power base within the country.
He was accused of interfering in the 2005 and 2009 presidential elections, which resulted in the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a populist hardliner, the BBC reported.
Reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi accused Mojtaba Khamenei of interfering in the 2005 vote through elements of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij militia, which distributed money to religious groups in order to help Ahmadinejad win.
Four years later, Mojtaba faced the same accusation again.
The re-election of Ahmadinejad triggered mass protests across the country known as the Green Movement.
Opponents have notably accused Mojtaba Khamenei of playing a role in the violent crackdown that followed the protests.
WEALTH
According to an investigation by the Bloomberg news organisation, which cited anonymous sources and Western intelligence agency reports, Mojtaba Khamenei has amassed wealth estimated at more than US$100 million.
Money from oil sales had been channelled into investments in luxury British real estate, hotels in Europe and property in Dubai through shell companies in tax havens, according to the investigation.
On the religious front, Mojtaba Khamenei studied theology in the holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, where he also taught.
He attained the rank of Hujjat al-Islam, a title given to mid-ranking clerics, below that of Ayatollah held by his father and by revolutionary leader Ruhollah Khomeini.
His wife, Zahra Haddad-Adel, daughter of a former speaker of parliament, also died in the US-Israeli strikes that killed the supreme leader, according to Iranian authorities.
Israel has issued a stark warning to the new supreme leader and whoever selected him, saying “the hand of the State of Israel will continue to follow any successor and anyone who seeks to appoint a successor”.
The Assembly of Experts has 88 members who are elected every eight years.
It has only overseen one leadership transition process to date, when Khamenei was selected in 1989 following the death of Khomeini.