As Iranians marked the 26th anniversary of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's death June 4 at his mausoleum, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned about distorting the character of the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran as this year’s ceremony was held amid a debate over a major reconstruction of Khomeini's mausoleum in Tehran.
The dispute began after the conservative Jomhouri-e Eslami daily on May 18 criticized the nearly finished project as “incompatible with Khomeini’s principle of living a simple life.”