Simay Azadi April 2026 – April 8, marked the 40th day since the death of Ali Khamenei, the Iranian regime’s supreme leader. Khamenei’s final days were defined by the January 2026 uprising, where his final act of domestic policy was the “black bag” strategy—broadcasting images of dead protesters in industrial bags to terrorize the public. It was the closing chapter for a leader whose transition from a minor cleric to a multi-billionaire dictator left Iran on the brink of ruin.
Roots and the “Superficial” Scholar
Born in Mashhad on April 19, 1939, Khamenei was the son of Javad Khamenei, a cleric born in Najaf, Iraq. His education began in traditional Maktab-khanehs and progressed through various seminaries in Mashhad and Qom. However, his religious credentials were long disputed; his brother-in-law, Sheikh Ali Tehrani, described his studies in Qom as “superficial and unfocused,” noting that he spent only four years in serious study and lacked the focus required for high-level jurisprudence.
His political activities occurred at age 23, not through a pursuit of democracy, but in opposition to the Shah’s “White Revolution.” Alongside Khomeini, Khamenei opposed land reforms and women’s suffrage, viewing these changes as a threat to the feudal class interests of the mullahs. During the Shah’s reign, he was arrested six times, with his longest stint being an eight-month imprisonment in 1975.
The Path to Absolute Power
Following the 1979 Revolution, Khamenei moved rapidly through the regime’s hierarchy, serving as a representative to the Defense Ministry, the Imam of Friday Prayers in Tehran, and eventually President from 1981 to 1989.
His path to the Supreme Leadership was somehow cleared by the 1988 massacre of 30,000 political prisoners. Hussein-Ali Montazeri, the designated successor to Khomeini, was ousted and placed under house arrest after protesting the execution . Following Khomeini’s death in 1989, Khamenei was elevated to Supreme Leader with the help of Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, despite lacking the constitutional requirement of being a high-ranking mujtahid (jurist). At the time, Khamenei himself admitted his own inadequacy, stating, “We should weep tears of blood for the nation for which even the possibility of someone like me becoming the leader is proposed.”
As the Iranian regime marks 40 days since Khamenei’s death, it is worth remembering his own words before taking power in 1989: “One should weep tears of blood to even consider me for leadership.”
— Ehsan Eghbal Eslami (@Ehsaneghbale) April 9, 2026
Tens of thousands of killings and executions later, he was proven right.#IranWar pic.twitter.com/y6eyU9Rt2F
A Governance of Blood: Domestic and Foreign Terror
Khamenei’s 37-year reign as Supreme Leader was marked by the systematic elimination of dissent:
- Massacres and Purges: He was an important figure in the 1988 massacres of over 30,000 political prisoners, mostly member of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). Later, in 1999, he oversaw the suppression of student protests, and in 2009, 2017, 2019, 2022, and 2026, he ordered lethal force against nationwide uprisings.
- The Chain Murders (1990–1998): His intelligence services carried out mafia-style assassinations of intellectuals like Kazem Sami and the Forouhar family.
- International Assassinations: A German court identified Khamenei oversaw the actions by the “Special Affairs Committee” that ordered the 1992 Mykonos Restaurant assassinations in Berlin, targeting Kurdish leaders like Sadegh Sharafkandi. He is also considered the decision maker in the AMIA bombing in Argentina in the 1990s.
- Biological Strategy: During the COVID-19 pandemic, Khamenei banned U.S. and UK vaccines, calling the virus a “blessing” and a “test” to drain revolutionary energy, resulting in over 500,000 deaths.
- Women Suppression: Under his rule, several laws further minimizing women’s rights were ratified and enforced. He repeatedly called “housekeeping” as women’s main task. His security forces often harassed or fined women under the pretext of mal-veiling.
- External Terrorism: through the Revolutionary Guards and other security organs, Khamenei oversaw large-scale terrorist operations throughout the years. One of the is the regime’s attempted-bombing of the Iranian opposition rally in France in 2018. As a result, the regime’s diplomat-terrorist Assadollah Asadi and three of his operatives were arrested while trying to plant a bomb at the “Free Iran Global Summit,” hosted by the National Council of Resistance of Iran in Paris.
The $200 Billion Shadow Empire
While a 2018 Gallup poll ranked him as the world leader least attentive to his people’s welfare, Khamenei amassed a fortune estimated by the U.S. Embassy in Iraq and reported by Reuters at $200 billion. This wealth was managed through the “Setad” (Execution of Imam Khomeini’s Order) and various foundations like Bonyad Mostazafan and Astan Quds Razavi, which own thousands of companies in shipping, dairy, and oil.
His personal life stood in stark contrast to his public image of a “pious ascetic”:
- Luxuries and Collections: He maintained a $40 million collection of 100 horses, including a $7 million horse named Zuljanah. He also possessed a collection of 200 antique pipes and 300 rare rings, including an ancient agate worth $500,000.
- Transport and Security: His fleet included a custom Airbus, two Boeing 707s, and 17 bulletproof cars, including a $300,000 BMW 7-series. He built 60-meter-deep anti-atomic bunkers beneath his residences in Tehran and Mashhad.
- The $22 Billion Seizure: In 2009, $22 billion in cash and gold belonging to the regime was reportedly seized by Turkish authorities while being moved toward Syria during the Green Movement protests.
The Cost of “Strategic Depth”
Khamenei’s foreign policy funneled the nation’s wealth into regional chaos:
- Syria: $30 billion to prop up Bashar al-Assad (according to Heshmatollah Felahat Pisheh, former head of the Parliament’s Security Commission.)
- Nuclear Program: At least $2 trillion spent by 2024 (per Iran’s state-run Media)
- Proxies: $23 billion total to Hezbollah, $700 million annually to Hamas, and $20 billion to the Houthis (as acknowledged by the leader of these groups.)
- False Flags: To justify his “holy shrine” defense narrative, evidence suggests his regime was involved in the 1994 bombing of the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad and the 2006 bombing of the Al-Askari shrine in Samarra to incite sectarian conflict.
The Final Failure
The regime’s supreme leader consistently preached a doctrine of “No war, no negotiation.” Yet, his strategic blindness led to both. By early 2026, his provocations resulted in the direct military confrontation that claimed his life. He died leaving behind an Iran scarred by 47 years of clerical rule—a period that began with a “superficial student” and ended with a billionaire dictator whose final legacy was the “black bags” of his own citizens.
In 2018, Ali Khamenei, as the Iranian regime’s supreme leader, said: “There will be no war, and we will not negotiate.”
— Ehsan Eghbal Eslami (@Ehsaneghbale) March 29, 2026
Eight years later, after major changes in Iran and across the region, negotiations have taken place, war has broken out, and he himself has been killed. https://t.co/Q8KEjdP64h pic.twitter.com/qBXUJlmfMd