A group of former Iranian MPs has appealed to a powerful clerical panel to investigate if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is fit to rule.
The call was made to the Assembly of Experts, which under Iranian law has the power to remove the supreme leader.
The letter denounces the crackdown on protests after June's disputed election and the trials which followed.
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The content of the letter from the group of former MPs appeared on several opposition websites. The reports did name any of the group, nor say how many had signed the letter.
Addressed to former Iranian President Ali Akbar Rafsanjani, who heads the Assembly of Experts, it demands "a legal probe on the basis of Article 111 of the constitution, which is a responsibility of the Assembly of Experts".
The article says that if the supreme leader "becomes incapable of fulfilling his constitutional duties" he will be dismissed.
The letter denounced the recent trials of protesters held in Tehran as a "Stalinesque court".
It also said Kahrizak prison near Tehran, where much of the alleged abuse of detainees took place, was worse than the US facilities at Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
There has so far been no response from the assembly to the letter.
However, correspondents say that even if the call is ignored, it is the most direct challenge to Ayatollah Khamenei so far.
The letter breaks a taboo among Iran's political classes against openly challenging the supreme leader, whose position has long been unquestioned, analysts say.
via BBC NEWS | Middle East | Iranian ex-MPs challenge Khamenei.
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