IIKSS - Iranians take part in a funeral procession and interment ceremony to bid farewell to late Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former Iranian president and chairman of the Expediency Council, who is viewed as a pillar of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
The body of the venerated cleric will be laid to rest following the procession at the mausoleum of the late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeni on Tuesday morning.
Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei is to perform funeral prayers for the diseased at Tehran University. The cortege is then scheduled to depart towards Imam Khomeini’s mausoleum in southern Tehran.
Ayatollah Rafsanjani had been admitted to Shohada Hospital in northern Tehran on Sunday after suffering a heart attack. He passed away at 82 later in the day.
Iran is observing three days of national mourning in honor of Ayatollah Rafsanjani.
On Monday, a mourning ceremony was held at Jamaran Mosque in Tehran, where the body of the senior cleric was transferred. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani along with other senior officials attended the funeral.
Rafsanjani helped establish the Combatant Clergy Association in 1977, which proved fatefully instrumental in the victory of the Islamic Revolution two years later.
He became Iran’s first Speaker of Parliament after the Resolution, serving until 1989.
Then he was elected the country’s chief executive, in which position he functioned until 1997.
In his capacity as the president, he was also the chairman of the Expediency Council, a position he kept until departure.
Source: YJC