Prominent Iranian cleric Ayatollah Mohammad-Reza Mahdavi-Kani has been laid to rest in the south of the capital, Tehran. The funeral held on Thursday was attended by a huge crowd of mourners, including a host of state and military officials.
Earlier in the day, Leader of the Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei, led mass funeral prayers at a ceremony in remembrance of the top religious figure.
The prayers were attended by people from all walks of life as well as dozens of senior clerics and high-ranking officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, Head of the Guardian Council Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani, Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli-Larijani and Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi. Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, was among the military top brass attending the service.
The funeral procession held after the prayers brought together thousands of mourners who paid tribute to Ayatollah Mahdavi-Kani while taking the senior cleric to his final resting place.
Ayatollah Mahdavi-Kani, 83, passed away in Tehran on Tuesday after he went into a coma on June 4 due to a major heart attack.
In a message of condolences following the demise of Ayatollah Mahdavi-Kani on Tuesday, the Leader described the deceased cleric as an influential figure in the Islamic Republic and a true companion of the late founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini.
“This great and pious man appeared always and everywhere in the position of a religious scholar and an honest politician and a candid revolutionary,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.
The late cleric who also was a veteran politician was elected chairman of the Assembly of Experts in March 2011. The high-ranking body of experts elects and oversees the activities of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution.
The senior Iranian official was also a founder and the leader of the Combatant Clergy Association, a prominent religious, cultural and political foundation formed with the objective of protecting the achievements of Iran’s Islamic Revolution.
R111/112/C