Ayatollah Khamenei Leads Funeral Prayers for Late Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council

Rasa - Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei on Tuesday led the funeral prayers for the burial of Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani who passed away in Tehran on Sunday.

News ID: 426421

Date: 10 January 2017 - 21:27

RNA - A large number of Iranian people from all walks of life as well as high-ranking officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani and Judiciary Chief Ayatollah Sadeq Amoli Larijani, participated in the funeral procession held at the University of Tehran's campus.

The body of the deceased Hashemi Rafsanjani is to be laid to rest at the holy shrine of late Imam Khomeini in Southern Tehran.

Rafsanjani died at the age of 83 in Tehran on Sunday after he was rushed to Tajreesh Martyrs Hospital in Northern Tehran after experiencing a heart failure Sunday afternoon.

"Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani suffered a cardiac arrest at around 18:00 today and was immediately rushed to a Tehran hospital where a team of heart specialists tried hard to resuscitate him for one and a half hours, but unfortunately to no avail," Deputy Health Minister Mohammad Haji Aghajani said in the evening.

"He died at 19:30 this afternoon," the deputy minister declared.

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, President Hassan Rouhani - who rushed to the hospital after hearing the news - Experts Assembly, Judiciary Chief Sadeq Amoli Larijani, Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani, Guardian Council, Supreme National Security Council, Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and a wide range of other Iranian officials all rushed to express condolences on Hashemi Rafsanjani's death.

The body of the influential politician and official who had served in a range of top posts ever since the Islamic Revolution was returned to his home in the vicinity of Hosseiniyeh Jamaran - the home to the Late Founder of the Islamic Republic Imam Khomeini - in Shemiran in Northern Tehran then.

His body was later transferred to Hosseiniyeh Jamaran, where a host of Iranian officials were present to show their respect for the veteran politician. Then on Tuesday, his body was transferred to the Univeristy of Tehran Campus and was given a procession in the streets of Central Tehran.

The Iranian government has declared three days of mourning.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani or Hashemi Bahramani was born in Southern Iran on 25 August, 1934 and was an influential Iranian politician and writer, who was the fourth president of Iran.

He was Iran's Parliament Speaker in the 1980s and the country's president for two terms from 1989 to 1997.

Hashemi Rafsanjani also served as chairman of Iran's Experts Assembly that is tasked with choosing the country's Leader.

He was also head of Iran's Expediency Council ever since 1987.

Hashemi Rafsanjani married Effat Marashi, a housewife, in 1958. The couple have three sons and two daughters. His second son, Mehdi who went on trial and was convicted to 10 years of imprisonment for corruption charges, has been released from prison in the evening to attend his father's funeral ceremony.

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