Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani passed away on Sunday due to heart condition.
Ayatollah Rafsanjani, 82, was admitted to a hospital in northern Tehran on Sunday after having an acute heart attack.
“Despite the efforts of the doctors he died” at Shohadaa Hospital in northern Tehran, said Reza Soleimani, a speaker of the Expediency Council, Iran’s main political arbitration body which Rafsanjani chaired.
The government announced three days’ of mourning, making Tuesday a public holiday for his burial, according to the official IRNA news agency.
Born on August 25, 1934, the influential Iranian politician and writer was the fourth president of the Islamic Republic, serving from 1989 to 1997.
Rafsanjani was the head of the Assembly of Experts from 2007 to 2011. The influential cleric was elected chairman of the Iranian parliament in 1980 and served until 1989. He assumed office as the Chairman of the Expediency Council in 1989.
Head of Tehran’s Shohada Hospital has declared heart arrest as the cause of Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani’s passing away.
Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani was among the main aides to late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini.
Source: Agencies
