Powerful Iranian Cleric Shot Dead, State Media Report

Senior Iranian cleric Ayatollah Abbas Ali Suleimani was shot and killed in the northern province of Mazandaran on April 26, state media report.

An attacker shot the 75–year-old Suleimani to death in the city of Babolsar, state television and IRNA news agency reported. 

Police later arrested the attacker, the reports said.

The shia cleric was at a bank when a man seized a guard’s firearm and began shooting over a personal dispute with an employee, striking and killing the cleric, according to state TV.

Suleimani served on the Assembly of Experts, an 88-member chamber of theologians which oversees and appoints the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader. 

He was previously the representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the restive south-eastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan.

He had also been the Friday prayer leader in Kashan, in central Isfahan province, and Zahedan in Sistan-Baluchistan.