A
powerful Iranian cleric,
a member of the Assembly of Experts that chooses the country's supreme guide, was shot dead on Wednesday, the official press agency reported.
"Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani died this morning in an armed attack (...) The attacker was detained by security forces," the IRNA news agency said, citing an authority.
The attack occurred in
the city of Babolsar
(in the province of Mazandarán), a city located on the shores of the Caspian Sea about 230 km north of Tehran, the agency said.
In a video uploaded to social networks, which bears the seal of the IRNA agency, the alleged cleric is seen sitting in the room of a bank, as if he were waiting to be attended, when a man with a rifle approaches him from behind and shoot in the head.
Two people then manage to disarm the attacker, who is detained, while the clergyman's body remains on the chairs.
The footage is taken
from a security camera monitor.
"It is not a terrorist act"
The governor of the province of Mazandarán, Mahmoud Hosseinipour, specified on state television that
"it is not a terrorist incident"
and that the authorities are investigating the murderer's motives.
A video recorded with a phone shows several police officers carrying
the body of the victim
wrapped in a black blanket.
"The attacker was
a local resident
, a bank security guard, and was armed," but he was not a police officer, the governor added.
"Based on current information, the killer did not know the victim," he said, adding that Ayatollah Soleimani "had gone to the bank for personal" financial matters.
Soleimani, 75, held the position of representative of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and was one of the 88 members of the Assembly of experts, charged with choosing, supervising and eventually removing the supreme guide.
In the Assembly, Ayatollah Soleimani represented the province of Sistan-Baluchistan,
one of the poorest regions in Iran
, which is home to the Baloch minority, mostly adhering to Sunni Islam and not to the dominant Shiism in the country.
extremely rare
He had also been the imam leading weekly Friday prayers in the cities of Kashan, in the central province of Isfahan, and Zahedan in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
Attacks against
representatives of the Iranian clergy
are
extremely rare
.
In April 2022, an alleged jihadist attack in the sanctuary city of Mashhad (northeast) caused the death of two Shiite clerics and the wounding of another.
The murder occurs in the context of the protests unleashed in Iran after the death of a young woman in police custody who had been arrested for wearing the veil incorrectly.
Agencies
look also
Iran orders arrest of two women who were attacked for not wearing the Islamic headscarf
Young Muslims challenge the status quo of Islam
