Ayatollah Ardebili Passes Away

Ayatollah Seyyed Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili passed away at the age of 90 on Wednesday, after suffering heart attacks that sent him into a coma. The prominent cleric was hospitalized in Tehran and diagnosed with a serious intestinal condition on Monday. He also had kidney diseases. Born in 1926 in Ardebil, he was a close ally of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, in his campaign against the rule of the US-backed dictator, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who was toppled by popular protests leading to the 1979 Islamic Revolution. After the revolution, Ayatollah Ardebili became a founding member of the Islamic Republic Party in 1979. He served in various influential posts, most notably as the chief justice from 1981 to 1989.Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, Chairman of the Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and President Hassan Rouhani had visited Ayatollah Ardebili at the hospital on Tuesday.