Ayatollah Ardebili Laid to Rest

Ayatollah Seyyed Abdolkarim Mousavi Ardebili was buried at the shrine of Hazrat Fatima Masumeh (AS) in Qom on Friday.  The burial ceremony was attended by high-ranking officials and prominent clerics, most notably President Hassan Rouhani, Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, IRNA reported.  The grand ayatollah, 90,  died on Wednesday after suffering from heart attacks that sent him into a coma.  He had been hospitalized in Tehran and diagnosed with serious intestinal conditions on Monday. 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 shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. After the revolution in 1979, Ayatollah Ardebili became a founding member of the Islamic Republic Party. He served in various influential posts and was the chief justice from 1981 to 1989.