People turned out in large numbers in a memorial service to pay tribute to Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the 82-year-old statesman with decades of service for the Islamic Republic who passed away following a heart attack on January 8.
The ceremony was held on Sunday at the revered cleric's resting place in southern Tehran at the Mausoleum of Imam Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic, IRNA reported.
Ali Akbar Nateq-Nouri, former parliament speaker and an advisor to the Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, delivered a speech at the ceremony.
Rafsanjani's state funeral was held on Tuesday. Funeral prayers were led at the University of Tehran by the Leader. After that, his casket was taken in a procession to the burial place, as hundreds of thousands of mournful Iranians filled main thoroughfares of central Tehran in cold winter weather to bid farewell.
Last Wednesday, an official memorial ceremony for the eminent cleric was hosted in Tehran by the Leader.
The shock demise of the ayatollah, who had no publicized record of illness and was still holding public office, captured headlines in many international news outlets and led to an outpouring of grief and messages of condolences both from home and abroad.
The highly influential politician fought the rule of US-backed Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and suffered hardship and torture in his notorious prisons for years.
Over the past four decades after the 1979 Islamic Revolution, he served as interior minister (1979-80), parliament speaker (1980-89), Tehran's Friday prayers leader (1982-2009), president (1989-97) and chairman of the Assembly of Experts (2007-11).
After the end of his presidency, the prominent politician was appointed as chairman of Expediency Council, a post he held until his passing.
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