Top Iranian cleric gunned down in broad daylight

Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani was a member of the Assembly of Experts, a group of 88 clerics that selects the country’s supreme leader.

By JNS

Ayatollah Abbas Ali Soleimani, a high-ranking Iranian cleric, was assassinated on Wednesday in the city of Babolsar in the northern province of Mazandaran.

He was a member of the Assembly of Experts, a group of 88 clerics that selects the country’s supreme leader, and a former representative who officiated at the provincial level on behalf of current Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Soleimani was reportedly shot dead in a bank. CCTV footage showed him sitting on a chair, apparently waiting his turn, when the assailant nonchalantly approached him and shot him in the head with what appeared to be a submachine gun.

The governor of Mazandaran, Mahmoud Hosseinipour Nouri, said the attacker was a local man and that “our information and documents indicate that this was not a security or terrorist act.”

The assassin’s motive remained unclear as of Thursday.

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