Imam Khamenei to lead prayers for body of deceased Ayatollah Rafsanjani

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei will lead mass prayers for the body of the deceased Ayatollah Akbar Rafsanjani during his funeral ceremony on Tuesday.

According to an official in the public relations office of the Expediency Council on Monday, the family of Ayatollah Rafsanjani have decided to have him buried in the mausoleum of the founder of the Islamic Republic in Iran the Late Imam Khomeini in south of capital, Tehran.

The funeral procession will start at 10 am in Tehran University on Tuesday. 

Ayatollah Rafsanjani died on Sunday at the age of 82 due to a heart attack in a Tehran hospital.

Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani or Hashemi Bahramani was born in Southern Iran on 25 August, 1934 and was an influential Iranian politician and writer, who was the fourth president of Iran.

He was Iran's Parliament Speaker in the 1980s and the country's president for two terms from 1989 to 1997.

Hashemi Rafsanjani also served as chairman of Iran's Experts Assembly that is tasked with choosing the country's Leader.

He was also head of Iran's Expediency Council ever since 1987.

Hashemi Rafsanjani married Effat Marashi, a housewife, in 1958. The couple have three sons and two daughters. His fourth son, Mehdi who went on trial and was convicted to 10 years of imprisonment for corruption charges, was released from prison in the evening to attend his father's funeral ceremony.