A senior Iranian cleric and Shia marja (source of emulation), Ayatollah Abdul-Karim Mousavi Ardebili, has passed away after suffering cardiac and digestive complications.
Ayatollah Mousavi Ardebili died at the age of 91 at the Laleh Hospital in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Wednesday.
He had been taken to hospital with chest pain on Monday. His condition worsened after a second heart attack, according to his medical team.
Ayatollah Mousavi Ardebelli was born in Ardebil in 1926. After the Islamic Revolution, he became a founding member of the former Islamic Republic Party.
He had also held positions in the Council of the Islamic Revolution, the Assembly of Experts, and the Attorney-General’s Office. He had been appointed the head of the Supreme Court in 1981 after the assassination of Ayatollah Mohammad Beheshti, who had held the office until then. Ayatollah Mousavi Ardebili served at the position for 6 years.
In the final years of his life, he served as the dean of Mofid University in the Iranian city of Qom.