An Iranian was handed over a death sentence for murdering a cleric in north Iran in April, an Iranian judiciary-affiliated agency announced Wednesday.
The convict shot dead Abbas Ali Soleimani on April 26 inside a bank in Babolsar city in the northern province of Mazandaran, which witnessed protests following the death of Kurdish youth Mahsa Amini.
The Iranian was sentenced to death in the form of Qisas (that is equal punishment for the crime committed), provincial judiciary chief Mohammad Sadegh Akbari said, according to the judiciary's Mizan Online website.
The sentence under Qisas can be dropped if the victim's family agrees to spare the convict.
The attacker was a security guard at the bank.
Local governor Mahmoud Hosseinipour said in April that this wasn’t a “terrorist act”.
The Iranian media said that Soleimani was sitting in a chair at the bank when the assailant grabbed the gun of the guard and opened fire. Three others were also injured.
Attacks on clerics increased in the past two years in parallel with the increased popular riot over the deteriorating economy.
In April, two Shiite clerics were killed in a knife attack by an Afghani in the city of Mashhad.
Soleimani, 78, served on the Assembly of Experts, an 88-seat panel overseeing the post of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
At the time of the elections to the Assembly of Experts, he was on the list of the Community of Teachers of the Seminary of sacred Qom (center), a conservative organization.
He also was the personal representative of the Iranian supreme leader and the imam of Friday’s prayer in several cities across the country.
