Prayers offered for Iran’s Khamenei on day two of funeral ceremonies

Event seen as test of support for govt after its deadly crackdown on protests in January

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Iranian leaders joined prayers on July 5 over the casket of Iran’s late supreme leader Ali Khamenei during the second day of funeral ceremonies, but his son and successor Mojtaba Khamenei was conspicuously absent.

The elder Khamenei ruled the Islamic Republic from 1989 until he was killed at age 86 in an air strike on the first day of the US-Israeli war with Iran on Feb 28.

Officials including President Masoud Pezeshkian and Revolutionary Guards chief Ahmad Vahidi joined July 5’s ceremonies, along with huge crowds paying their final respects in Tehran.

But Mojtaba has not appeared in public since his appointment in early March. He is said to have been wounded in the attack that killed his father.

The late supreme leader’s other three sons, Masoud, Mostafa and Meysam, all attended the service, held at Tehran’s Grand Mosalla religious complex and led by prominent Shia cleric Jafar Sobhani, a 97-year-old scholar who teaches at seminaries in the holy city of Qom.

July 5 was declared a public holiday across Iran. Later in the day, Khamenei’s body was to be moved from the Grand Mosalla complex where it was lying in state in preparation for processions through the capital on July 6.