On Oct. 4, Iranian officials attended a ceremony in honor of the 465 Iranians killed in the hajj stampede near Mecca on Sept. 24. The heads of all the major bodies in Iran, parliamentarians and military commanders were in attendance to honor those who lost their lives in one of the worst tragedies to hit Iran.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was seated on a chair against the wall at the religious center where former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini gave many of his important speeches. Pictures of the ceremony, shared widely online by Iranian news agencies including the supreme leader’s website, showed Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani sitting next to Khamenei for parts of the ceremony. However, according to Rafsanjani’s website, scenes of Rafsanjani were completely cut out from much of the television coverage of the event.
