ARRANGEMENTS are expected to be finalised today for the body of the kidnapped and executed Iranian cleric, Mr. Mohammad Hassan Ebrahimi to be flown back to his home country for burial.
A member of the Muslim community close to the Ebrahimi family yesterday told the Chronicle that the dead man's relatives were awaiting Iranian embassy officials based in Caracas, Venezeula who are due to arrive here today to finalise arrangements.
Ebrahimi was kidnapped in Georgetown on the night of April 2 and his body found in a shallow grave off the Linden Soesyke/Highway late Tuesday afternoon.
The body was positively identified by Abdul Kadir of the college which Ebrahimi headed, and close friends and family members. A silver cap on one of his lower dentures and a finger ring aided the identification process, police said.
He was snatched by gunmen from outside the International Islamic College for Advance Studies (IICAS) at Brickdam, Georgetown where he worked as Director.
Reports are that Ebrahimi, 35, was forced into a getaway motorcar after gunmen discharged a volley of bullets at his car which was parked outside the college. His Administrator, Raymond Halley was shot in his foot but escaped the kidnappers.
Results from the post mortem done on Wednesday morning indicate that Ebrahimi was "only recently shot", a top source told the Chronicle on Thursday.
Police said he was shot twice in the head and buried in a grave about three feet deep, some 400 yards off the St Cuthbert's Mission trail three-and-a-half miles in from the Linden Soesdyke/highway.
The partly decomposed body was found after residents told police there was an unbearable stench from a point on the trail leading to the Amerindian settlement at St. Cuthbert's.
Police, baffled by the case since no ransom had been demanded by the kidnappers, said the Iranian scholar was wearing the same clothes he was last seen alive in. (JAIME HALL)