The president was each a revered and a controversial determine in Iran – whereas his administration was tarnished by a sequence of mass protests, he was seen as a frontrunner to succeed the supreme chief.
By Claire Gilbody Dickerson, information reporter
A helicopter carrying Iran’s president crashed throughout unhealthy climate on Sunday – and Ebrahim Raisi’s loss of life has been confirmed.
However who was Ebrahim Raisi – a pacesetter who confronted sanctions from the US and different nations over his involvement within the mass execution of prisoners in 1988?
The president, 63, who was travelling alongside the overseas minister and two different key Iranian figures when their helicopter crashed, had been travelling throughout the far northwest of Iran following a go to to Azerbaijan.
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Rescuers search for president after helicopter crash
Mr Raisi was a hardliner and former head of the judiciary who some recommended may sooner or later change Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Due to his half within the sentencing of 1000’s of prisoners of conscience to loss of life again within the Eighties, he was nicknamed the Butcher of Tehran as he sat on the so-called Dying Panel, for which he was then sanctioned by the US.
Each a revered and a controversial determine, Mr Raisi supported the nation’s safety companies as they cracked down on all dissent, together with within the aftermath of the 2022 loss of life of Mahsa Amini – the girl who died after she was arrested for allegedly not carrying her hijab correctly – and the nationwide protests that adopted.
The months-long safety crackdown killed greater than 500 individuals and noticed over 22,000 detained.
In March, a United Nations investigative panel discovered that Iran was accountable for the “bodily violence” that led to Ms Amini’s loss of life after her arrest for not carrying a hijab, or headband, to the liking of authorities.
The president additionally supported Iran’s unprecedented choice in April to launch a drone and missile assault on Israel amid its war with Hamas, the ruling militant group in Gaza accountable for the 7 October assaults which noticed 1,200 individuals killed in southern Israel.
Involvement in mass executions
Mr Raisi was sanctioned by the US partly over his involvement within the mass execution of 1000’s of political prisoners in 1988 on the finish of the bloody Iran-Iraq conflict.
Beneath the president, Iran now enriches uranium at practically weapons-grade ranges and hampers worldwide inspections.
Iran has armed Russia in its war on Ukraine and has continued arming proxy teams within the Center East, akin to Yemen’s Houthi rebels and Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
He efficiently ran for the presidency again in August 2021 in a vote that obtained the bottom turnout within the Islamic Republic’s historical past as all of his probably outstanding opponents have been barred from working underneath Iran’s vetting system.
A presidency run in 2017 noticed him lose to Hassan Rouhani, the comparatively average cleric who as president reached Tehran’s 2015 nuclear cope with world powers.
‘Very concerned in something’
Alistair Bunkall, Sky Information’s Center East correspondent, mentioned the president was “a significant determine in Iranian political and non secular society” however “he isn’t universally standard by any means” as his administration has seen a sequence of protests up to now few years in opposition to his and the federal government’s “hardline perspective”.
Mr Raisi was nonetheless “thought of one of many two frontrunners to probably take over” the Iranian regime when the present supreme chief dies, Bunkall mentioned.
He added the president would have been “instrumental” in lots of Iran’s actions within the area as he “would’ve been very concerned in something significantly what has been taking place in Israel and the encircling areas like Lebanon and Gaza and the Houthis over the past seven and a bit months”.
