Death of Iran’s President Raisi: Hardliner with a bloody past

Iranian President Raisi was an ultra-conservative hardliner. As a lawyer he was responsible for the deaths of many opposition members, and as president he incurred the wrath of the population.

Black turban, black coat: It was clear from his clothing that Ebrahim Raisi was not only a politician, but also a clergyman. The Iranian president, who has now died in a helicopter crash, was considered an ultra-conservative hardliner.

As the preferred candidate and protégé of religious leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he won the presidential election in June 2021 with almost 62 percent of the vote. The cleric officially became the successor to the more moderate Hassan Rouhani, who was no longer allowed to run after two terms in office.

Career in the judiciary

Raisi, born in Mashad in northeastern Iran in 1960, was considered very influential within the Islamic system. He also maintained a close relationship with Khamenei. According to the constitution, Raisi was head of government, while actual power is concentrated in the head of state Khamenei, who has the final say in all strategic matters.

Raisi, who studied theology and Islamic law, had worked in the judiciary for more than three decades before his election as president. At the age of 20, he became Attorney General of Karaj near Tehran – shortly after the Islamic Revolution of 1979.

His name stands for Mass executions

For the exiled opposition, his name is indelibly linked to arrests and mass executions of Marxists and other leftists in 1988, when Raisi was deputy prosecutor of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran. He denied any responsibility for it.

He then served as Attorney General in Tehran from 1989 to 1994, then as Deputy Chief of Justice for a decade from 2004 and finally as Attorney General of Iran.

In 2016, Ayatollah Khamenei appointed Raisi to head the powerful Astan Kods Rasawi Foundation, which includes an empire of companies, banks and many other institutions as well as enormous real estate. In 2019 he became head of justice. In the same year, the USA put him on a sanctions list for serious human rights crimes.

Strengthening through parliamentary elections

Raisi emerged stronger from the parliamentary elections in March and mid-May – the first nationwide vote since the mass protests following the death of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. She was taken into police custody for allegedly violating the strict Islamic dress code requiring the wearing of a headscarf and died a short time later in hospital. The protests were also directed against the political leadership.

After the parliamentary elections in the spring, Raisi was happy about “the historic defeat for the enemies of Iran after the unrest” in 2022. Parliament, which begins work on May 27, is controlled by conservatives and ultra-conservatives.

Raisi was married to Jamileh Alamolhada, who teaches education at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran. He also leaves behind two daughters.