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Might 20, 2024
On Might 19, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi was killed in a helicopter crash. He has served as head of state since 2021, with many seeing the 63-year-old Raisi as the long run successor to the nation’s supreme chief, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
The BBC appears to be like again on the highlights of Ibrahim Raisi’s life and profession.
Conservative cleric
Earlier than his sudden choice to run for president, Ibrahim Raisi was unknown to most Iranians.
By then, the 56-year-old conservative cleric had a doctorate in Islamic legislation. All through his profession within the judiciary, regardless of holding excessive positions, Raisi saved a low profile.
The long run president of Iran was born within the metropolis of Mashhad in 1960, on the age of 15 he entered the nation’s most prestigious spiritual seminary within the province of Qom, and 5 years later, instantly after the Islamic Revolution, he started working within the judicial system.
Raisi grew to become deputy prosecutor of the capital Tehran on the age of simply 25. He was later appointed to the place of deputy head of the judiciary.
Picture captionIbrahim Raisi registers his candidacy for the 2017 presidential elections
“Demise Fee”
In 1988, Raisi was certainly one of 4 judges who sat on the so-called “dying commissions.” These commissions determined the destiny of hundreds of imprisoned oppositionists who have been executed in Iranian prisons after their sentences had expired.
These executions are one of the vital taboo subjects in Iran’s post-revolutionary historical past and have by no means been formally investigated.
Former Iranian President Hassan Rouhani shocked many by elevating the difficulty throughout an election debate on Iranian state tv.
Though there was no official response to Rouhani’s statements, his feedback sparked heated and emotional debate on social media, bringing an episode that many younger Iranians did not even find out about out of the blue into the general public area.
Future Supreme Chief?
picture captionRaisi has secured the assist of Iran’s Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for the 2021 presidential election
All through his profession, Ibrahim Raisi maintained shut private ties with members of the conservative Iranian elite. He studied underneath Iran’s present Supreme Chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and was near key figures within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In March 2016, Raisi was appointed head of certainly one of Iran’s most essential and richest spiritual foundations, Astan Quds Razavi, charged with overseeing the nation’s holiest Shiite shrine in his hometown of Mashhad, the Imam Reza Mausoleum.
Appointment to this place carries monumental status and affect. Many observers then got here to the conclusion that Raisi was being groomed as the long run successor to the Supreme Chief.
Raisi was additionally elected vice-chairman of the Meeting of Consultants, the 88-member religious physique liable for electing the subsequent Supreme Chief.
Partner’s profession
Picture copyrightATTA KENARE/AFP
Picture caption: Raisi’s spouse is a professor at Tehran Shahid Beheshti College
Little is understood about Ibrahim Raisi’s private life, though some particulars grew to become recognized throughout the election marketing campaign. His spouse Jamile Alamolhoda is a professor at Tehran Shahid Beheshti College, they usually have two daughters.
In an effort to attraction to ladies voters, Raisi talked about his spouse a number of instances throughout the marketing campaign, speaking about his assist for her research and his willingness to go and not using a ready-made dinner when work takes her away from dwelling.
His feedback have been nicely obtained by supporters however drew a lot ridicule from opponents.
Raisi’s father-in-law, Ayatollah Ahmad Alamolhoda, is a hard-line chief of Friday prayers in Mashhad and a person recognized for his ultra-conservative views. He insists that music live shows ought to by no means be held within the metropolis.
Candidate from unusual Iranians
Raisi isn’t precisely a charismatic speaker – his unconvincing efficiency on the 2021 televised election debates did little to alter that – however fastidiously managing his picture on Telegram and Instagram has helped generate buzz round his marketing campaign and ensured large attendance at his election rallies.
All through the election marketing campaign, Raisi offered himself because the candidate of unusual Iranians, a person who would defend the conservative values of the Iranian revolution, look after the poor and deprived, and produce again money advantages to assist cowl rising residing prices.
That message clearly resonated with hundreds of thousands of Iranians who proceed to battle with poverty, unemployment and inflation, stronger than the guarantees of reform and alter made by his extra reasonable opponent.
Anti-Israeli and pro-Russian insurance policies
Lately, Ibrahim Raisi has persistently taken a tough line in opposition to Israel and the West.
In April 2022, Raisi warned that Israel could be focused by the Iranian navy if it made “the slightest hostile step” in the direction of Iran.
In an interview in September of that 12 months, he condemned the historic Abraham Accords (a sequence of normalization treaties between Israel and Arab states brokered by Donald Trump in 2020-2021).
In March 2022, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Raisi facilitated a rapprochement between Tehran and Moscow that led to the availability of Iranian weapons to Russia.
Raisi condemned the Israeli navy operation in Gaza, accusing Israel of genocide in opposition to Palestinians with the assist of Western international locations.
In December 2023, Raisi canceled a visit to Geneva resulting from allegations in opposition to him in reference to the torture and homicide of prisoners in 1988, when he was a choose of the “dying fee”, for which he may face arrest.
