Who was Ebrahim Raisi? Brutal Iranian president dubbed ‘butcher of Tehran’ who doled out death sentences to enemies
IRAN’S hardline president Ebrahim Raisi has a bloody history steeped in murder and helped oversee the mass executions of thousands.
The 63-year-old had positioned himself as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – before he died suddenly in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Why was Ebrahim Raisi nicknamed the “Butcher”?
Known by some as The Butcher, Raisi won a landslide victory and was declared Iran’s president in 2021.
The brute is alleged to have been a key member of the so-called “Death Commission” which ordered thousands of political prisoners to be killed in 1988, as Iran‘s eight-year war with Iraq came to an end.
His alleged role was said to be pivotal in winning him the support of powerful Iranian theocratic rulers.
It also earned him the nickname of Iran’s “Butcher”.
Some 30,000 men, women, and children held in prisons across Iran were lined up against a wall and shot in the span of a few months, say Raisi’s rivals.
Iran never acknowledged the executions and Raisi never addressed the allegations about the role he played in them.
The US sanctioned Raisi in 2019 for his “administrative oversight” of the executions of juvenile offenders, and for the torture and “amputations” inflicted on prisoners in Iran – as well as for the 1988 mass executions.
The president told the United Nations in September 2021: “Sanctions are the US new way of war with the nations of the world.”
He added: “The policy of maximum oppression is still on. We want nothing more than what is rightfully ours.”
Raisi was directly responsible for the wave of arrests and executions that followed massive anti-regime protests in 2019 and 2020.
He later led the country as it enriched uranium near weapons-grade levels, and was in power when Iran launched a massive drone and missile attack on Israel in April.
Who died in the Iranian helicopter crash and where were the bodies found?
The ruthless leader died suddenly, along with Iran’s foreign minister and other officials, in a helicopter crash in northwestern Iran.
Their bodies were located on Monday – following an hourslong search in foggy conditions – reportedly some 12 miles south of the Azerbaijan-Iranian border, on the side of a steep green mountain.
Iran’s former foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, quickly blamed the US for the crash – without providing any evidence for the claims.
And an Israeli official told Reuters: “It wasn’t us,” as Palestinian militant group Hamas expressed sympathy to the Iranian people for “this immense loss”.
Raisi came into power in 2021 in a vote carefully managed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
His victory came after Iranian authorities disqualified many moderate candidates and viable opponents.
The president allegedly ordered the torture of pregnant women, had prisoners thrown off cliffs, had people flogged with electric cords, and oversaw countless other brutal acts of violence.
Brit man Alireza Akbari was one of hundreds believed to have been executed by Tehran in 2023, with the country coming second only to China for the number of executions it carries out.
Brutal punishments including hangings from cranes, electric shocks, and guillotined fingers are meted out for even the pettiest of crimes
Mass protests swept Iran in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who had been detained over allegedly not wearing a hijab, or headscarf, as was required by authorities.
Following the demonstrations, a monthslong security crackdown saw more than 500 people killed and more than 22,000 others detained.
In March, a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the physical violence that led to Amini’s death.
Khamenei appointed Raisi, a former Iranian attorney general, in 2016 to run charity foundation Imam Reza.
The supreme leader described Raisi as a trustworthy person with high-profile experience, which led to speculation that Khamenei could be grooming Raisi to one day take his position.
Fuelled by assets seized after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the foundation manages businesses and endowments in Iran and owns almost half the land in Mashhad, Iran’s second-biggest city.
Raisi was born in Mashhad on December 14, 1960 into a family that traces its lineage to Islam‘s Prophet Muhammad.
His father died when he was five years old, before he went onto the seminary in the Shiite holy city of Qom.
Did Ebrahim Raisi have kids?
The president – who described himself as an ayatollah, a high-ranking Shi’a cleric – is survived by his wife and his two daughters.
Iran's executions & torture
IRAN carries out around 250 executions a year - the most of any country in the world aside from China.
Under its Islamic Penal Code, a death sentence can be handed down for crimes such as kidnapping, adultery, drinking alcohol and political crimes as well as murder.
Victims can also have their fingers amputated for counts of petty theft – leaving just the thumb and palm – using a guillotine-like tool.
Children as young as 12 can also be sentenced to death, which is against international law.
And torture is believed to rife in Iran’s prisons, with electric shocks, floggings, water boarding and sexual violence used on prisoners, according to human rights groups.
Stoning to death for adultery also remains on the statute books, though the latest figures show none have been carried out recently.
Electric shocks in prisons see victims strapped into a chair and forced to confess to crimes with the power being turned up if they don’t.