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Ebrahim Raisi

December 14, 1960 – May 19, 2024

Iranian cleric and judge, a protégé of Ali Khamenei, who was President of Iran from 2021 until his death in a helicopter crash in 2024.

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Biography

Ebrahim Raisolsadati, known as Ebrahim Raisi, was born in Mashhad in 1960 to a clerical family and began seminary studies in Qom at fifteen. After the 1979 revolution he entered the judiciary, serving as prosecutor of Karaj and of Hamadan before becoming deputy prosecutor of Tehran in 1985.

In 1988, as deputy prosecutor, he sat on the Tehran commission that sent thousands of political prisoners to their deaths, which earned him the nickname 'Butcher of Tehran' and accusations of crimes against humanity from UN rapporteurs. He later rose through the judicial hierarchy as first deputy chief justice (2004-2014), attorney general (2014-2016) and chief justice (2019-2021), and from 2016 to 2019 headed the Astan Quds Razavi foundation in Mashhad. He was also elected to the Assembly of Experts in 2006.

A protégé of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, he lost the 2017 presidential election to Hassan Rouhani but won in 2021 after the mass disqualification of rival candidates. His presidency saw stalled talks over the nuclear deal, expanded uranium enrichment, the crackdown on the 2022 protests after the death of Mahsa Amini, and Iran's entry into the SCO and BRICS. He was killed on 19 May 2024 when his helicopter crashed in East Azerbaijan province.