Ebrahim Raisi
Ebrahim Raisolsadati, better known as Ebrahim Raisi, was an Iranian politician who served as the eighth president of Iran from 2021 until his death in a helicopter crash in 2024. He was a Twelver Shia Muslim jurist and part of the Principlist group.
Raisi was the son-in-law of Mashhad Friday prayer leader and Grand Imam of Imam Reza shrine, Ahmad Alamolhoda. He began his clerical studies at age 15. In the aftermath of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Raisi served in several positions in Iran's judicial system, including as Prosecutor of Karaj, Prosecutor of Hamadan and Deputy Prosecutor and Prosecutor of Tehran. Raisi was part of the Tehran branch of what has been called the "1988 Iran death commission". Under the direction of Grand Ayatollah Khomeini, thousands of Iranian political prisoners were executed by these commissions, and as a result of his involvement, Raisi earned himself the nickname: "Butcher of Tehran" and was accused by United Nations special rapporteurs and other organizations of crimes against humanity. He was Deputy Chief Justice, Attorney General, and Chief Justice. Raisi was elected to the Assembly of Experts from South Khorasan Province, for the first time in the 2006 election. He was Custodian and Chairman of Astan Quds Razavi, a bonyad, from 2016 until 2019.
Raisi ran for president in 2017 as the candidate of the conservative Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces, losing to the moderate incumbent president Hassan Rouhani, 57% to 38%. Raisi successfully ran for president a second time in 2021 with 63% of the votes, succeeding Rouhani. Considered a hardliner in Iranian politics, Raisi's presidency saw deadlock in negotiations with the U.S. over the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and large-scale protests throughout the country in late 2022, triggered by the death of Mahsa Amini on 16 September. During Raisi's term, Iran intensified uranium enrichment, hindered international inspections, joined SCO and BRICS, and supported Russia in its invasion of Ukraine. Iran also launched several missile and drone attacks on Israel during the Gaza war and continued arming proxy groups like Hezbollah and the Houthi movement.
Early life and education
Ebrahim Raisi was born on 14 December 1960 to a clerical family in the Noghan district of Mashhad. His father, Seyed Haji, died when he was 5.Raisi passed his primary education in "Javadiyeh school"; and then started studying in the Hawza. In 1975, he went to "Ayatollah Boroujerdi School" to continue his education in Qom Seminary. He has claimed to have received a doctorate degree in private law from Motahari University; however, this has been disputed.
Clerical credentials
Raisi began his studies at the Qom Seminary at the age of 15. He then decided to study in the Navvab school for a short time. After that, he went to Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammad Mousavi Nezhad school, where he studied while also teaching other students. In 1976, he went to Qom to continue his studies at the Ayatollah Borujerdi school.He was a student of Seyyed Hossein Borujerdi, Morteza Motahhari, Abolghasem Khazali, Hossein Noori Hamedani, Ali Meshkini and Morteza Pasandideh. Raisi also passed his "KharejeFeqh" to Seyyed Ali Khamenei and Mojtaba Tehrani. According to Alex Vatanka of the Middle East Institute, Raisi's "exact religious qualification" is a "sore point".
"For a while" before investigation by the Iranian media, he "referred to himself" as "Ayatollah" on his website. However, according to Vatanka, the media "publicized his lack of formal religious education" and credentials, after which Raisi ceased claiming to hold the aforementioned rank. After this investigation and criticism he "refer to himself as hojat-ol-eslam", a clerical rank immediately beneath that of Ayatollah.
Raisi subsequently again declared himself an Ayatollah shortly before the 2021 presidential election. The decree by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei appointing him as President, referred to him as a hojat-ol-eslam.
Judicial career
Early years
In 1981, he was appointed the prosecutor of Karaj. Later on, he was also appointed Prosecutor of Hamadan and served both positions together. He was simultaneously active in two cities more than 300 km away from each other. After four months, he was appointed Prosecutor of Hamadan Province.Tehran deputy prosecutor
He was appointed Deputy prosecutor of Tehran in 1985 and moved to the capital. After three years and in early 1988, he was placed in the attention of Ruhollah Khomeini and received special provisions from him to address legal issues in some provinces like Lorestan, Semnan and Kermanshah.1988 executions
As deputy prosecutor general of Tehran, Raisi was a member of Tehran's "death commission" during the 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners. Raisi's involvement in the executions gained publicity in 2016, when Hussein-Ali Montazeri released an audio recording of an August 1988 meeting of the Tehran "death committee." In a 2018 lecture as Iran's president, Raisi did not deny his presence at the 1988 meeting. According to the human rights organization Amnesty International, during the lecture Raisi regarding the killings as "one of the proud achievements of the system." For his role, Raisi earned a reputation of being a hanging judge and was nicknamed the "Butcher of Tehran".Other persons were Morteza Eshraghi, Hossein-Ali Nayeri, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi. Names of the first two persons are mentioned in Khomeini's order. Pourmohammadi has denied his role but Raisi did not comment publicly on the matter. Due to the involvement of this prosecution committee in thousands of executions, it has been informally called the 'death committee'.
The 1988 executions of Iranian political prisoners were a series of state-sponsored executions of political prisoners across Iran, starting on 19 July 1988 and lasting for approximately five months. The majority of those killed were supporters of the People's Mujahedin of Iran, although supporters of other leftist factions, including the Fedaian and the Tudeh Party of Iran, were executed as well. According to Amnesty International, "thousands of political dissidents were systematically subjected to enforced disappearance in Iranian detention facilities across the country and extrajudicially executed pursuant to an order issued by the Supreme Leader of Iran and implemented across prisons in the country. Many of those killed during this time were subjected to torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment in the process." Because of the large number, prisoners were loaded into forklift trucks in groups of six and hanged from cranes in half-hour intervals.
The killings have been described as a political purge without precedent in modern Iranian history, both in terms of scope and coverup. However, the exact number of prisoners executed remains unknown with several sources giving estimates. Amnesty International, after interviewing dozens of relatives, put the number in thousands; and then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini's deputy, Hussein-Ali Montazeri put the number between 2,800 and 3,800 in his memoirs. Human Rights Watch puts the estimate at between 2,800 and 5,000 people. Amnesty describes the state's refusal to provide families with the location of the mass graves of their loved ones as 'ongoing crimes against humanity.'
Senior positions
After Khomeini's death and election of Ali Khamenei as the new Supreme Leader, Raisi was appointed Tehran prosecutor by newly appointed Chief Justice Mohammad Yazdi. He held the office for five years from 1989 to 1994. In 1994, he was appointed head of General Inspection Office.From 2004 until 2014, Raisi served as First Deputy Chief Justice of Iran, being appointed by Chief Justice Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi. He kept his position in Sadeq Larijani's first term as Chief Justice. He was later appointed Attorney-General of Iran in 2014, a position that he held until 2016, when he resigned to become Chairman of Astan Quds Razavi. He was also served as Special Clerical Court prosecutor by the order of the Supreme Leader, Seyyed Ali Khamenei from 2012 to 2021.
Other positions
Raisi was a member of the board of trustees of Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order for ten years by order of Seyyed Ali Khamenei. He was also a member of the "Supreme Selection Board". He was the founder of "Fatemeh Al-Zahra Seminary" and the first secretary of the headquarters for reviving the enjoining good and forbidding wrong in the country. He was appointed the prosecutor of Hamedan province, and was active there for three years since 1982 to 1984.His other executive and oversight responsibilities include the positions such as membership in the "Supreme Council of Cyberspace", "the Monetary and Credit Council", and "the Anti-Corruption Headquarters".
Astan Quds chairmanship
He became chairman of Astan Quds Razavi on 7 March 2016 after the death of his predecessor Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, a position which he stayed in until 2019. He was the second person to serve this office from 1979. Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei enumerated serving the pilgrims of the holy shrine, especially poor people, and also serving nearby, especially the poor and dispossessed as two important responsibilities of Raisi in his appointment order.2017 presidential election
Raisi was named as one of the Popular Front of Islamic Revolution Forces 's presidential candidates in February 2017. His candidacy was also supported by the Front of Islamic Revolution Stability. He officially announced his nomination in a statement published on 6 April, and called it his "religious and revolutionary responsibility to run", citing the need for a "fundamental change in the executive management of the country" and a government that "fights poverty and corruption."He registered on 14 April 2017 at the Ministry of Interior saying it's time to perform citizenship rights, not only writing act.
On 15 May 2017, conservative candidate Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf withdrew his candidacy in favor of Raisi. It was speculated that Ghalibaf would be Raisi's first vice president if he was elected. They also joined in a campaign rally in Tehran with each other.
After the election results were announced, Raisi received 15,786,449 out of 42,382,390. He lost to incumbent president Rouhani and ranked second. He did not congratulate Rouhani on his re-election as the president, and asked the Guardian Council to look into "violations of the law" before and during the elections, with 100 pages of attached documentation.