Ebrahim Raisi obit: A controversial, hardline president once known as 'Butcher of Tehran'

In September 2022, the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women, sparked off a major uprising in Iran. Thousands of Iranians, led by women and young people, took to the streets to protest against the country’s repressive regime and the economic downturn. Protests roiled Iran for months, with women burning their hijabs and cutting their hair off in protest.

At that time, Iran’s hardline and religiously conservative president Ebrahim Raisi, who had been elected just a year earlier, sent security forces to brutally suppress the protests, killing hundreds and arresting thousands. Seven people were executed for their role in the unrest.

Raisi's deadly crackdown on the protest, prompted the international community to heap pressure on the Iranian government, with Western countries like the USA quickly imposing additional sanctions on Iran.

'Butcher of Tehran'

A powerful, controversial figure in Iran’s political firmament, tipped to be the successor of Iran’s supreme leader, 85-year-old Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Raisi was not deterred by the reactions from the international community. He brushed it off as as an attempt to damage Iran’s international reputation.

Raisi has faced worse condemnation from the international community, when in 1988, he was called out for being part of a death committee for five months overseeing a series of executions of political prisoners. Amnesty International said Raisi was a “member of the death commission’’ that, on Khomeini’s orders, “forcibly disappeared” and executed thousands of dissidents in prisons near Tehran in 1988, according to media reports.

In fact, this earned him the moniker of 'Butcher of Tehran'. In 2019 too, the US imposed sanctions against him for being a political appointee of the Iranian supreme leader, whose network “oppressed the Iranian people, exported terrorism, and advanced destabilizing policies around the world.”

Raisi’s tenure

Raisi's three-year tenure as Iran's president has been a volatile one. Besides tightening laws governing women’s attire and a brutal crackdown of anti-government protests, his presidency was also marked by brewing discontent among the people as the country’s economy was crushed by international sanctions and high unemployment. When he took over as president in 2021, Raisi had inherited a country in trouble, which included the aftermath of pandemic, unrest due to economic crisis, a growing conflict with Israel and the western powers.

Raisi’s presidency also oversaw the country’s first direct attack on Israel. Iran has been engaged in a decades-long shadow war with Israel, and tensions with the Jewish state escalated in April after the Iranian consular building in Damascus was attacked in a strike killing seven people including a top commander and his deputy. The world waited with bated breath for Iran's response and scrutinised every statement made by Raisi.

Finally, on April 15, Iran launched an attack on Israel with more than 120 ballistic missiles, 170 drones and more than 30 cruise missiles, which were all more or less intercepted outside Israel’s borders.

Raisi’s origins

Raisi, 63, who had risen up the ranks of the judiciary to become a protégé and trusted confidant of Khamenei, was elected president in 2021 after a decorated career as an ultraconservative in Iran’s judiciary. He had long been seen as a potential successor to Khamenei, who held the highest political and religious position in the Islamic republic.

Raisi was born in the northeast Iranian city of Mashhad in 1960 to a devoutly religious family. They were caught up in the fervour of Iran’s Islamic Revolution which had toppled the country’s monarchy in 1979. Raisi as a teenager was deeply influenced by the revolution.

He studied at the renowned Qom religious seminary at 15, and went on to learn under several Muslim scholars. At 20, he was appointed prosecutor in the city of Karaj.

Gradually, he worked his way up through Iran’s judicial system, always a solid supporter of the nascent Islamic Republic. In Tehran, he headed the anti-corruption General Inspection Office and was prosecutor general of the Special Court for the Clergy. In 1989, he was appointed prosecutor of Tehran after the death of Iran’s first Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Raisi rose through the ranks swiftly under Khomeini’s replacement, Ayatollah Khamenei. He became chairman of the Astan Quds Razavi, the biggest religious endowment in Mashhad, on March 7, 2016. This strengthened his position in Iran’s establishment.

Then he assumed one of the most powerful roles in the government: head of the judiciary. There, he cultivated an image as an anti-corruption leader while also working to purge opponents of the regime. Raisi, like Khamenei, believed in a strict interpretation of Islamic jurisprudence as the basis for the state and government.

Raisi also managed to maintain good relations with all branches of government, military and legislative as well as the powerful theocratic ruling class.

Conservative Iranian voters loved him and in June 2021, he won 62 per cent of the vote defeating his opponent, the more moderate Hassan Rouhani.

Raisi and the US

Raisi has never been keen to engage diplomatically with the United States or the rest of the West.

Angry with the then US President Donald Trump for unilaterally abrogating the nuclear agreement with Iran, a defiant Raisi announced that Iran was resuming its nuclear programme in full measure.

Now, after Raisi's death in the air crash, reports say that Iran's vice-first-president, Mohammad Mokhber is expected to take over with Khamenei's assent, according to the Iranian constitution. The rules also mandate a new presidential election to be called within 50 days.