Iranian President and Foreign Minister killed in Helicopter Crash
Ebrahim Raisi, former President of the Islamic Republic of Iran and a member of the “Death Committee” involved in the massacre of leftist political prisoners and members of the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran in the summer of 1988, died in a helicopter crash on May 19, 2024.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mohammad-Ali Ale-Hashem, Friday Prayer Imam of Tabriz, and Malek Rahmati, Governor of East Azerbaijan, were also among the passengers of this helicopter.
Colonel Seyed Taher Mostafavi, Colonel Mohsen Darianoush, and Major Behrouz Ghadimi were the flight crew. Seyed Mehdi Mousavi, Raisi’s bodyguard, also died in the crash. A member of the Ansar al-Mahdi Corps, a branch of IRGC in charge of protecting political figures, was also on the helicopter. His name is not known.
On Sunday, May 19, 2024, Ebrahim Raisi travelled to East Azerbaijan to meet with the President of Azerbaijan. Raisi, along with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev, had attended the inauguration ceremony of the joint “Qiz Qalasi” dam on the Aras river at the zero border point.
According to reports, the incident occurred around 3:00 to 3:30 PM local time. After 16 hours, rescue teams were able to determine the exact location of the helicopter crash site with the help of images from the Turkish Akıncı drone, which is equipped with night vision. Subsequently, they confirmed the deaths of Raisi and others.
On May 20, 2024, Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, appointed Mohammad Mokhber, Raisi’s First Vice President, as the interim President of the Islamic Republic.
This appointment was made based on Article 131 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, which states that the First Vice President can assume the temporary presidency in the event of the President’s death, illness, dismissal, or incapacity, provided it is approved by the Supreme Leader.
Mohammad Mokhber will assume the responsibilities of the presidency for the next 50 days. During this period, a council comprising Mohammad Mokhber, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, and Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje’i, Chief Justice of Iran must prepare the conditions for holding the next presidential elections.
As his first appointment, Mokhber appointed Ali Bagheri Kani as the acting foreign minister. Before this, Bagheri Kani was the Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs and head of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team.
Raisi, born in Noghan (Mashhad in north-east Iran), was 63 years old. He is the son-in-law of Ahmad Alamolhoda, the hardline Friday Prayer Imam of Mashhad. Before his appointment to the Presidency, Raisi held several significant positions, including that of Prosecutor General, head of Astan Quds Razavi (both a religious shrine and a financial conglomerate), and Chief Justice of Iran of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Along with Hossein-Ali Nayeri, Morteza Eshraghi, and Mostafa Pourmohammadi, he was part of the group that managed the courts in Evin and Gohardasht prisons during the summer of 1988, sentencing thousands to death for apostasy or dissent. This group became known as the “Death Committee.”
Ebrahim Raisi was only 24 years old when he replaced Asadollah Lajevardi in the summer of 1984, taking responsibility for handling “subversive groups” in the Prosecutor’s Office. Although Raisi’s name is closely associated with his membership in the committee overseeing the status of political prisoners in the summer of 1988, he had already gained extensive experience in the repression, framing, and killing of political activists opposed to the Islamic Republic from 1980 to 1988 before playing a significant role in the crime that was committed by the Islamic regime.
