Christophe Bordet / Photo credit: ATTA KENARE / AFP
Iranian President Ebrahim Raïssi died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. Elected in 2021, the leader distinguished himself by a brutal policy in his country. Who was Ebrahim Raïssi really?
The Iranian government formalized this Monday the death of President Ebrahim Raïssi. He died on Sunday in a helicopter crash, in which Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian was also present. Tributes have multiplied since the announcement of his death. A president who distinguished himself by his brutality.
Since June 2021, the date of his presidential election, marked by a record abstention and after a campaign during which he committed to defending freedom of expression, Ebrahim Raïssi has continued to carry out fierce repression. Last Saturday, seven people, including two women, were hanged in Tehran. In total, more than 220 Iranians have been sentenced to death since the start of the year.
“The Butcher of Tehran”
An ultra-violent morality police who arrest and brutally beat women in the street because they do not wear the veil. The Islamic State in all its terror. Prosecutor general at just 20 years old, Raïssi, who died at the age of 63, is a pure product of the Islamic revolution, answering to only one master: the supreme guide Khamenei.
Raïssi shows no mercy for his adversaries inside the country, just like outside. It is in Israel’s sights because it supports Hamas and the October 7 attack. It was he who decided on the operation against Israel with the sending of 350 missiles and drones to the Jewish state on April 13. Nicknamed “the butcher of Tehran”, his name appears on the American blacklist of Iranian officials sanctioned for “complicity in serious human rights violations”.