The funeral ceremony for Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi began, with events taking place before the burial in Mashhad on Thursday.
The president died at the age of 63 in a helicopter crash in northwestern Iran on Sunday evening, May 19. The incident also killed Hossein Amirabdollahian, East Azerbaijan provincial governor Malik Rahmati, and Mohammed Ali Ale Hashem, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s representative to East Azerbaijan.
Some 70 rescue teams combed the mountainous terrain all night before finding the wreckage of the Bell 212 helicopter on Monday morning. Rites began on Tuesday morning in the town of Tabriz, East Azerbaijan province. The ceremony will then move to the holy city of Qom.
A “people’s farewell” ceremony takes place in the evening at the Imam Khomeini Mosque in Tehran.
The remains will be transported from Tehran University to the city’s Azadi Square on Wednesday morning. It will be followed by a ceremony attended by “high-ranking foreign delegations.” According to local media, another ceremony is taking place in the eastern city of Birjand before Raisi’s funeral in his hometown of Mashhad on Thursday.
Five days of national mourning were declared by Ali Khamenei, Supreme Leader of Iran. Many expected Raisi to replace the 85-year-old Khamenei as supreme leader.
The second Wednesday of June was also declared a national holiday. National exams scheduled for that week were cancelled. Moreover, governors can decide to “close” provinces where funeral ceremonies are held, according to Iranian media.
Raisi faced criticism among many Iranians for his role in the execution of some 5,000 prisoners in the 1980s, during the Iran-Iraq war. Recent arrests of demonstrators during the Mahsa Amini protests only increased opposition.
