THOUSANDS of Iranian mourners have gathered to honour the late President Ebrahim Raisi after he was killed in a helicopter crash.
Dressed in black, they walked sombrely through the streets this morning for the funeral procession of Raisi, 63, and the seven members of his entourage who also died on Sunday evening.
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The crowd was monitored by heavily armed guards as Iranian officials delivered speeches, played music, and prayed for their fallen leader.
Brutish Raisi, known by some as “The Butcher”, was on Monday found dead in the charred wreckage of a US-made Bell 212 helicopter.
Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian was among seven others – including General Malek Rahmati, the governor of the Iranian province of East Azerbaijan – uncovered following an hours-long search for the helicopter in blizzard conditions.
Mourners were seen on Tuesday morning waving Iranian flags and portraits of Raisi as they left a central square in the northwestern city of Tabriz – where the president had been headed on Sunday before his helicopter crashed into a fog-shrouded mountain peak.
Others carried Palestinian flags in recognition of Iran’s support of Palestinian militant group Hamas under Raisi’s leadership.
A truck decorated in white flowers carrying what appeared to be the coffins of the president, the foreign minister, and other officials drove through the masses to a stage.
Residents pushed forward to place their hands on the moving vehicle, reaching for the photographs of Raisi which lined its sides.
One mourner, Tehran resident Hasti Amiri, told AP: “From the moment we heard [news of the crash]… we were worried what was going to happen to us, to him (Ebrahim Raisi) and to our country.
“All of us were devastated [when news broke he had died].”
Another resident, Mohammad Beheshti, said he was said to lose such a powerful leader.
He said: “We were shocked that we lost such a character, a character that made Iran proud, and humiliated the enemies.
“Especially during the past month we saw how his power humiliated Israel and America, and how Iran was elevated to greatness.”
All government offices and businesses in Iran will be closed today as the country begins three-day-long funerals for Raisi and Amirabdollahian.
Raisi is to be buried in his home city, Mashhad, on Thursday.
Elaborate plans for the officials’ funeral procession will today see their bodies transferred from Tabriz to the religious city of Qom.
The bodies will later be taken to the capital, the Vice President for Executive Affairs Mohsen Mansouri told Iranian news channel IRINN.
There will be a march tomorrow morning in Tehran, followed by a ceremony for high-ranking foreign dignitaries in the afternoon.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei will also lead prayers for Raisi and the other killed helicopter passengers on Wednesday.
The day has been declared a public holiday in Iran.
Raisi’s body will next be taken to Birjand, the capital of South Khorasan province.
The procession will end at the shrine of Imam Reza in Mashhad, Raisi’s home city, on Thursday evening.
Who was Ebrahim Raisi?
IRAN’S hardline president Ebrahim Raisi has a bloody history steeped in murder and helped oversee the mass executions of thousands.
The 63-year-old had positioned himself as a potential successor to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – before he died suddenly in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
Known by some as The Butcher, Raisi won a landslide victory and was declared Iran’s president in 2021.
The brute is alleged to have been a key member of the so-called “Death Commission” which ordered thousands of political prisoners to be killed in 1988, as Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq came to an end.
His alleged role was said to be pivotal in winning him the support of powerful Iranian theocratic rulers.
The US sanctioned Raisi in 2019 for his “administrative oversight” of the executions of juvenile offenders, and for the torture and “amputations” inflicted on prisoners in Iran – as well as for the 1988 mass executions.
Raisi later led the country as it enriched uranium near weapons-grade levels, and was in power when Iran launched a massive drone and missile attack on Israel in April.
The president allegedly ordered the torture of pregnant women, had prisoners thrown off cliffs, had people flogged with electric cords, and oversaw countless other brutal acts of violence.
Mass protests swept Iran in 2022 after the death of Mahsa Amini, a woman who had been detained over allegedly not wearing a hijab, or headscarf, as was required by authorities.
Following the demonstrations, a monthslong security crackdown saw more than 500 people killed and more than 22,000 others detained.
In March, a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the physical violence that led to Amini’s death.
Security forces are expected to conduct identity checks of residents near the procession and to temporarily close roads to make way for the funeral cortege.
The president and his entourage had been flying back to Tabriz after attending the inauguration of a dam project on the Aras river when the group’s helicopter lost contact with the two choppers flying alongside it.
Anti-regime Iranians took to the streets on Sunday night to “celebrate the good news” of Raisi’s then-presumed death.
Footage showed fireworks being sent up into the night sky after the brutal leader’s helicopter crashed in East Azerbaijan province.
Riot police were seen in Rasht, in northern Iran, as word spread of the crash, reportedly deployed by the Islamic regime to crush the celebrations they expected would come if Raisi’s death was announced.
Iranian women Mersedeh Shahinkar and Sima Moradbeigi, two victims of Raisi’s regime, were among many who shared video of them dancing and smiling to social media after news broke of the crash.
Mersedeh was said to have been blinded by Iranian security forces during protests in 2022 while Sima had her elbow blasted to pieces by an armed guard who fired at her at point-blank range.
Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei yesterday scrambled to assure his country that its warped regime would continue as normal following the helicopter crash.
Raisi was being groomed to one day succeed Khamenei, 85.
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