Thousands of mourners have gathered in Tehran to pay their respects to the late President Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash on Sunday near the border with Azerbaijan. Raisi, along with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and six others, tragically lost their lives in the accident.
The funeral ceremony will begin with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leading prayers in the capital. Following this, the coffins, draped in the Iranian flag, will be taken to the city’s main Azadi square.
Large crowds have started to gather in the Iranian capital, Tehran, for the main funeral ceremony of the country’s late President, Ebrahim Raisi. Authorities have warned against demonstrations against the funeral procession and insults posted online. Across the capital, large banners have been raised hailing Mr Raisi as “the martyr of service”, while others bade “farewell to the servant of the disadvantaged”. Some residents in Tehran received texts urging them to attend Wednesday’s ceremonies, and footage carried by state TV showed streets filled with mourners, many of whom were carrying pictures of Mr Raisi or the Iranian flag.
A handful of foreign dignitaries are expected to attend the proceedings. Funeral rites for the man began on Tuesday in the city of Tabriz and the Shiite clerical centre of Qom, where thousands of black-clad mourners attended ceremonies. After Wednesday’s procession in the capital, Mr Raisi’s remains will be moved to South Khorasan province, before being transferred to his home city of Mashhad in the northeast. He will be buried on Thursday evening in the city after funeral rites at the Imam Reza shrine. Five days of national mourning have been declared in the country.
Raisi was a highly divisive figure in Iran. In the 1980s, he oversaw the executions of scores of opposition activists while working as a prosecutor. He also unleashed a brutal crackdown against demonstrators angered by the killing of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old who died three days after being detained by morality police for allegedly violating Iran’s strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf. However, his ultra-conservative outlook won favour with supporters of the regime, and Mr Raisi was viewed as a possible successor to Ayatollah Khamenei.
