in mountainous terrain on Sunday, oversaw a morality crackdown and mass repression in the predominantly Islamic nation. He was a contender to be its next supreme leader.
However, the widespread protests against clerical rule and a failure to turn around Iran’s struggling economy - hamstrung by Western sanctions and mismanagement - may have diminished his popularity at home.As a young prosecutor in Tehran, Raisi sat on a panel that oversaw the execution of hundreds of political prisoners in the Iranian capital in 1988, as Iran’s eight-year war with Iraq was coming to an end, rights groups say.
While the number of people killed across Iran was never confirmed, Amnesty said minimum estimates put it at 5000. Raisi, 63, took a tough stance in negotiations with six major powers to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with the US and European powers. Raisi said that any Israeli retaliation against Iranian territory could result in there being nothing left of the “Zionist regime”.
Seeking the presidency, Raisi lost to the pragmatist Hassan Rouhani in a 2017 election. His failure was widely attributed to an audio tape dating from 1988 that surfaced in 2016 and purportedly highlighted his role in the 1988 executions.