The 'Execution Ayatollah' or 'Seyyed of the Underprivileged'? A Look at the Life of Ebrahim Raisi

Ebrahim Raisi was not present in the high levels of the politics of the Islamic Republic until about a decade ago, but over the past decade, he has even positioned himself as a potential candidate for the future leadership of Iran. In this sense, his fate after the recent incident will also affect the fate of the Islamic Republic. Born in Mashhad and educated at the Haqqani School in Qom, Ebrahim Raisi was born in 1960 in Mashhad, a city that has a more closed atmosphere regarding religious seminaries compared to other religious cities in Iran. After completing his elementary education, he continued his seminary studies first in Mashhad and then in Qom from 1975. He entered the Haqqani School in Qom, a school that later produced many of its students who took on security and judicial positions in the Islamic Republic. Young Ebrahim Raisi was appointed as a 'deputy prosecutor' in Karaj at the age of twenty in 1980. He is the son-in-law of Ahmad Alamolhoda, the Friday prayer leader of Mashhad and representative of Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic in the Razavi Khorasan province, whose fiery and controversial statements make headlines every Friday. Raisi was a member of the 'Death Commission' in the significant case of the execution of thousands of prisoners in the summer of 1988, a commission that met with Hossein Ali Montazeri, the then-deputy of Khomeini, who objected to these executions, and heard from Montazeri that because of these executions, 'their names will be written among the criminals of history.' What does Khamenei want from Raisi? Since that year, thousands of survivors of the 1988 executions, which are considered the bloodiest political purge of the regime against its critics, have named Ebrahim Raisi as a perpetrator of crimes, but in the judicial system of the Islamic Republic, such a mission became a factor for Raisi's growth and advancement. In the decades before his presidency, whether in mid-level roles like Tehran's prosecutor or senior roles like Attorney General or First Deputy of the Judiciary and also as the head of the Judiciary, he was considered one of the key figures in Iran's judicial network. However, since 2015, alongside his judicial life, his political life also entered a new phase. In March 2016, he was appointed by Ali Khamenei as the custodian of the Astan Quds Razavi. Shortly after the issuance of the decree, when Ebrahim Raisi went to Mashhad, a group of senior commanders of the IRGC, including Mohammad Ali Jafari, the then-commander of the IRGC, and Qassem Soleimani, the then-commander of the Quds Force, traveled to Mashhad, met with Raisi, and sat down to listen to him. The message of the images of the meetings and interactions of the IRGC commanders with Ebrahim Raisi was a special intimacy between the IRGC and him, which led to increased media attention from the IRGC towards him. Astan Quds Razavi; complex assets, unclear auditing Astan Quds Razavi was one of the money-making institutions that was managed under Khamenei's direct supervision and was accused during those years of corruption and forming a family cartel led by Abbas Vaez Tabasi. This was the starting point for the image-making of Ebrahim Raisi as a hero in the fight against corruption. Following this image-making, he entered the 2017 presidential election. Ebrahim Raisi entered the arena and in his first political appearance, he became the main rival of Hassan Rouhani, and even Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, who had long aspired to become president, withdrew in his favor, but Raisi was not strong enough and with about 16 million votes announced for him, he began to prepare for the next round. Parallel to this, speculation about him being the most important candidate to succeed Ali Khamenei also became prominent in the media, and in March 2019, when he won the vice presidency of the Assembly of Experts against Sadegh Larijani, this issue became more apparent. After his defeat in the 2017 election, the primary role that Ebrahim Raisi took on was the leadership of the principlists, and he held unity meetings. These meetings ended in early 2019 when he was appointed by Khamenei as the head of the Judiciary, but his shadow remained over the meetings. He continued to be the most important candidate of the principlists. The presidency of the Judiciary gave him more opportunities for executive work, and throughout 2020, he traveled more than Hassan Rouhani, who was the president. In his provincial trips, in addition to anti-corruption propaganda, he also addressed the issue of reviving production and constantly announced that he was reviving closed or bankrupt factories. How did Raisi return the Islamic Republic to radical Islam? The main goal of these news reports, according to observers, was to revive the image of the principlists and Ebrahim Raisi in the electoral atmosphere. A year after his provincial trips, he finally announced that he accepted candidacy in the elections. After announcing his candidacy, some cover candidates like Saeed Mohammad, the former commander of the Khatam al-Anbiya Headquarters, said they had withdrawn and sent their headquarters to support Raisi, and some other 'cover' candidates like Alireza Zakani and Saeed Jalili participated in debates and helped him. At this stage, the Guardian Council also disqualified Ali Larijani, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Masoud Pezeshkian, and Eshaq Jahangiri, eliminating any figure that could pose a risk to Ebrahim Raisi, allowing him to enter the electoral competition under the safest conditions. This multi-faceted and multi-stage assistance, which took more than five years, marked the end of the first phase of the project to elevate Ebrahim Raisi in Iranian politics. Critics and opponents of the Iranian government have referred to him as the 'Execution Ayatollah' or 'Massacre Ayatollah' due to his involvement in the 1988 executions. However, media close to the IRGC and principlists have called him the 'Seyyed of the Underprivileged.' Amnesty International, which has conducted extensive research on Raisi's role in the execution of thousands of prisoners in the summer of 1988, called for the prosecution of the new Iranian president for 'international crimes' in response to his election. Raisi, who is sanctioned by the West for human rights violations, has responded to criticisms from human rights organizations and Western countries by accusing them of 'human rights violations' and stating that they have no right to interfere in Iran's internal affairs. Raisi has played a role in suppressing the protests of 2009, multiple protests in the 2010s, and also in the censorship of the press and the internet; although he claims that no newspaper or internet site has been shut down or blocked during his tenure. Severe suppression.