Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi died Sunday when his helicopter crashed in severe fog in northern Iran.
On Monday, rescuers located the chopper carrying the Iranian President, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, and other senior officials after it crashed in the country’s hilly northwest.
Here are seven things you may not have known about the late Iranian President:
1. Ebrahim Raisi was born on December 14, 1960 in Mashhad, an important religious center for the Twelver Shiʿah. He began studying at the Qom religious seminary at the age of 15.
2. Raisi completed his primary education at “Javadiyeh school” and thereafter enrolled in Hawza (Islamic seminary). In 1975, he attended “Ayatollah Boroujerdi School” to pursue his study at Qom Seminary.
3. In 2014, Khamenei selected him to manage the Astan Quds Razavi, and he served as attorney general for two years.
4. The late Iranian President was dubbed the “Butcher of Tehran” for his role in the mass execution of political detainees in 1988.
5. He took over as chairman of Astan Quds Razavi on March 7, 2016, following the death of his predecessor, Abbas Vaez-Tabasi, and held the position for three years.
6. He became president in 2021, despite poor voter attendance and widespread disqualification of reformist and moderate contenders.
7. Raisi married Jamileh Alamolhoda, daughter of Mashhad Friday Prayers Imam Ahmad Alamolhoda, and has two children and grandchildren.