He would soon be branded ‘the Butcher of Tehran’ for his subsequent actions.For while in that position he served as one of four judges who sat on secret tribunals set up in 1988 that came to be known as the “Death Committee”.
The tribunals “re-tried” thousands of prisoners already serving jail sentences for their political activities. Most were members of the leftist opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), also known as the People’s Mujahedin Organisation of Iran (PMOI).
The exact number of those who were sentenced to death by the tribunals is not known, but human rights groups have said about 5,000 men and women were executed and buried in unmarked mass graves in what constituted a crime against humanity.
When later asked in 2021 about his alleged role in the mass executions, Raisi told reporters: “If a judge, a prosecutor, has defended the security of the people, he should be praised… I am proud to have defended human rights in every position I have held so far.”
A year after his election in 2021, the Islamic Republic was shaken by mass protests demanding the end of clerical rule.
The “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement was sparked the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman who had been detained by morality police in Tehran for allegedly wearing her hijab “improperly”. Authorities denied she was mistreated, but a UN fact-finding mission found she was “subjected to physical violence that led to her death”.
Raisi vowed to “deal decisively” with the unrest and authorities suppressed them with force.
They have not released an official death toll, but the UN mission said credible figures suggested that as many as 551 protesters were killed by security forces, most of them by gunfire. The government says 75 security personnel were killed.
More than 20,000 other protesters were reportedly detained and nine young male protesters were executed.
More recently, as the war in Gaza had raged, Raisi supported the decision to launch more than 300 drones and missiles at Israel in retaliation for a deadly strike on the Iranian consulate in Syria.
He said the missile and drone strikes had shown “the steely determination of our nation”.
While little is known about his personal life, Raisi was married to Jamileh Alamolhoda, the daughter of an ultraconservative cleric, and together they had two daughters.
But his replacement Mokhber is cut from a similar cloth.
