Daily Mail

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has declared the nation will observe five days of mourning following the death of President Ebrahim Raisi in a devastating helicopter crash in the mountainous northwest of the country yesterday. But there are plenty of Iranians who are instead celebrating the unexpected death of the president, who has earned a reputation as a brutal, hardline executor of Khamenei's will.

A slew of other videos shared to social media appeared to show people setting off fireworks in the streets of Tehran in celebration - though these clips are yet to be verified. Raisi, who became president of Iran in 2021, was widely seen as a vassal for the regime and a yes man to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. He stormed to the presidency with a huge majority following the 2021 elections - but less than half of Iran's electorate turned out to vote after many more moderate candidates were barred from running.

The daughters of Minoo Majidi - a 62-year-old Iranian woman who was one of hundreds of people shot dead by security services during the nationwide fallout following the death of Mahsa Amini in September 2022 - shared a video to social media raising a glass to the president's demise. That clip was followed swiftly by two more Iranian women, Mersedeh Shahinkar and Sima Moradbeigi, dancing and smiling in response to the news Raisi's helicopter had plunged into the mountainside. Shahinkar was blinded by the security forces' brutality amid the 2022 protests, while Moradbeigi lost the use of one of her arms after an armed guard blasted her elbow apart from point-blank range.

As a young student at a religious seminary in the holy city of Qom, Raisi took part in protests against the Western-backed Shah in the 1979 revolution. His contacts with religious leaders in Qom made him a trusted figure in the judiciary, and he became Iran's deputy prosecutor aged just 25. Raisi quickly worked his way to the top - and in doing so earned himself the moniker 'the Butcher of Tehran'.

As deputy prosecutor and subsequently chief prosecutor, Raisi stood on the so-called 'death committee' - a group of four judges who presided over tribunals in 1988 that were assembled to 're-try' the regime's political prisoners. Thousands of these prisoners were ruthlessly executed and dumped in unmarked graves. The exact number of deaths is not known but rights groups estimate roughly 5,000 people were killed following Raisi's brutal judgement.

Victims of Iranian regime celebrate the death of President Raisi

Not only was Raisi loyal to the Republic and its Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, but throughout the 1980s he had developed a close relationship with the then-president of Iran, Ali Khamenei. Khamenei went onto become Iran's Supreme Leader following the death of Khomeini in 1989, and is undoubtedly responsible for charting Raisi's path to the presidency in 2021 . Following Raisi's election, his hardline position became yet more evident. In 2022, he ordered tighter enforcement of Iran's 'hijab and chastity law' restricting women's dress and behaviour.

It was under these orders that 22-year-old Mahsa Amini was detained in September 2022 by Iran's 'morality police' for wearing 'improper' hijab and died three days later in hospital, sparking mass unrest. The resulting months of nationwide protests presented one of the gravest challenges to Iran's clerical rulers since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Hundreds of people were killed, according to rights groups, including dozens of security personnel who were part of a fierce crackdown on the demonstrators. 'Acts of chaos are unacceptable,' the president insisted. Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, President-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), said Raisi's death represented a 'monumental strategic blow to the mullahs' Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the entire regime', adding his death could spur people to rebel against the government.

Mrs. Rajavi added: The curse of mothers and those seeking justice for the executed, along with the damnation of the Iranian people and history, mark the legacy of Ebrahim Raisi, the notorious perpetrator of the 1988 massacre of political prisoners.' Iranian authorities first raised the alarm on Sunday afternoon when they lost contact with Raisi's helicopter as it flew through a fog-shrouded mountain area of the Jolfa region of East Azerbaijan province. Raisi had earlier met Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on their common border to inaugurate a dam project.

On the return trip, only two of the three helicopters in his convoy landed in the city of Tabriz, setting off a massive search and rescue effort, with multiple foreign governments soon offering help. Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi at first spoke of a 'hard landing' and urged citizens to ignore hostile foreign media channels and get their information 'only from state television'. Army personnel, Revolutionary Guards and police officers joined the search as Red Crescent teams walked up a hill in the fog and rain as rows of emergency services vehicles waited nearby. Muslim faithful across the majority Shiite nation started to pray for those missing, including in mosques in Raisi's hometown, the shrine city of Mashhad.

As the sun rose on Monday, rescue crews said they had located the destroyed aircraft with nine people on board. State television channel IRIB reported online that the helicopter had 'hit a mountain and disintegrated' on impact. Iran's Red Crescent chief Pirhossein Koolivand confirmed that its staff were 'transferring the bodies of the martyrs to Tabriz' and that 'the search operations have come to an end'. Some Iranians took to the streets to pray for Raisi overnight following news his chopper had crashed. 'We were very sad when we learnt the news,' said one Tehran resident, 63-year-old retiree Nabi Karam. 'Our president was a very good leader, may God bless him.'