Mixed reactions in Tehran after death of President Ebrahim Raisi
Activists in Iran have said there is little mood to mourn the death of the country’s president, Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash near the border with Azerbaijan on Sunday.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, announced a five-day public mourning period after the deaths of Raisi, the foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and other passengers on the helicopter. However, Iranians who spoke to the Guardian have refused to lament the death of a man who they say was responsible for hundreds of deaths in his four-decade political career.
It was during Raisi’s tenure that protests swept the country after the death of the 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after being arrested by police under Iran’s harsh hijab laws. More than 19,000 protesters were jailed, and at least 500 were killed – including 60 children – during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests. The police continue to violently arrest women for refusing hijab rules.
Hours before Raisi’s death was confirmed by state media, videos circulated on Telegram showing celebratory fireworks, one of them from Amini’s hometown of Saqqez. Iranians from inside and outside the country shared posts reminding the world of Raisi’s brutal presidency and his repression of political dissidents. [Continue reading…]
The US-made Bell 212 that crashed on Sunday with President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and several members of their entourage on board was most likely purchased during the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
Iranian president’s helicopter that crashed on Sunday in inclement weather turned out to have been a well-known Vietnam-era war relic — or at least its civilian counterpart.
The US-made Bell 212 carrying President Ebrahim Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and several members of their entourage is a refitted non-combat version of the omnipresent UH-1N “Twin Huey,” which is still widely used globally.
Despite its proven longevity, questions arose over whether it was fit for purpose, while the fact that the Tehran regime has been under Western sanctions for decades might indicate that proper maintenance of the chopper was uncertain.
After the crash, experts pointed out that the nearly 50-year-old Bell 212 was built to fly in visual flight conditions, meaning that the pilot had to rely solely on their ability to observe the terrain from their seat. [Continue reading…]