Why Some Iranians Refuse to Mourn Raisi

Khamenei said that the country would undergo a five-day mourning period. “This bitter tragedy took place while he was serving the people. The entire period that this great, self-sacrificing man held various responsibilities, both during his presidency and before that, he was totally dedicated to serving the people and Islam nonstop,” Khamenei posted on his official X account.

But for ordinary Iranians, Raisi leaves behind a controversial legacy. Nicknamed “the butcher of Tehran,” he helped oversee the mass executions of thousands of political prisoners in 1988 as the country’s then-deputy prosecutor general. He later referred to that period as “one of the proud achievements of the system” in a May 2018 lecture, according to Amnesty International.