Iran opposition group calls Raisi death a ‘monumental’ blow to mullahs’ rule

The death of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi in a helicopter crash is a major blow to the Islamic Republic’s clerical leadership, an exiled opposition group says, predicting a succession of crises.

The People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK) and its political wing the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) have long detested Raisi, accusing him of involvement in the 1988 mass executions of thousands of their members and other dissidents when he was a young prosecutor.

Raisi’s death “represents a monumental and irreparable strategic blow to the mullahs’ supreme leader Ali Khamenei and the entire regime, notorious for its executions and massacres,” NCRI leader Maryam Rajavi says in a statement.

“It will trigger a series of repercussions and crises within theocratic tyranny, which will spur rebellious youths into action,” she says.

The MEK accuses Raisi, as Tehran deputy prosecutor in the late 1980s, of playing a key part in the executions of thousands of political prisoners, mostly suspected members of the opposition group.

Raisi at the time was a member of what opponents call a four-man “Death Committee” that sent convicts to their executions without a shred of due process.