Ebrahim Raisi served as the 8th President of the Islamic Republic of Iran from 3 August 2021 until his death in 2024.

Ebrahim Raisi was born on 14 December 1960 in the northeastern Iranian city of Mashhad. His full name is Seyyed Ebrahim Rais al-Sadati. His father was Seyed Haji Rais Al-Sadati and his mother was Seyedeh Esmat Khodadad Hosseini. Raisi graduated from the Faculty of Law at Shahid Motahhari University.

Raisi completed his religious education in Qom, widely regarded as the intellectual center of Shiite Islam. During the mid-1970s, as opposition to the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi intensified, he participated in meetings with prominent Iranian clerics in Qom. During this period, he was strongly influenced by the revolutionary ideology of Ruhollah Khomeini, particularly the concept that state governance should be supervised by Islamic jurists.

Following the 1979 Iranian Revolution, Ebrahim Raisi began his judicial career in 1981 as a prosecutor in Karaj. His rapid rise within the judiciary saw him appointed Deputy Prosecutor of Tehran in 1985 at the age of just 25. He served as Tehran Prosecutor between 1989 and 1994, as Chief Prosecutor of the Special Court for the Clergy from 1994 to 2004, and as First Deputy Chief Justice of the Supreme Court between 2004 and 2014.

In 1988, acting under orders issued by Ruhollah Khomeini, Raisi was a member of the four-person committee that authorized the execution of imprisoned regime opponents, a role that has remained one of the most controversial aspects of his career.

After Khomeini’s death in 1989, Raisi continued to rise under the leadership of Ali Khamenei. From 1989 to 1994, he served as Tehran’s Chief Prosecutor. In 1994, he was appointed head of the General Inspection Organization, a position he held for ten years. In 2004, he became First Deputy Head of the Judiciary.

Between 23 August 2014 and 1 April 2016, Ebrahim Raisi served as Iran’s Prosecutor General. In 2016, he was appointed by Ali Khamenei as the custodian of the Imam Reza Shrine and Astan Quds Razavi Foundation in Mashhad.

Raisi ran as a presidential candidate in the 19 May 2017 elections but was defeated by the incumbent president Hassan Rouhani. He later served as Head of the Judiciary from 7 March 2019 to 1 July 2021.

On 3 August 2021, Ebrahim Raisi was elected President of Iran, becoming the country’s 8th president. During his presidency, he was widely regarded as one of the leading potential successors to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the position of Revolutionary Leader.

Ebrahim Raisi married Jamileh Alamolhoda in 1983. The couple had two children.

On 19 May 2024, while returning from Azerbaijan after attending the inauguration of a dam together with Ilham Aliyev, the helicopter carrying Ebrahim Raisi and several senior Iranian officials crashed. Raisi died at the age of 64 as a result of the helicopter crash.

Source: Biyografiler.com