Iranians celebrated the death of President Ebrahim Raisi, also known as the “Butcher of Tehran,” while thousands mourned the official in a state-sponsored funeral procession.
Video shows several Iranians celebrating President Ebrahim Raisi’s death in the streets even as thousands participate in mass demonstrations mourning the controversial leader.
Fireworks are launched in the night, a woman passes out sweets and several people can be heard cheering in the video posted online by opponents of the regime after Raisi died Sunday in a helicopter crash that also claimed the lives of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other officials.
Ali Safavi, a member of The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Foreign Affairs Committee – Iran’s parliament in exile – said the demonstrations showed “a glimmer of hope for a future free from the brutal repression that Raisi epitomized.”
“This reaction underscores the profound detestation and revulsion that the Iranian people felt toward Raisi, a man whose legacy is inextricably linked with the darkest chapters of Iran’s recent history,” said Safavi.
Human rights activists and critics of the Iranian theocracy say Raisi was a murderer and authoritarian who led a crackdown on the 2022-2023 demonstrations provoked by the death in custody of a young Iranian Kurdish woman arrested by morality police for violating the country’s strict dress codes.
