Iran opposition accuses presidential candidate Raisi
From the Foreign Affairs Committee The National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI)
Iran is on the brink of a seminal transformation in this year’s presidential “election.” The regime’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, has taken a major step to push through his preferred candidate for the presidency, Ebrahim Raisi, current head of the judiciary.
Through his own appointed Guardian Council, Khamenei “disqualified” all those who could be Raisi’s rivals. They include Ali Larijani, Khamenei’s current personal advisor, as well as his special representative on special foreign missions, including in relations with China. Eshaq Jahangiri, who has held top government positions since the beginning of the regime and has been the first vice president of Hassan Rouhani for eight years was also disqualified.
Therefore, Khamenei has decidedly chosen to raise Raisi to the presidency and sacrifice those closest to him, ending the reformist-hardliner show, and embarrassing those in the West who for decades have advocated appeasement based on this false narrative. The sham election is now a one-man show.
Ebrahim Raisi, current Judiciary Chief, subservient disciple to Ruhollah Khomeini, the only serious contender among 592 registered candidates, was qualified to run by the Guardian Council. The Iranian people know Raisi as the “Henchman of the 1988 massacre.” He was a key perpetrator of the murder of over 30,000 political prisoners in 1988. He has no academic or religious credentials. In short, Raisi earned his credentials in the regime with a proven 40-year track record for execution and repression.
Even by the regime’s own standards, this year’s election is radically different than those in years past. It comes after three major nationwide uprisings that shook the regime during the past three years in 2018, 2019 and 2020. Today, more than ever, the regime continues to confront an explosive society on the verge of uprising. Despite a global pandemic, protests are held daily by virtually every social sector. Regime officials and media warn of the pending downfall of their regime almost every day.
To make matters worse, the economy is completely bankrupt. The regime is isolated regionally and internationally. Infighting is escalating dramatically, reaching an explosive state.
With the regime at its weakest point in history, Khamenei felt he had no choice but to consolidate power. So, his coterie in the 12-member Guardian Council axed even a loyal insider like Ali Larijani: The Parliament Speaker for 12 years, Secretary for the Supreme National Security Council, Head of the state-run radio and TV, Minister of Culture, and a general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Why would Khamenei purge one of his closest cronies? He simply had no choice. Owing to the extraordinary crises the regime is facing, Khamenei was stuck between a rock and a hard place. He had no choice but to purge all rival factions to maintain stability of the ruling clique.
To silence disgruntled rival factions, Khamenei fueled the conflict in Gaza. The Gaza war was commanded from a joint operational headquarters in Beirut, under direct command of the Quds Force, with the participation of Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In the eleven-day conflict, IRGC Brig. Gen. Qa’ani travelled to Beirut twice. All of Hamas and Hezbollah’s weaponry is supplied by Khamenei’s regime.
But even this hollow show of force will not provide a way out of the deadly impasse Khamenei is facing. The reasons are, again, simple. The regime’s suppressive measures have all failed. The organized opposition has continued to flourish in the form of Resistance Units across the country. Nationwide calls for the boycott of the sham election have also gained momentum.
Officials and state media are sounding the alarm. Every single day, they are warning about the growing appeal of the main opposition Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), especially among the youth.
Even the regime’s former firebrand president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said recently that he is “seeing a flood that will sweep away all of you.” He has explicitly sounded the alarm of the coming revolution.
Raisi’s background
Seyed Ebrahim Rais-al-Sadati, known as Ebrahim Raisi, was born in the city of Mashhad, Khorasan Razavi province, Iran, in 1959.
An overview of his background and involvement in the regime’s suppressive apparatus proves that he is a key figure with vast experience in crimes against the regime’s opponents and, in particular, against the MEK.
He was only 18 years old when the 1979 revolution took place. He was quickly assigned to various judicial positions. A look at Ebrahim Raisi’s record over the past four decades reveals his true character to some extent.
Ebrahim Raisi in an IRGC uniform.
1979: Trained under the supervision of Mohammad Hosseini Beheshti1, Raisi was one of 70 clerical students selected to participate in courses on governance and policy in Khomeini’s new political order.
1980: Raisi was deployed to Masjed-e-Soleiman, to suppress growing discontent and protests against the regime by the people.
1980: At age 20, Raisi became the district attorney of the city of Karaj. After a few months, he was promoted to become the prosecutor of Karaj.
1982: Raisi was appointed as the prosecutor of Hamedan while retaining his position in Karaj. He served in both positions from 1980 to 1983. In this period, mass executions of opposition forces, especially the Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK/PMOI), were carried out with Raisi serving a pivotal role in these two provinces to suppress opposition movements.
1985: He was appointed as deputy prosecutor-general and then prosecutor-general of Tehran. Raisi oversaw the “Grouplets 2 Division” of Tehran’s prosecutor’s office. The role of this division was to root out the MEK and other opposition forces.
1988: In the summer and autumn of 1988, he was a member of the Death Commission in Evin and Gohardasht prisons. In the death commission, although Morteza Eshraqi was the prosecutor and his deputy was Raisi, but according to eye-witness reports and extensive investigations that have taken place, Raisi actually played the prosecutor’s role. He served as Khomeini’s fixer and received special missions from him to carry out purges in other provinces, including Lorestan, Kermanshah and Semnan. Khomeini had given Raisi, and mullah Hossein Ali Nayyeri, head of the Tehran Death Commission, full authority and they were not obliged to obey any administrative or governmental restrictions or orders.
1989: After Khomeini’s death, Raisi was appointed as Tehran Prosecutor by order of Mohammad Yazdi, the head of the Judiciary, and held this position for five years from 1989 to 1994.
1994 to 2004: Raisi was the head of the General Inspector’s Organization for ten years.
1997: Raisi became a member of the central council of the Society of Militant Clergy.
1999: Raisi became a member of the Special Committee to Investigate the University of Tehran Events.
2004 to 2014: Raisi was the first deputy of the Judiciary for ten years.
2006: Membership in the Assembly of Experts as a representative of South Khorasan Province. In 2008, he was elected as a member of the Presidium of the Assembly of Experts. In 2011, his membership was extended for another five years.
2011: Appointed as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Executive Headquarters of the Imam’s Order for 10 years by Khamenei
2014 to end of 2015: He was appointed as the country’s Attorney General.
2012: Raisi was appointed by Khamenei as the Attorney General of the Special Clerical Court, as position he still holds.
2016: After the death of the Mullah Abbas Vaez Tabasi3, Khamenei appointed Raisi the head of Astan Quds Razavi, which oversees a multibillion-dollar religious foundation that manages donations to the Iman Reza Shrine in the city of Mashhad.
2017: Raisi participated in the presidential election as a candidate of Khamenei’s faction and lost to Hassan Rouhani.
August 2017: Khamenei appointed him as a member of the Expediency Council.
March 2019: Khamenei appointed Ebrahim Raisi as the head of the Judiciary, a position he still holds. He has not resigned from this position even during his candidacy for the June 1400 presidential election.
A quick and objective look at the positions and scores of other responsibilities that he has held in the regime’s suppressive judicial apparatus over the years makes it clear that Ebrahim Raisi has earned the full trust of Khamenei because of his extensive participation in crimes and killings of the MEK, especially during the massacre of political prisoners in 1988. It is on this basis that the supreme leader of the regime has entrusted him with dozens of top regime positions in political, judicial, and economic fields.