Journalist faces lawsuit for her reaction to Raisi's death
Journalist Manijeh Moazen says Iranian authorities launched legal action against her for "the manner in which she shared information and reacted to the death of President Ebrahim Raisi."
Without revealing specifics, she mentioned on X that she still faces three charges from a separate case, for which she was temporarily detained. A year ago, Moazen was arrested in Tehran and held at an undisclosed location for 19 days, with no reason given for her detention.
Ebrahim Raisi was reportedly stripped of his potential successor status to Iran's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, months before his sudden death in a helicopter crash Sunday.
According to reports from Reuters, the Assembly of Experts decided six months ago to remove Raisi from the list of potential successors to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei amid concerns over Raisi's waning popularity, compounded by Iran's deepening economic crisis and international isolation.
His removal signifies a significant shift within the opaque corridors of power in Tehran, reflecting the complexities and secretive nature of Iran's theocratic leadership succession with Khamenei’s favored son among the favorites to succeed.
Vali Nasr, a professor at John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, said: "Now they don't have a candidate, and that opens the door for other factions or other figures to emerge as serious contenders."
Raisi's presidency, which was initially seen as a stepping stone to the country's highest religious and political office, has instead culminated in a dramatic fall from grace. Critics and insiders alike noted that Raisi was a stalwart executor of Khamenei's hardline policies, particularly in suppressing dissent and tightening the regime's grip amid domestic and international pressures.
However, his inability to mitigate the economic hardships fueled by US sanctions and internal mismanagement eroded his standing.
Alex Vatanka, director of the Iran Program at the Middle East Institute in Washington, said Raisi’s death “could result in internal infighting in the regime unlike anything we have seen since the early 1980s."
Such instability could further expose the vulnerabilities of a regime already struggling with legitimacy issues, as evidenced by the historically low voter turnout in the last parliamentary elections. Official numbers claimed a roughly 40 percent turnout while others showed numbers as low as eight percent, reflective of the record lows seen in the 2021 presidential elections which ushered Raisi into power.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, commenting on the helicopter crash that killed President Raisi, said on Tuesday that US sanctions had worsened aviation safety.
Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi meets with Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Tehran, Iran, June 22, 2022.
On Monday, Mohammad Javad Zarif, former Foreign Minister of Iran, also blamed American sanctions on aviation parts for the crash.
"One of the culprits behind yesterday’s tragedy is the United States, because of its sanctions that bar Iran from procuring essential aviation parts," Zarif asserted.
Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said at President Ebrahim Raisi's funeral ceremony in Tabriz that "in any other country, this incident would have a very dark future, but with the supreme eader's presence and the peace he conveyed in his message, we will easily handle these issues."
Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi during President Ebrahim Raisi's funeral ceremony in Tabriz, East Azarbaijan province, May 21, 2024
In the hours leading up to the announcement of Raisi’s death, Khamenei's remarks about him and the future of the country without his presidency had already caught the attention of analysts.
They compared the lack of warmth in his tone while talking about Raisi as opposed to a similar situation in 2020 when he was sobbing over the death of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Quds Force Qasem Soleimani, who was killed on the order of then-US President Donald Trump.
Two unnamed sources told Reuters that Raisi was removed from the Assembly of Experts' list of potential successors six months ago due to his declining popularity amid Iran's economic crisis. The country's soaring inflation rate and the freefall of the national currency, the rial, reportedly contributed to his removal.
The Supreme Leader is appointed by an 88-member Assembly of Experts.
One insider, however, told Reuters that influential pro-Raisi clerics had launched a vigorous campaign to reinstate his name.
According to Iran experts, Ebrahim Raisi, the Assembly's former deputy chairman, was the most likely candidate for the post of chairman, which could have significantly influenced his selection of the Supreme Leader.
Shaghayegh Mohammadi, the wife of Esteghlal FC player Mohammad Hossein Moradmand, reported receiving a call and threat from authorities after posting a poem on Instagram, implicitly celebrating Raisi’s death.
The poem, written by prominent 14th-century poet Hafez, read "Let us rejoice that the cruel battle is ending."
In another story, Mohammadi wrote "I have no wish for anything except freedom, which belongs to all human beings."
