Raisi, Ebrahim , 1960- , Iranian cleric and political leader, b. Mashhad, as Ebrahim Raisol-Sadati. Raisi’s educational history is unclear, with both his legal and clerical training in dispute. He rose through the ranks of Iran’s judiciary, serving as a prosecutor in the cities of Karaj and Hamadan province (1981-84) and then deputy prosecutor in Tehran (1985-88). He was one of four prosecutors overseeing the trial and eventual murder of Iranian political prisoners, leading to his elevation to chief prosecutor in Tehran (1989-94). He was appointed head of the government’s General Inspection Office in 1994, serving for a decade, before rising in the ranks from Deputy Chief Justice (2004-14), Attorney General (2014-16), to Chief Justice (2019-21). He also served in Iran’s Fifth Assembly of Experts (2016-2021). In 2017 he ran unsuccessfully for president before being elected president of Iran in June 2021 as the Ayatollah Khamenei’s favored candidate. Raisi is viewed as a hardline conservative who supports Iran’s Islamic rule. Both the U.S. State Department and the European Union have sanctioned him for alleged human rights abuses.
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