'Butcher of Tehran': Who was Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi?

The so-called "Butcher of Tehran" has died. 

Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi, the country's foreign minister and several other officials were killed after their helicopter crashed in northern Iran on Sunday. 

He was 63. 

The hardliner was there during many major domestic and international events shaping Iran's recent history. 

He helped oversee the mass execution of thousands in the 1980s and later presided over a brutal crackdown on anti-government protests at home. 

Abroad, the cleric-turned-politician struck a tough stance in nuclear talks with the West and launched an unprecedented assault on Israel. 

Raisi was even tipped to become the next supreme leader, where true power lies in Iran.

In a tightly controlled vote, the conservative was elected president in 2021. 

He arrived in office after then-US President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal, which eased economically-crippling sanctions in exchange for limits on Iran's nuclear programme.  

Trump's move in 2018 — which sparked renewed tensions between Washington and Tehran — helped empower Raisi's hardline camp while weakening his reformist rivals. 

Despite saying he wanted to revive the nuclear deal, Raisi’s government took a tough line with Western negotiators, as Iran enriched uranium near weapons-grade levels. Talks have since stalled. 

“Sanctions are the US’ new way of war with the nations of the world,” Raisi told the United Nations in September 2021. “The policy of ‘maximum oppression’ is still on. We want nothing more than what is rightfully ours.”

That further escalated tensions with the West, as did Tehran supplying Shahed attack drones to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Mass protests swept Iran in 2022 following the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody after