Big crowds have actually begun to collect in the Iranian capital Tehran for the primary funeral event of the nation’s late President Ebrahim Raisi.
Mr Raisi passed away together with Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and 6 others in a helicopter crash on Sunday near the border with Azerbaijan.
The event will start with Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, leading prayers in the capital, before caskets curtained in the Iranian flag will be taken into the city’s primary Azadi square.
Authorities have actually cautioned versus presentations versus the funeral procession and insults published online.
Throughout the capital, big banners have actually been raised hailing Mr Raisi as “the martyr of service”, while others bade “goodbye to the servant of the disadvantaged”.
Some locals in Tehran got texts advising them to go to Wednesday’s events, the AFP news company reported.
Video footage brought by state television revealed streets filled with mourners, much of whom were bring images of Mr Raisi or the Iranian flag.
A handful of foreign dignitaries are anticipated to go to the procedures.
Funeral rites for the males started on Tuesday in the city of Tabriz and the Shiite clerical centre of Qom, where countless black-clad mourners participated in events.
After Wednesday’s procession in the capital, Mr Raisi’s remains will be relocated to South Khorasan province, before being moved to his home city of Mashhad in the northeast.
He will be buried on Thursday night in the city after funeral rites at the Imam Reza shrine.
5 days have of nationwide grieving have actually been stated in the nation.
Mr Raisi was an extremely dissentious figure in Iran. In the 1980s, he supervised the executions of ratings of opposition activists while working as a district attorney.
And he let loose a harsh crackdown versus demonstrators outraged by the killing of Mahsa Amini. The 22-year-old passed away 3 days after she was apprehended by morality cops in the capital for apparently breaching Iran’s rigorous guidelines needing ladies to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.
However his ultra-conservative outlook won favour with fans of the routine, and Mr Raisi was considered as a possible follower to Ayatollah Khamenei.