Many Iranians walked a somber procession through the streets on May 21, mourning Ebrahim Raisi and seven members of his retinue who were killed in a helicopter crash.
While waving Iranian flags and portraits of the deceased leader, the mourners set off from a central square in the northwestern city of Tabriz, where Raisi was headed before his helicopter crashed on May 19 on a fog-covered mountainside in the northwest.
The mourners walked behind a lorry carrying the coffins of Mr. Raisi and his seven aides.
The officials killed alongside the Iranian president included Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, members of the provincial authorities of East Azerbaijan, and his security team.
Iran’s military chief of staff Mohammad Bagheri has already ordered an inquiry into the cause of the crash, and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the ultimate authority in Iran, has declared five days of national mourning and assigned Vice-President Mohammad Mokhber, 68, to assume interim duties ahead of the presidential elections on June 28.
After departing Tabriz, Raisi’s body will arrive in Iran’s Shiite clerical center of Qom later on May 21 before it is moved to Tehran, where Supreme Leader Khamenei will hold prayers at a farewell ceremony, ahead of key processions due to begin the morning after.
After that ceremony, Raisi’s body will be flown to his home city of Mashhad, in the northeast, where he will be buried on the eve of May 23 after funeral rites have been performed.
