Iran’s Supreme Leader Presides Over Funeral for President and Others Killed in Helicopter Crash 

Iranians hold portraits of late President Ebrahim Raisi as they mourn during a funeral processions ceremony in Tehran, Iran, 22 May 2024. (EPA)
Iranians hold portraits of late President Ebrahim Raisi as they mourn during a funeral processions ceremony in Tehran, Iran, 22 May 2024. (EPA)
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Iran’s Supreme Leader Presides Over Funeral for President and Others Killed in Helicopter Crash 

Iranians hold portraits of late President Ebrahim Raisi as they mourn during a funeral processions ceremony in Tehran, Iran, 22 May 2024. (EPA)
Iranians hold portraits of late President Ebrahim Raisi as they mourn during a funeral processions ceremony in Tehran, Iran, 22 May 2024. (EPA)

Iran's supreme leader presided over a funeral Wednesday for the country's late President Ebrahim Raisi, foreign minister and others killed in a helicopter crash, as tens of thousands later followed a procession of their caskets through the capital, Tehran. 

Ali Khamenei held the service at Tehran University, the caskets of the dead draped in Iranian flags with their pictures on them. After a prayer, he left and the crowd inside rushed to the front, reaching out to touch the coffins. Iran's acting president, Mohammad Mokhber, stood nearby and openly wept during the service. 

People then carried the coffins out on their shoulders, with chants outside of "Death to America!" They loaded them onto a semitruck trailer for a procession through downtown Tehran to Azadi, or "Freedom," Square, where Raisi gave speeches in the past. 

In attendance were top leaders of Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, one of the country's major power centers. Also on hand was Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, the militant group that Iran has armed and supported during the ongoing Israel-Hamas war raging in the Gaza Strip. Before the funeral, Haniyeh spoke and an emcee led the crowd in the chant: "Death to Israel!" 

"I come in the name of the Palestinian people, in the name of the resistance factions of Gaza ... to express our condolences," Haniyeh told those gathered. 

He also recounted meeting Raisi in Tehran during Ramadan, the holy Muslim fasting month, and heard the president say the Palestinian issue remains the key one of the Muslim world. 

The Muslim world "must fulfil their obligations to the Palestinians to liberate their land," Haniyeh said, recounting Raisi's words. He also described Raisi calling the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war, which saw 1,200 people killed and 250 others taken hostage, an "earthquake in the heart of the Zionist entity." The war since has seen 35,000 Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip and hundreds of others in the West Bank in Israeli operations. 

Also expected to attend services in Tehran were Pakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a delegation from the Taliban of Afghanistan, including their Foreign Minister Amir Khan Mutaqqi. Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani also flew in for the ceremony, along with Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan. 

Even Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry traveled to Tehran, despite diplomatic relations between the countries being severed after the 1979 revolution. Egypt and Iran have recently discussed reestablishing ties. 

But notably, none of Iran's living past presidents — other than Khamenei — could be seen in state television footage of the prayers. They include reformist Mohammad Khatami, hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and relative moderate Hassan Rouhani — all individuals who maintain some political cachet within Iran's tightly controlled political system. 

Authorities offered no explanation for their absence from the event, which comes weeks ahead of a planned June 28 presidential election. As of now, there's no clear favorite for the position among Iran's political elite — particularly no one who is a Shiite cleric, like Raisi. 

Iran’s theocracy declared five days of mourning over Sunday's crash, encouraging people to attend the public mourning sessions. Typically, government employees and schoolchildren attend such events en masse, while others take part out of patriotism, curiosity or to witness historic events. 

For Iran’s Shiite theocracy, mass demonstrations have been crucial to demonstrating the legitimacy of their leadership since millions thronged the streets of Tehran to welcome Khomeini in 1979 during the revolution, and also attended his funeral 10 years later. 

An estimated 1 million turned out in 2020 for processions for the late Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, who was slain in a US drone strike in Baghdad. In that ceremony, Khamenei openly wept over Soleimani's casket alongside Raisi. On Wednesday, Khamenei appeared composed, though he later hugged family members of the dead on his way out. 

Whether Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian and others draw the same crowd remains in question, particularly as Raisi died in a helicopter crash, won his office in the lowest-turnout presidential election in the country’s history and presided over sweeping crackdowns on all dissent. 

Prosecutors already have warned people over showing any public signs of celebrating his death and a heavy security force presence has been seen on the streets of Tehran since the crash. 

Raisi, 63, had been discussed as a possible successor for Iran’s supreme leader, the 85-year-old Khamenei. The only other person suggested was Khamenei’s 55-year-old son, Mojtaba. However, concerns have been raised over the position going to a family member, particularly after the revolution overthrew the hereditary Pahlavi monarchy of the shah. 

Meanwhile, an Iranian official offered a new accounting of Sunday's crash, further fueling the theory bad weather led to it. Gholamhossein Esmaili, who traveled in one of the two other helicopters in Raisi's entourage, told state TV that weather had been fine when the aircraft took off. But Raisi's helicopter disappeared into heavy clouds and the others couldn't reach the aircraft by radio, forcing them to land at a nearby copper mine. 

Neither Amir-Abdollahian or a bodyguard on board responded to calls, but Tabriz Friday prayer leader Mohammad Ali Ale-Hashem somehow answered two mobile phone calls, Esmaili said. It wasn't clear why Iran then couldn't track the phone's signal. 

"When we found the location of the accident, the conditions of the bodies indicated that Raisi and other companions had died instantly but Ale-Hashem ... (died) after several hours," he said. 



Florida Hate Crimes Unit Probes Shooting of Two Israelis Thought to Be Palestinian 

Police block roads leading in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida, Oct. 31, 2017. (AP)
Police block roads leading in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida, Oct. 31, 2017. (AP)
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Florida Hate Crimes Unit Probes Shooting of Two Israelis Thought to Be Palestinian 

Police block roads leading in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida, Oct. 31, 2017. (AP)
Police block roads leading in the South Beach neighborhood of Miami Beach, Florida, Oct. 31, 2017. (AP)

Local prosecutors in Florida said on Tuesday their hate crimes unit was probing a shooting by a male suspect who, according to police, fired on two men he thought were Palestinians but turned out to be Israeli visitors.

The Miami-Dade state attorney's office said its hate crimes unit "reviews every criminal offense that has the potential of being motivated by hate."

Rights advocates note a rise in anti-Muslim, anti-Palestinian and antisemitic hate since the start of US ally Israel's war in Gaza following an October 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas movement.

The website of Miami-Dade County Corrections says the suspect, 27-year-old Mordechai Brafman, was charged earlier with two counts of attempted murder and booked on Sunday for the shooting on Saturday.

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava thanked prosecutors on X for "pursuing hate crimes charges."

Brafman, when interviewed by police, said that while he was driving his truck in Miami Beach, he saw two people he thought were Palestinians. He said that he then stopped, shot at and killed them, according to police.

However, the victims survived. One was shot in the shoulder and the other had a wounded forearm. They turned out to be Israelis and not Palestinians, police said.

Dustin Tischler, a lawyer for Brafman, told the Washington Post they were "fully cooperating with law enforcement" and "acknowledge the seriousness of the allegations." He added Brafman had been "experiencing a severe mental health crisis which caused him to be in fear for his life."

Other US incidents include the attempted drowning of a 3-year-old Palestinian American girl in Texas, the fatal stabbing of a 6-year-old Palestinian American boy in Illinois, the stabbing of a Palestinian American man in Texas, the beating of a Muslim man in New York, a violent mob attack on pro-Palestinian protesters in California and the shooting of three Palestinian American students in Vermont.

Incidents raising alarm over antisemitism include threats of violence against Jews at Cornell University that led to a conviction and sentencing, an unsuccessful plot to attack a New York Jewish center and physical assaults against a Jewish man in Michigan, a rabbi in Maryland and two Jewish students in Chicago.