WEB DESK
Ebrahim Raisi, a hardline judge under US sanctions for human rights abuses, secured a landslide victory today in Iran’s presidential election.
Turnout in Friday’s four-man race was a record low of around 48 per cent.
According to interior ministry official Jamal Orfi, around 90 per cent of the 28.6 million ballots have been counted and Raisi’s tally was 17.8 million.
Outgoing Iranian President Hassan Rouhani visited Raisi at his office to congratulate him, and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he would lead Iran well.
Rouhani said that he will stand by and cooperate fully with the president-elect for the next 45 days, when the new government takes charge.
Appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the high-profile job of judiciary chief in 2019, Raisi was placed under US sanctions a few months later over human rights violations.
Those included the role that human rights group say Raisi played in the executions of thousands of political prisoners in the 1988 and in the violent suppression of unrest in 2009.
Iran has never acknowledged the mass executions, and Raisi himself has never publicly addressed allegations about his role.
Amnesty International’s Secretary General Agnès Callamard said Raisi’s election win was a grim reminder that impunity reigns supreme in Iran.
She said that Amnesty will continue to call for Ebrahim Raisi to be investigated for his involvement in past and ongoing crimes under international law, including by states that exercise universal jurisdiction.