Ebrahim Raisi, the late Iranian president who died in a helicopter crash this weekend, will be buried in his home city of Mashhad on Thursday as mass mourning ceremonies continue in the country.
Raisi will be buried at the shrine of Imam Reza, the eighth imam of Shia Islam.
High-ranking representatives of friendly states are expected to attend, including Russian parliament leader Vyacheslav Volodin. Iran’s state railway company organized special trains to take mourners from Tehran to the northeastern city.
Before arriving in Mashhad, there was a state-organized service in the city of Birjand on Thursday morning that attracted tens of thousands of people, state broadcaster IRIB said.
Raisi represented Birjand, located south of Mashhad, in the Assembly of Experts, an influential spiritual body in Iran.
There have been several ceremonies and public displays of mourning for Raisi, the late Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and other victims of Sunday’s crash, with millions of mourners flocking to a funeral procession in Tehran on Wednesday.
Amirabdollahian’s funeral took place in Tehran on Thursday. Iran’s state news agency ISNA said the funeral took place at the Shah Abdol-Azim Shrine in the south of the capital.
Raisi and Amirabdollahian, along with seven other occupants of the ill-fated helicopter, died in the crash. They headed into the mountains in dense fog as they traveled back from a meeting with Ilham Aliyev, the president of neighboring Azerbaijan.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared five days of national mourning and a national holiday was observed on Wednesday.
Raisi’s death has sparked mixed reactions in Iran. As supporters of the country’s Islamist regime mourn the loss of a major political figure, critics have highlighted the increased repression his government oversaw.
