Funeral procession of Iranian president Raisi starts in Tabriz

The funeral procession of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and seven others killed in a helicopter crash began in the northwestern city of Tabriz on Tuesday morning, Tasnim news agency reports.

Another funeral service is scheduled to be held in the holy city of Qom on Tuesday evening.

The bodies will then be transferred to Tehran for people to bid farewell to the late president and his entourage at the Grand Musalla (prayer hall) of Tehran on Tuesday night, the report adds.

On Wednesday morning, the ritual ‘prayer for the deceased’ (Salat al-Mayyit) will be performed for the late president and his entourage in Tehran and people will attend the funeral procession that will be held from the University of Tehran to the Azadi (Liberty) Square.

Foreign officials and high-ranking delegations will attend a ceremony in commemoration of the martyrs in Tehran on Wednesday evening.

The president will be laid to rest on May 23 at noon in the holy city of Mashhad in northeastern Iran, where the holy shrine of Imam Reza is located.

A helicopter carrying President Raisi and his entourage crashed in northwestern mountainous forests on May 19. The fatal accident happened as the president was returning from Khoda Afarin region in Iran’s northwestern province of East Azerbaijan after inaugurating a dam at the common border with the Republic of Azerbaijan.

The crash killed President Raisi, Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Friday prayers leader of Tabriz Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Al-e-Hashem, Governor of East Azerbaijan Malek Rahmati, the commander of the president’s security team, two pilots and a flight crew.

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei declared five days of public mourning, and appointed the first vice president as the manager of the executive power. Iran will hold snap presidential elections on June 28.