Iran elects head of a hard-line cleric linked to mass murders

A deeply conservative cleric linked to the mass execution of political prisoners has been elected as the new president of Iran. Ebrahim Raisi, the country’s judiciary chief who has been rumored to be a possible successor to the ayatollah, has emerged victorious in a controversial election in which critics say moderate candidates have been purged. Turnout was low — 48 percent, according to election officials — with many voters seeing a hard-line election as an imposed outcome. Raisi, who is under US sanctions, will replace President Hassan Rouhani at a time of heightened tensions with the West and Israel. Human rights groups have called for Raisi to be investigated for his “crimes against humanity,” including his alleged participation in the execution committees that executed thousands of political prisoners in the 1980s after the Iran-Iraq war. Iran has never acknowledged the mass killing.