As crowds begin to gather to pay their respects to President Ebrahim Raisi, it is worth remembering that he was beloved by hardliners in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
But he was equally hated by many Iranians for his role in the mass executions of political prisoners in the 1980s and for his more than four decades of involvement in a security and judicial system that oppressed opponents of the Islamist regime.
In the 1980s, Raisi was appointed a member of the Committee on Political Prisoners.
More than 5,000 political prisoners were executed under this committee. Relatives of those executed have long held out hope that Raisi will one day be brought to justice.
Now this will never be possible.
His supporters will point out that Iranian state media has portrayed Raisi as the president of the marginalized and the poor.
Under his leadership, some reforms were made in handling backlogs of court cases, and relatives of some officials were arrested on charges of corruption and bribery.
Nonetheless, Iran's economic situation has worsened and hardliners have imposed harsher restrictions on freedom of speech and stricter dress codes for women.
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