Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been confirmed dead in a helicopter crash after hours of frantic searching in the foggy mountainous region.

Raisi, 63, died aboard the helicopter along with Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and two senior local officials, state news agency IRNA reported.

Iranian Interior Minister Ahmed Vahidi earlier confirmed to state television that one of the helicopters in the convoy carrying 63-year-old President Raisi suffered a “hard landing,” adding that rescue teams had difficulty reaching the site due to continuing difficult weather conditions.

Confirmation of Raisi’s death came early Monday morning from state television and the government news agency. On Sunday evening, Iranians were called to collective prayer for their president, while state television broadcast prayers for his safety and also showed worshipers praying for his health in the holy city of Mashhad.

With tributes and reactions pouring in from other countries around the world, here’s what we know about Raisi and his time in office.

Coming to power

Born into a conservative family in eastern Iran, Raisi studied theology at Qom seminaries.

He was a teenager when the country’s popular revolution established Iran as a theocracy, but he quickly became an enthusiastic participant in enforcing the vision of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.

At the age of 21, Raisi began working as a prosecutor, handling political cases in the cities of Karaj and Hamadan. He gained a reputation as one of the regime’s harshest figures – a young, brash ideologue willing to get his hands dirty.

Within a few years, Raisi was appointed judge, a move that surprised Iranians and led to years of questions about his professional qualifications.

Raisi also faces sanctions from the United States and other countries for his role in the 1988 mass executions of prisoners.

Raisi objected to a question at a news conference after his election about the 1988 executions, which included sham retrials of political prisoners, militants and others that became known as “death commissions” at the end of the bloody Iran-Iraq war.

Raisi worked on commissions where international human rights groups estimate that as many as 5,000 people were executed.

In 2017, he ran unsuccessfully for president against Hassan Rouhani, a relatively moderate cleric who, as president, reached Tehran’s 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers.

In 2021, Raisi ran again in an election that resulted in all of his potentially high-profile opponents being barred from running under Iran’s vetting system. He won almost 62 percent of the 28.9 million votes, the lowest turnout percentage in the history of the Islamic Republic. Millions stayed home and others invalidated their ballots.

Time at the office

Since taking office in 2021, Raisi has ordered tougher morality laws, overseen a bloody crackdown on anti-government protests and strongly pushed for nuclear talks with world powers.

He supported the country’s security services in suppressing all dissent, including in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini in 2022 and the nationwide protests that followed.

Mahsa Amini was an Iranian woman arrested in Tehran for opposing the mandatory hijab law. The 22-year-old later died in police custody in 2022.

In March, a United Nations investigative panel found that Iran was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to Amini’s death.

Her death sparked mass protests, and months of security attacks have left more than 500 people dead and more than 22,000 detained.

In Iran’s dual political system, divided between the clerical establishment and the government, the supreme leader, not the president, has the final say on all major policies.

But many see Raisi as a strong contender to succeed his 85-year-old mentor, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has strongly supported Raisi’s core policies.

What’s next for Iran?

Under Iranian law, in the event of the death of the incumbent president, the first vice president takes office with the consent of the supreme leader, who has the final word on all state affairs in Iran. Current Vice President Mohammad Mokhber is expected to be promoted to become Iran’s interim president.

Then, within a maximum of 50 days, elections for a new president will be held. Elections will now be held a year earlier than scheduled for 2025, when Raisi’s term would have ended.

Who is the new interim president?

Mokhber, 69, is seen as a close associate of the supreme leader and became vice president in 2021 when Raisi was elected president.

He was part of a team of a delegation of Iranian officials that visited Moscow in October and agreed to provide the Russian military with surface-to-surface missiles and more drones, sources told Reuters at the time.

The team also included two senior officials from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and an official from the Supreme National Security Council.

In 2010, he was among the people and entities sanctioned by the European Union for alleged involvement in “activities related to nuclear weapons or ballistic missiles.” Two years later, their names were removed from the list.