Iranians mourn Raisi on 7th day of his death

People in the Iranian holy city of Mashhad held a ceremony to mark the first week since the deaths of president Ebrahim Raisi and his entourage.

The ceremony took place at the holy shrine of the eighth Shia imam where the late president was laid to rest last week, according to Iran's Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). A group of top Iranian officials also attended the ceremony on Wednesday.

Raisi and his companions lost their lives on May 19 when their helicopter crashed in mountains of Varzaqan region, in the northwestern province of East Azarbaijan. The president and his accompanying team were heading to the provincial capital Tabriz from a border area where Raisi and his companions had inaugurated a joint dam project. Raisi was buried at the shrine of Imam Reza – the eighth Imam of Shia Muslims – in northeast Iran on May 23.

On the same day of the ceremony, the General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces released the second report into the helicopter crash of president Raisi. No evidence of sabotage or cyberattack is found behind the crash, according to the report.

"The occurrence of an explosion as a result of an act of sabotage during the flight and moments before the helicopter crashed into the mountain is ruled out", the report said. "Also, no signs of an act of electronic warfare was detected on the helicopter."

There were no signs of any cyberattack carried out against the presidential helicopter, the report said. Additionally, investigators carefully examined the vast majority of the documents related to the maintenance of the helicopter and found no issue that could have played a role in the accident.

Such findings have successfully helped allay the various speculations and doubts that had previously suggested Raisi and his companions may have been deliberately targeted.

The investigation found that the helicopter's capacity in terms of the maximum standard load it could carry at the point of take-off, and throughout the flight path and the return route, was within the "permissible limit", according to Mehr News Agency, another Iranian media organization.

The military investigators also ruled out any disruption in the communication system or frequency interference with the helicopter. They revealed that during the flight and up to 69 seconds before the crash, contact with the aircraft had been maintained on the specified frequencies, Mehr reported.

The recorded conversations between the flight crew show that the last contact with the pilots up to the time of the incident and when they stopped responding lasted 69 seconds, and no emergency declaration was recorded during that time.

The General Staff, which issued its preliminary report on the incident on May 24, said the investigation will continue until the main cause of the crash is determined and the results will be made public, according to the IRNA report.

Meanwhile, the Islamic City Council of Teheran decided to rename a long section of the Be'sat Highway in south of the city and a section of East Pasteur Street in central city after Raisi.

The Koushk-e Mesri Street in downtown Tehran, where the Iranian Foreign Ministry is located, will be renamed after late foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, it said on Tuesday.

Mike Gu in Hong Kong and agencies contributed to this report.