Thousands of people gathered in the Iranian capital Wednesday to mourn the sudden death of President Ebrahim Raisi. But behind closed doors, some Iranians were quietly celebrating his demise, saying the hard-line cleric and stalwart regime figure symbolized the worst elements of the country’s Islamic leadership.

Raisi’s career — as a prosecutor, chief justice and later president — was defined as much by instability as by the harsh tactics he used to protect the Islamic republic. He presided over decades of repression as a senior member of Iran’s judiciary and was president when security forces brutally cracked down on anti-government protests in 2022 and 2023.