2020 image shared as recent visual from Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s Funeral

The image depicts the crowd during the funeral procession of Iranian General Qasem Suleimani and it dates back to 2020

Iran’s late President, Ebrahim Raisi, has been buried in his hometown of Mashhad, four days after being killed in a helicopter crash. The 63-year-old hardline cleric was buried in the shrine of Imam Reza, a prominent figure in Shia Islam. Large crowds gathered in one of the city’s main streets before of the ceremony. Following this, an image of a massive crowd gathered on the streets is going viral on social media with a claim that it shows the funeral procession of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.

The caption of the post states, “West says Raisi was unpopular in Iran. I saw millions of people at his funeral.”.

But Fact Crescendo found that the viral claim is false. Let’s check the truth.

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Fact Check- 

We started our investigation by running a reverse image search on Google, and whose results led us to a report by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA), published on 6 January, 2020. As per the reports, crowds in Mashhad, a city in northeast Iran, welcoming the remains of the late Lieutenant-General Qasem Soleimani. General Soleimani, an Iranian military officer who served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was assassinated on 3 January, 2020 in Baghdad by a U.S.-targeted airstrike.

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Upon further search, we found the same images published in a news report by Tasnim News also. The report mentioned that thousands of Iranians walked towards Tehran University to participate in the funeral ceremony of Soleimani and fellow martyrs. People were seen raising images of Soleimani and Iranian flags. 

Similar visuals were available on stock image website Shutterstock also, that were uploaded on 5 January 2020.

Moving forward, we have come across a video report on Soleimani’s funeral on Guardian News’ YouTube channel also.

Taking account of these details, we can understand that the image is old and has no connection to Iranian President’s funeral.

Conclusion-

Fact Crescendo found the viral claim made along with the image to be False. The viral image is not from Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s funeral procession. It is from 2020 and shows Iranian General Qasem Soleimani’s funeral.