0:04

From the Australian, here's what's on the

0:06

front. I'm Claire Harvey, it's Tuesday, May 21.

0:13

A convicted sex offender will walk free

0:15

years before his prison sentence was due

0:17

to end, and it's all because of

0:20

an error by ACT authorities. Victims

0:22

of Stephen Leonard Mitchell say the Office

0:25

of the Director of Public Prosecutions was

0:27

warned about the child sex offender's bungled

0:29

plea deal, but they were too preoccupied

0:31

by the rape trial of former Liberal

0:34

staffer Bruce Lammon to fix it. You

0:38

can read that story exclusively at

0:40

theaustralian.com.au Labor

0:47

wants to slash the superannuation

0:49

of federal judges, but barristers

0:51

and legal experts say the

0:53

new legislation could compromise the

0:55

judiciary's independence and push judges

0:57

to state courts in search

0:59

of better pay. Iran's

1:03

hardline Islamic regime has suffered

1:05

a major blow after President

1:07

Ebrahim Raisi was killed in

1:09

a helicopter crash on Sunday

1:11

night. That's the

1:13

assessment of the Australian's chief international

1:16

correspondent Cameron Stewart. In

1:18

today's episode, Cam unpacks what Raisi's

1:20

death means for the region and

1:23

why conspiracy theories are blossoming.

1:39

One of the oldest civilizations on

1:41

earth, a society glittering

1:43

with knowledge and sophistication, a

1:46

brutally repressive regime with ambitions

1:48

to change the world. Iran

2:01

is one of the most mysterious

2:04

and intriguing places on earth, ruled

2:06

by men who've vowed to

2:08

destroy Western civilization. No

2:11

wonder it's inspired a legion of

2:14

espionage thrillers like the Apple TV

2:16

series Tehran, which follows a wildly

2:18

beautiful young agent of the Israeli

2:21

spy agency Mossad as

2:23

she infiltrates Iran in the attempt

2:25

to destroy its nuclear program. Mossad

2:29

sent me to Tehran on a mission, but

2:33

then everything went wrong. Feels

2:37

so! That's

2:41

why when on Sunday night a

2:43

helicopter carrying Iran's President and Foreign

2:45

Minister went down, thoughts immediately ran

2:47

to conspiracy. Was

2:50

this an assassination? This

2:52

operation is highly classified. We need

2:54

to send them calls. In

3:02

Iran's spectacularly beautiful northwest, the

3:04

rugged mountains give way to

3:06

expansive plains. When the

3:09

weather turns, those peaks are covered in thick,

3:11

heavy fog. And it

3:13

was into this fog that the

3:15

chopper-carrying President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign

3:17

Minister Hussein Amir Abdullah Yann vanished.

3:21

We know that President Ebrahim Raisi

3:23

was returning to Iran from a

3:25

trip to Azerbaijan where he was

3:28

inspecting infrastructure projects. When his

3:30

helicopter crashed in what we've been told

3:32

is quite mountainous terrain in a

3:34

remote part of Iran. A

3:37

large-scale rescue operation sprang into

3:39

action with dogs and drones to

3:41

search the areas too dark, too dangerous

3:44

or too difficult for humans to traverse.

3:49

On Monday, the Chief of Iran's

3:51

Red Crescent humanitarian organization said the

3:54

chopper, which had evaded detection for

3:56

hours, had been found, but the

3:58

situation was not good. I'm

4:06

joined by the Australian's Chief International

4:08

Correspondent Cameron Stewart. We're speaking on

4:10

Monday afternoon and this situation is

4:12

very fluid. Cam, who

4:15

is Ibrahim Raisi? What does the

4:18

President do in Iran? Cam,

4:20

the President in Iran is the

4:22

second most powerful person in that

4:24

country. He is subordinate only to

4:27

the so-called Supreme Leader, that is

4:29

Ayatollah Khomeini. And Ayatollah Khomeini

4:32

sets the parameters of what

4:34

happens in Iran. The

4:36

military policy, political policy,

4:38

social policy, theocratic policy,

4:40

etc, etc. And

4:42

he is appointed by clerics. He is not a

4:44

popularly appointed leader. And so it's

4:47

an authoritarian country. The President is elected by

4:49

the public but they're considered widely

4:51

to be sham elections. So

4:53

therefore, the Ayatollah, who is

4:55

a very conservative religious hardliner,

4:58

only chooses as his President

5:00

a conservative religious hardliner, which

5:02

is precisely what President Raisi

5:05

was. As we

5:07

began speaking, Iranian rescuers announced

5:09

that they'd found the wreckage

5:11

of the helicopter but no sign

5:13

so far of any survivors. What's

5:15

the context of this in terms

5:18

of Iran's capability? Could

5:20

they have top of the range helicopters

5:22

that could fly safely in foggy conditions like

5:24

the ones that are being reported out of Iran? Iran

5:27

has very old equipment in

5:30

lots of areas and surprisingly this

5:32

helicopter was actually quite old. It's

5:34

a very old helicopter. It's one you'd be quite

5:36

surprised frankly that they'd be putting the President and

5:39

the Foreign Minister and very important

5:41

officials into. It remains to be

5:44

seen of course the exact cause

5:46

of the crash. We've seen the vision

5:48

and footage and certainly the weather is

5:50

very bad. There's lots of fog and

5:52

it seems to initially be being blamed

5:55

on bad weather. But of course with

5:57

this sort of thing, especially with Iran's circumstances, there's a

5:59

lot of at the moment in the Middle East

6:01

and the war that we've got

6:03

with Hamas Israel, Claire there will be a

6:05

lot of conspiracy theories which are always already

6:08

bouncing around the internet. Let's

6:14

dive right into those conspiracy theories then

6:16

Cam. Why would Israel be involved in

6:18

this in any way? Look

6:21

Iran and Israel that the long-term enmity

6:24

between the two countries has really

6:26

peaked, Claire, since the Hamas Israel

6:28

conflict which began of course on

6:30

October 7 and

6:32

it's becoming more and more

6:34

tense. Iran has authorised its

6:36

proxies like Hezbollah in Lebanon

6:38

and also its proxies in

6:40

Syria and Iraq to launch

6:42

short-term attacks on Israel through

6:44

missiles etc. But last month

6:46

it really became extremely

6:48

heated when Iran launched its

6:51

first ever direct attack on

6:53

Israel hundreds of drones

6:55

and missiles. It's fired towards

6:57

Israel in retaliation for an

6:59

Israeli attack on its forces

7:01

based in Syria. Now while

7:03

that attack was very unsuccessful,

7:06

all but a handful were actually

7:08

shot down by the Israelis before

7:10

they got to Israel, that was

7:13

a real turning point in Iran.

7:15

It's Iran's history to actually make

7:17

a direct attack on

7:19

Israel and I think that really

7:22

underlines how under President

7:24

Raisi and this Islamic regime

7:26

Iran has hardened its position

7:28

on Israel. Cam,

7:30

one of the other conspiracy theories is

7:32

that this is about the power plays

7:35

within Iran itself. As you told us

7:37

the Supreme Leader of Iran is a

7:39

religious figure, the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. What

7:42

are the prospects that with the apparent

7:44

death of President Raisi that

7:46

things change significantly in Iran?

7:49

There will certainly be a lot of people

7:51

outside Iran, Claire, who will hope that this

7:53

will lead to some form of change. It

7:55

will certainly lead to a

7:57

power struggle within the ruling elite.

8:00

over who actually replaces him as

8:02

President. Under Iranian law there will

8:04

be elections within about 50 days

8:06

for a new President but these

8:08

elections are widely considered to be

8:10

rigged so it's most likely the

8:12

Supreme Leader will choose to a

8:14

degree who that candidate might be

8:16

but even so there will

8:19

be some tensions within this elite

8:21

between more liberal forces and

8:24

the hardliners as well and that will be

8:26

fascinating to see how that plays

8:29

out. Whether we actually see any visibility

8:31

of those tensions it's not at all

8:33

certain that we would because things are

8:35

very much a close chop in Iran

8:37

at that high level. But

8:39

certainly opponents of Iran's

8:42

Islamic clerical system will be hoping that

8:44

this will lead to some sort of

8:46

greater liberalisation among the ruling elite but

8:48

I think that is probably a fairly

8:50

optimistic assumption. Subscribers

9:00

to The Australian are the first to hear

9:02

breaking news updates like this one. A subscription

9:05

also includes newsletters tailored to your

9:07

interests and invitations to special live

9:09

events where you can hear experts

9:12

like Cam do their thing in

9:14

person. Check us out

9:16

at theaustralian.com.au and we'll be back

9:18

after this break. My

9:22

name is Manny Carutas and I'm a

9:24

former New South Wales policeman turned investigative

9:26

reporter with a passion for missing persons

9:28

cases. I'm here to

9:30

quickly tell you about our true Crime Australia

9:32

podcast The Missing. In this series I look

9:35

at old missing persons cases which have all

9:37

gone cold in an attempt to try and

9:39

uncover new information which could help see these

9:41

missing people reunited with their loved ones or

9:43

any form of clue that could bring these

9:45

families closure. The Missing is available

9:47

now wherever you get your podcast and early

9:49

in ad free on Crime X Plus on

9:52

Apple Podcasts. According

10:04

to state TV Iran's supreme

10:06

leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei commented publicly

10:08

on the helicopter crash that killed

10:11

President Raisi late on Sunday.

10:13

He said the nation of Iran should not be

10:15

worried and anxious. No disruption will

10:18

occur in the country's affairs. Thousands

10:21

of people, mostly men, took to the

10:23

streets of the Iranian capital Tehran on

10:25

Sunday night to pray for Raisi and

10:27

his fellow travellers. Under

10:35

President Raisi Iran has hardened its

10:38

treatment of Iranians too, particularly women.

10:40

There have been reports of a

10:42

serious crackdown on rules like women

10:44

wearing hijabs in public. There have

10:46

been women who have disappeared from

10:48

the streets of Iran after being

10:50

photographed not wearing head coverings. In

10:52

those terms, Kham, who is Ebrahim

10:54

Raisi, is he a hardline conservative?

10:56

He's a very hardline conservative. So Raisi,

10:59

he was the guy who was basically

11:01

authorising that crackdown and more than 500

11:04

people died in that terrible street

11:06

violence that we saw and oppression

11:08

that occurred towards those protesters. So

11:10

I think his death will certainly

11:13

not be mourned by a lot

11:15

of younger Iranians. There's an inherent

11:17

tension in Iran today

11:20

between younger Iranians who love

11:22

Western clothes, want a more

11:25

Western lifestyle, want greater freedoms

11:28

and the old Islamic

11:30

mullahs, the ruling elites

11:32

basically. And Raisi

11:34

represented absolutely the old style

11:37

Islamic hardliner. So there will

11:39

be no mourning of him

11:43

from many younger Iranians.

11:49

Instability in Iran is obviously a

11:51

big story for the whole region and

11:53

for the world because Iran controls or

11:55

has influence over militias in a whole

11:57

lot of countries from Yemen. to

12:00

Lebanon, to Syria, to Iraq.

12:03

Can we talk about some of those, Cam? For

12:06

example in Yemen that's where the Houthi

12:08

rebels are based who have been attacking

12:10

shipping in the Red Sea. What

12:12

do you think his death will mean for

12:14

those Iranian proxy forces throughout the Middle East?

12:17

Well this is probably the most important

12:19

single question I think to arise from

12:22

his death because since the October 7th

12:24

Israeli Hamas conflict Iran has played

12:27

a very curious role in the

12:29

sense that it encourages terror proxies

12:31

in the region like Hezbollah and

12:34

all sorts of proxies in

12:36

Iraq and Syria to attack

12:39

Israel and in fact US forces in

12:41

the region too but also as far

12:43

as Hezbollah is concerned to attack Israel

12:45

in such a manner as to really

12:48

distract Israel but not actually

12:51

in such large degree as

12:53

to create a larger conflict.

12:55

So in fact Iran had

12:57

quite a finely balanced policy

12:59

of provoking Israel since

13:01

October 7 with its proxies in

13:04

the region without triggering an actual war. Now

13:06

that is a deliberate and

13:08

finely balanced policy coming out

13:10

of Tehran, coming out of the

13:12

Islamic regime there. Now whether President

13:15

Raisi's death will change that

13:17

balance is a critical question for the

13:19

region. Is

13:25

there a possibility that this makes everything worse in the

13:28

middle of the Middle East that it escalates tensions? Look

13:32

if it were able

13:34

to be proved or shown that in

13:37

fact the crash was a sabotage

13:40

I think that would be a very

13:42

dangerous situation for the region if

13:44

the Islamic regime chose

13:47

to blame Israel or

13:49

the US or a Western country

13:52

because that would really ratchet up

13:54

the tensions enormously at a time

13:56

when tensions are already massive over

13:59

the Israeli regime. conflict over

14:01

the constant bombing of northern

14:03

Israel by Hezbollah and the instability on the

14:05

West Bank and with the Houthis in Yemen.

14:08

I mean the whole Middle

14:10

East is in a tinderbox really and I

14:12

just think that if there was a confirmation

14:15

that this was an act of sabotage that

14:17

would be a very dangerous position for the

14:20

region. Cameron

14:24

Stewart is the Australian's chief international

14:26

correspondent. To

14:31

read the latest updates on this developing story and

14:34

for all the nation's best journalism

14:36

visit the Australian Bookroom

14:38

Staryog. I'm

14:59

Sarah Lamarque, editor-in-chief of Stella and host

15:02

of our podcast called Something to Talk

15:04

About. Every weekend we publish a new

15:06

episode where you'll hear compelling personalities, strong

15:08

opinions and thought-provoking conversations. I wanted to

15:10

be able to do it in my

15:13

time when I was ready and speak

15:15

my truth when I was ready. The

15:17

topic of when do I become a

15:19

mum that is in my mind 24