Banisadr, Iran's first president after 1979 revolution, dies

Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran’s first president after the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution who fled Tehran after being impeached for challenging the growing power of clerics as the nation became a theocracy, has died

TEHRAN, Iran -- Abolhassan Banisadr, Iran's first president after the country's 1979 Islamic Revolution who fled Tehran after being impeached for challenging the growing power of clerics as the nation became a theocracy, died Saturday. He was 88.

Among a sea of black-robed Shiite clerics, Banisadr stood out for his Western-style suits and a background so French that it was in philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre that he confided his belief he'd be Iran’s first president some 15 years before it happened.

Those differences only isolated him as the nationalist sought to instill a socialist-style economy in Iran underpinned by his deep Shiite faith instilled by his cleric father.

Banisadr would never consolidate his grip on the government he supposedly led as events far beyond his control, like the U.S. Embassy hostage crisis and the invasion of Iran by Iraq, only added to the tumult that followed the revolution.